Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim 'Other' (Asian Arguments)

by Francis Wade

U Parmoukkha leant forward, speaking slowly, each word clearly enunciated: “That is radicalism.” I paused. But what about cases when Buddhists attack Buddhists on the street? In Buddhist teaching it is taught that you cannot harm other people. So the person who harms is not someone who follows Buddhist teaching. There cannot be radical Buddhists. I don’t know whether the people who say they are Buddhist and then attack only temporarily follow Buddhism, or whether they do not follow it at all. He seemed to be suggesting there was an on–off switch available to Buddhists; that for the time taken to commit an act that violated the sanctity of their belief, they could step outside of their faith. It was in stark contrast to narratives of violence committed by Muslims, which were underpinned by a sense that theirs was an inborn evil, a constant – something core to their very being, and thus ineradicable.