Political activists behind Buddhist attack: Bangla government probe

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Dhaka, Bangladesh -- A high-level government committee has accused activists of ruling Awami League alongside main opposition BNP and fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) for the attack on Buddhist temples and localities in south-eastern Bangladesh last month, reports said today.

Authorities have declined to "officially" immediately reveal, the probe body findings as it submitted the report to the home ministry only yesterday but several newspapers quoting sources familiar with the investigation said the government committee identified 205 people behind the September 29-30 attacks in Ramu and adjoining areas.

"Most of them (205 suspects) are local leaders and activists of Jamaat, BNP and Awami League" in Ramu sub-district and adjoining areas in Cox's Bazar, the mass circulation Prothom Alo newspaper reported.

The report said the attack on the intervening night of September 29 and 30 was preceded by a secret meeting at the residence of a JI leader Tofail Ahmed, a piece of information that substantiated the finding of a separate investigation by Supreme Court lawyers.

The report also accused the local administration and police of failure to prevent the attacks, while it came as parallel police investigations are underway with law enforcement agencies so far arresting over 200 suspects.

Incensed apparently by a Facebook posting allegedly by a follower of the Buddhist faith, the miscreants had instigated local Muslims to torch 11 Buddhist temples, damage two others and ransack some 30 houses in Buddhist neighbourhoods.

The Samakal newspaper also carried a report on the findings but said the committee could not unmask behind-the-scene patrons of the attack though it suspected infighting in local Awami League leadership largely allowed culprits to stage the attack.

Meanwhile, the lawyers investigations observed that the attack was carried out to destabilise the country and tarnish its image before the world and neighbouring countries including Buddhist-majority Myanmar, Sri Lanka and China.

Bangladesh's High Court today demanded a government explanation for "inaction" in preventing the attacks.

The order came in response to two writ petitions by a Buddhist lawyer and another Muslim alleging that the local police administration did not take any steps to prevent the attacks, a situation that later prompted authorities to "withdraw and close" the local police station.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered immediate steps for exemplary punishment of the perpetrators.

The government has also allocated cash amounts for the affected and promised to rebuild the temples and houses with government money.

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Arunchal Pradesh gets fourth Buddhist center in India from government

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Arunchal Pradesh, India -- After Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Arunchal Pradesh becomes the fourth state in India to receive the next fully fledged Buddhist Center by the allocation of funds by the  Central government of India.

Its founder Tsona Gontse Rinpoche announced The Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies at Dahung in West Kameng District will now attain the status due to New Delhi’s recognition.

In the West Kameng District, where the institute is located, the majority of people, and 13 percent of the population of the people of Arunchal Pradesh follow Buddhism. India’s largest monastery Tawang is also in Arunchal Pradesh.

The institute, conceived by Rinpoche in 2000, had received the approval of the Union Cabinet on May 26, 2010 with a project cost estimated at Rs 9 crore and recurring annual cost of Rs 124.86 lakh.

"It began with a central government grant of Rs 97 lakh and has since grown into a good institute to fill the vacuum in imparting education on Buddhism," Rinpoche said.

"I had pursued the Centre to establish such an institute considering the large number of Buddhist population residing in the Northeast," he said.

He pointed out that with only 25 faculty members and limited infrastructures, the institute has so far produced two batches (18 each) of Shastri (equivalent to BA in Buddhist Philosophy) degree holders.

Besides teaching arts and crafts for self-sufficiency and sustainable development and preservation of ethnic identity to foster national integrity, the institute has been inculcating an awareness on the ecological balance and preservation of natural resources, he said.

He said the other three institutes are: Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, a deemed university, Central University for Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi, and Central Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies, Leh.

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Religion, state government should not be mixed

By: OANow Staff | Opelika-Auburn News
Published: March 18, 2012 Updated: March 18, 2012 - 6:00 AM »  Comments | Post a Comment This is not an argument against the Ten Commandments. But government’s intervention in regards to religion is a dangerous, slippery slope.

State Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, proposed an amendment in the State Legislature last week that would re-write Alabama’s Constitution and allow public schools or other public bodies the right to display the Ten Commandments. Basically, the amendment says the schools’, or bodies’, right to display the Ten Commandments would not be “restrained or abridged.”

Dial’s plan passed in committee last Tuesday. It was ruled in 2002 that a Ten Commandments monument installed in the Alabama state judicial building was unconstitutional as it “violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban of a state establishment of religion.”

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who won Tuesday’s Republican primary in an effort to re-gain his seat, was removed from his seat in 2006 over this issue. The timing of Moore’s election victory and this amendment’s passage in committee raises eyebrows.

Government needs to leave religion alone. Jesus instructed us to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” We would do well to remember that.

History has shown us time and again what happens when government and religion begin to mix and none of those examples have gone well, for the governments nor for religion. The quickest, most certain way to erode religious and civil freedoms is to allow politicians too much time in the pulpit or allow preachers to dictate morality outside of their own congregations.

We are a country and a state made up of many religious traditions. Diversity is our strength. No one is being discriminated against by deciding not to add more religious symbolism to governmental buildings. However, when you start putting the Ten Commandments inside schools, what’s going to happen when Muslim students, parents or educators demand equal access?

What if there happens to be a principal at a school who just happens to be Buddhist and decides a statute of Buddha would be a good addition to the school’s administrative offices?

Do we really want the folks on Goat Hill deciding exactly which God the rest of us should recognize on public property?

Current Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Chuck Malone, who was beaten by Moore in Tuesday’s Republican primary and is a deacon at First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, recently told the Opelika-Auburn News that the Ten Commandments should not be on display in government buildings if that is what the federal government demands. He did say, however, that the Ten Commandments should instead be instilled in our hearts.

Last we checked, the federal government has no access to our personal thoughts or beliefs. Let’s keep it that way.

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