Since the dawn of civilization, the paradigm of religion has been one of the central narratives for a national community and its value system. Essentially, religious establishments and faith organizations used to have a profound impact on the state’s population and government. However, the rapid growth of globalization and multiculturalism has led to the need for redefining the extent to which a certain religious institution could influence the public policies of the state. As a result, many nations worldwide have adopted a secularism initiative, which stands for the process of separating faith and religion from state affairs (Josephson-Storm). On the one hand, such a social movement has a series of benefits in terms of embracing multiculturalism and the right to exercise any religion without feeling discriminated against or marginalized from the community.
However, along with the evident need to embrace secularism in the community, the process of secularizing a state has numerous detrimental outcomes for the religious communities and their sense of having cultural authority. As far as the Buddhist community is concerned, the notion of secularism was the one likely to cause violent outbreaks in the faithful community. Being dominant in Southeast Asia and the states like Burma, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and others, Buddhism used to play a vital role in everyday life of those communities. However, with a rapid increase in secularism and multiculturalism, the Buddhist community started to lose its authority and relevance, leading to violent actions and radical religious organizations.
A prime example of such a change in behavior is the recent violent Buddhist actions in Sri Lanka regarding the Muslim community in the state. Thus, in 2014, Buddhist monks played a prominent role in a series of anti-Muslim violent riots that resulted in many civil victims across the state (Morrison 137). The overall premise of violent outbreaks within the Buddhist community is rather difficult to comprehend, as generally, Buddhism is perceived as one of the most peaceful denominations that do not recognize brutality as means of rendering its beliefs to the community. For this reason, the instances of violent behavior toward another faith group were a shocking precedent for the Sri Lankan community.
Thus, in order to understand the radical behavior of the community, it is necessary to dwell on its religious context in the area. For quite a long time, Buddhism was a forefront religion in Sri Lanka even despite the fact that the country itself was officially declared secular. Moving closer to religious pluralism and cosmopolitism, the Buddhist community found itself in a place where it was losing the value of its traditions (Agence France-Presse). As a result, terrorist advances in the Buddhist community were fueled by despair rather than explicit Islamophobia and hatred. However, regardless of motivation, the violent and radical behavior of the Buddhist organization should be considered a hate crime.
Taking into consideration the notions of both religion and secularism, it can be concluded that the national ideas of a rapid shift toward secular and multicultural values leave predominant faith groups behind. The example of Buddhist violence in the countries where it used to prevail demonstrates that losing values is a significant challenge for the community. In order to combat this issue and its radical escalation, public institutions should encourage the communities to popularize their values in a respectful and meaningful way.
Works Cited
Agence France-Presse. “Rise of Violent Buddhist Rhetoric in Asia Defies Stereotypes.” AFP, 2018, Web.
Josephson-Storm, Jason Ānanda. “The Superstition, Secularism, and Religion Trinary: Or Re-Theorizing Secularism.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, vol. 30, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-20.
Morrison, Chas. “Buddhist Extremism, Anti-Muslim Violence and Civil War Legacies in Sri Lanka.” Asian Ethnicity, vol. 21, no. 1, 2020, pp. 137-159.