[Buddha-l] A Muslim video about Buddhism

[Stefan Detrez]

Hello there heartbeaters,

recently surfing on the Net, I found an Islamic proselytic website offering 
articles and videos about issues concerning Islam. The off-screen voice's 
accent seems to suggest that the website is U.S., based, but I was not able 
to verify that. 

Surprisingly, the video section contained a video called 'Islam and 
Buddhism'. You can download it from the next page: 

http://www.harunyahya.com/m_video_detail.php?api_id=3059

It's 676Mb and it requires a Div-X Player, which can be downloaded from 
www.divx.com <http://www.divx.com>

http://www.harunyahya.com/index.php

Anyway, the video tries to give 'Buddhism' a bad name in general, and 
Tibetan Buddhism specifically. Eventhough, there are grave errors about some 
names and purposes, the arguments against Buddhism are basic monotheists. 
Some of the errors are 'Guatama', 'Buddhism is narrowminded', it's 'build on 
supressing human desires (...).'.
It's 'atheist AND pagan', ... and so forth. Even the 'priests' food' is 
worth some commentary.
The music turns to a 'horror movie soundtrack', when bowing monks are shown, 
and so on.
Also worth mentioning is 'some people forget God created Buddha', which 
pretty much resembles the mechanism of incorporating the Buddha as one of 
the Hindu avatars. The off screen voice sounds like it has to suppress its 
contempt for the idea that people can transmigrate to 'plants'. More 
interesting is its history of Buddhism in Western culture (at 33:48) and its 
attack on Hollywood which spread the message of 'Buddhism' (The Little 
Buddha, Seven Years in Tibet, Kundun, ...). If you're lucky you'll see a pic 
of Steven Seagal.

It's interesting to see how people of monotheist religions (Islam, in this 
case) become aware of the presence of Buddhism on the world scene and try to 
disredit it and thus emphasize their own exclusivity.

It might not 'touch the very texture of your being', but it's an interesting 
watch (and stunningly beautiful footage of Tibetan Buddhist.culture).



Stefan
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