[Buddha-l] Buddhism and Blasphemy

[Jørn Borup]

Well, Mike, you were not the only one. There were some (ethnic) Buddhists
who were quite offended by the bikinis, and forced the produceres 
(Victoria's
Secret og Ondademar Clothing ) to stop producing them - just like some
Buddha Bars have been closed in Hawaii and Singapore (see also protests 
agains the newest bar in Dubai here: 
http://www.sinhalaonline.com/buddhabar.html), Cds with Buddha Bar music were 
confiscated in Thailand and Sri Lanka,
the movie Hollywood Buddha had to make a new poster without the actor 
sitting on top of the Buddha's head after demonstrators in Sri Lanka, 
Thailand and Nepal had shown their protests, a Burmese site has a whole 
range of products to protest against 
(http://www.triplegem.plus.com/news1.htm) and recently I visited a 
Vietnamese temple (in Denmark) doing a signature collection campaign against 
a French producer of Buddha carpets (asking what they would do if the 
carpets were not withdrawn, they laughed "then they will get bad karma").
Sorry for starting up this issue, which easily provokes us all to express 
some political standpoints that might not have much to do with the idea of 
this forum, but I simply find it interesting to also relate to "our" field.

Jorn Borup

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Austin" <mike at lamrim.org.uk>
To: <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 7:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Buddhism and Blasphemy


> In message
> <EF1E4824EE2F1B4FB3BD4781EF76C011014E3938 at xch2.austinseminary.edu>,
> Whitney Bodman <wbodman at austinseminary.edu> writes
>
>>This reminds me (intended tie-in) about the discussion on this site of a
>>bikini with Buddha images, one right over the crotch.  Some were hurt by
>>this, or offended.
>
> From what I recall, nobody here was offended by this. I was concerned it
> would lower respect for the Buddha and his teachings, maybe causing some
> people not to take an interest in them.  I seemed to be the only one who
> thought this mattered.
>
> -- 
> Metta
> Mike Austin
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