[Buddha-l] Re: Buddhist Intolerance?

[Bradley Clough]

Dear Mitchell,

Many thanks for your response. The volume that I am to contribute to is 
on Tolerance and Intolerance in the World's Religions, and my basic 
charge is to investigate to what degree Buddhist have pursued policies 
of intolerance towards religious others. Of course, I wish to avoid 
reifying "Buddhism" here, so I am looking for particular local 
examples. Based on a helpful distinction drawn by some others who have 
responded, I'm looking more for instances not of doctrinal critique of 
other religions, but actual cases where Buddhists actively practiced 
intolerance, where they actively worked to prevent others from 
practicing their religion. Thus far, I'm finding that Buddhists have 
often been most intolerant towards other Buddhist schools, as opposed 
to other religions, which is interesting. If you have any further 
thoughts on the matter, I would welcome them!

Best Wishes,
Brad


On Oct 16, 2006, at 8:25 PM, Mitchell Ginsberg wrote:

> hello Brad and all,
>
>    3. Re: Buddhist Intolerance? (Bradley Clough)
> From: Bradley Clough <bclough at aucegypt.edu>
> Sent: Oct 11, 2006 11:38 AM
> To: Buddhist discussion forum
> <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
> Subject: [Buddha-l] Buddhist Intolerance?
> Dear Fellow Buddha-Lers,
> I have been recently been charged with coming up with
> a paper on
> intolerance in Buddhism, and I'm a bit at a loss as to
> how to
> approach it.
>
> MG: I would think this would depend in part on the
> source of
> this charging and on your own perspective about that.
> Is this
> for an Egyptian university journal, for example? or a
> book with
> a particular overall thrust to it? Is the charge to
> show that
> Buddhist tradition is (also?) not free of its own
> intolerance?
> There is also the question of how a given tradition
> (such as
> Buddhism, to reify that here) responds to intolerance
> against
> it. (I think of the Gilgit MSS that Heinz Bechert and
> others
> studied, left behind in high and dry caves before the
> arrival
> of some individuals from the West with the convincing
> argument of the sword, shall we say.)
> Perhaps I digress here.
> Hope you are well and satified in your current
> position!
> warm regards,
> Mitchell G.
> <rest snipped>
> Best Wishes,
> Brad Clough
>
> ====================
> See http://www.geocities.com/jinavamsa/mentalhealth.html with links
> to my home page, to info on The Inner Palace (4th ed.) & on The Far
> Shore (3rd ed.), & with further links to psychotherapy, to my current
> teaching, & to the Insight Practice (Vipassana), Chishtiyya (Sufi),
> Creative Solutions for Peace, & Nasrudin discussion groups.
>
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Bradley S. Clough (bclough at aucegypt.edu)
Abdulhadi H. Taher Chair in Comparative Religion
Associate Professor, History Department (Postal Code 221)
The American University in Cairo
113 Sharia Qasr al-Aini, P.O. Box 2511
Cairo 11511 Egypt

Office: (011)202-797-6122
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