[Buddha-l] Buddhism won "The Best Religion In The World" award

[Richard Breedon]

This article is obviously bogus. I live in Geneva: the "Tribune de  
Genève" is in French.

For further debunking see
http://todayinreligion.blogspot.com/2009/07/best-religion-in-world-not.html

Richard the first should be pleased by Today in Religion's choice of  
best Western religion (and I do not mean the hotel chain).

Richard II

On 18 Jul 2009, at 19:22, jkirk wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of Weng-Fai Wong
> Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 9:38 AM
>
>
> Not sure how true this one is but heck...
>
> Buddhism won "The Best Religion In The World" award
> 15 Jul 2009, Tribune de Geneve
>
>
> The Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of
> Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has bestowed "The Best
> Religion In the World" award this year on the Buddhist Community.
>
> This special award was voted on by an international round table
> of more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the
> spiritual spectrum. It was fascinating to note that many
> religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own
> religion although Buddhists actually make up a tiny minority of
> ICARUS membership. Here are the comments by four voting
> members:
>
> Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn't a
> surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World,
> because we could find literally not one single instance of a war
> fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other
> religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God
> makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist
> that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they
> preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other
> spiritual tradition."
>
> A Catholic Priest, Father Ted O'Shaughnessy said from Belfast ,
> "As much as I love the Catholic Church, it has always bothered me
> to no end that we preach love in our scripture yet then claim to
> know God's will when it comes to killing other humans. For that
> reason, I did have to cast my vote for the Buddhists."
>
> A Muslim Cleric Tal Bin Wassad agreed from Pakistan via his
> translator. "While I am a devout Muslim, I can see how much anger
> and bloodshed is channeled into religious expression rather than
> dealt with on a personal level. The Buddhists have that figured
> out." Bin Wassad, the ICARUS voting member for Pakistan 's Muslim
> community continued, "In fact, some of my best friends are
> Buddhist."
>
> And Rabbi Shmuel Wasserstein said from Jerusalem, "Of course, I
> love Judaism, and I think it's the greatest religion in the
> world. But to be honest, I've been practicing Vipassana
> meditation every day before minyan (daily Jewish prayer) since
> 1993. So I get it."
>
> However, there was one snag - ICARUS couldn't find anyone to give
> the award to. All the Buddhists they called kept saying they
> didn't want the award.
>
> When asked why the Burmese Buddhist community refused the award,
> Buddhist monk Bhante Ghurata Hanta said from Burma, "We are
> grateful for the acknowledgement, but we give this award to all
> humanity, for Buddha nature lies within each of us." Groehlichen
> went on to say "We're going to keep calling around until we find
> a Buddhist who will accept it. We'll let you know when we do."
>
> ==============
> "Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn't a
> surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World,
> because we could find literally not one single instance of a war
> fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other
> religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God
> makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist
> that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they
> preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other
> spiritual tradition."
>
> Eh? How about the Buddhist warlike samurai, the Japanese priests
> who supported war in the 30s-40s,
> the monks in Sri Lanka taking part in the Tamil Tigers fight, to
> suggest a few that come to mind. If she's director of research
> for ICARUS, she didn't do enough of it. (Given the acronym, maybe
> she was afraid to fly too high?)
>
> "However, there was one snag - ICARUS couldn't find anyone to
> give the award to. All the Buddhists they called kept saying they
> didn't want the award."
> 		Probably they felt guilty about it~~~~~
>
> Joanna