[Buddha-l] open letter from Buddhist Teachers and Scholars on Islamophobia

[Gary Gach]

I monitor but rarely post. As I read today I note being addressed, and
can reply this weekend, as am currently engaged in the absurdity of
constructing a manuscript and proposal.

Meanwhile, I did forward to the authors of the open letter Erik's
reply.  Their response points to the HRW report on Burma, issued after
the writing of the open letter. If I might paraphrase, the authors of
the letter treat  displacement, rape, mass roundups, and shooting as
unconscionable.  But I'm paraphrasing again.  Here's what Joshua Eaton
replied (verbatim) when I forwarded to him what Erik wrote:

"The situation in southern Thailand is much more complicated than in
Burma. The Maylay insurgency is legitimately awful, and quite violent.
But that's a post-2005 turn in a decades-old conflict that's motivated
by legitimate political grievances. And I don't see how anything can
justify using a Buddhist temple as a torture chamber or trying to
replace ethnic Maylays with ethnic Thais, as Newsweek alleges. Those
are both unambiguous war crimes."

Maybe he ought to subscribe to Buddha-L?  Meanwhile, anyone who wishes
can of course reply to him directly, as he left his contact info in
his signature to the open letter, which is how I found him out.  As I
understand it, his letter will remain open thru Ramadan.

Gary