The Curse Of Intolerance

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -July 11, 2013 

“Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi desires that all religions should reside everywhere….” Ashokan Rock Edict 7

The attack on Buddha Gaya is an outrage.

When the religious of the different religions refuse to coexist, when they accrue unto themselves the exclusive ownership of spiritual truths or geographic spaces, when rulers see in religions (and in the credulous religious) a means to temporal-power, societal-violence proliferates, wars ensue and tragedy strikes.

Sinhala-Buddhistsupremacists proclaim Sri Lankato be a Sinhala-Buddhist land, because a majority of its people are Sinhala-Buddhists[i]. Based on this majoritarian-logic, they preach religious intolerance, rail against Christians, Muslims and Hindus and attack churches, mosques and kovils.

All religious venerate their places of worship. All religious experience sorrow and anger when their places of worship are attacked. The horror a Buddhists feel when a temple is attacked is the same horror a Christian feels when a church is attacked, a Muslim feels when a mosque is attacked and a Hindu feels when a kovil is attacked. Religious violence does not generate peace; religious violence begets more religious violence. A country which is caught in that bloody-vortex will become a living hell. That was the fate of Europe during its religious conflicts/wars; that is fate of countries like Pakistan and Iraq today.                            Read More