{"id":36737,"date":"2016-05-05T12:22:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T10:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/site\/?p=36737"},"modified":"2016-05-05T12:22:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T10:22:54","slug":"%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%b0%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%aa%d8%b4%d8%af%d8%af%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%87%d8%af%d9%81%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%b0%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%aa%d8%b4%d8%af%d8%af%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%87%d8%af%d9%81%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern as Myanmar Buddhist Monk Builds Stupas at Christian, Muslim Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">A senior Myanmar official vowed on Wednesday to stop an influential Buddhist monk from building pagodas near churches and mosques as Christian and Muslim leaders appealed for calm in a country that has struggled with religious tensions.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">Supporters of the monk Myaing Kyee Ngu erected a pagoda on Saturday on the grounds of a church in the eastern state of Karen and then build a pagoda near a mosque in a Muslim-majority village in the same township, the AFP news agency reported.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">Karen State Chief Minister Nan Khin Htwe Myint told RFA\u2019s Myanmar Service she is \u201cvery concerned about the situation\u201d and would work to stop what one local newspaper called a \u201cstupa-building spree\u201d by zealous Buddhists.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">\u201cThe pagodas should be built at suitable places for the sake of worshippers. Then, if we want to promote our religion, we shouldn\u2019t bully or oppress other religions. It&#8217;s not the right way to do so and it\u2019s not our Buddhism\u2019s teaching, either,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">\u201cI have already informed the religious department of the Union Government. I must try to stop further works of the monk,\u201d Nan Khin Htwe Myint told RFA in a telephone interview.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">AFP said the office of local MP Saw Chit Khin told the agency that Buddhist authorities had written to the monk to urge him to cease building at places of worship of other faiths.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">But local Anglican Bishop Saw Stylo, who oversees Karen state and neighboring regions, told AFP that members of the community \u201cfeel very worried and sensitive about it. This might be political as well as religious.&#8221;<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">&#8220;That is why I asked all local young people, whether they are Buddhist, Muslim or Christian, not to do anything wrong,&#8221; AFP quoted Saw Stylo as saying.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">The Myanmar Times quoted Thein Win Aung, leader of the KAFDG Islamic Organization, as calling on the government to step in quickly to stop the provocative construction.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">\u201cIt is religious violence. We have been patient after the first time, but he should not be allowed to repeat what he did,\u201d Thein Win Aung was quoted as saying.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar has experienced spates of violence directed at religious minorities.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">In Rakhine State in western Myanmar, some 140,000 Rohingya Muslims were displaced in 2012 after violence erupted between them and local Buddhists, leaving more than 200 dead and tens of thousands homeless. The Rohingya, who bore the brunt of the attacks, were later forced to live in squalid camps.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">About 120,000 Rohingya remain in the camps, while thousands of others have fled persecution in the Buddhist-dominated country on rickety boats to other Southeast Asian countries in recent years.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A senior Myanmar official vowed on Wednesday to stop an influential Buddhist monk from building pagodas near churches and mosques as Christian and Muslim leaders appealed for calm in a country that has struggled with religious tensions. Supporters of the monk Myaing Kyee Ngu erected a pagoda on Saturday on the grounds of a church [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":36741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,74],"tags":[5025,3919,5023,4238,4754,5024,5027,5026,5020,292,5022,5021],"class_list":["post-36737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-74","tag-builds","tag-christian","tag-concern","tag-monk","tag-muslim","tag-myanmar-buddhist","tag-sites","tag-stupas","tag-5020","tag-292","tag-5022","tag-5021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36743,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36737\/revisions\/36743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}