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I am a Muslim living far away from Myanmar. I always hear about the prosecution of Muslims in Myanmar. The Rohingya people are classified by the UN among the most prosecuted minorities in the world. There is a rich history of Muslims prosecution by Buddhists. I have read about Buddhists not liking Muslim rituals of animal slaughter. I have also read about individual cases of crimes supposedly committed by some Muslims. However, what I have read does not justify this massive retaliation by Buddhists, what makes me think that maybe there is something in Buddhism clearly against Islam and Muslims. Maybe it is not only a political issue.

I would like to know how Buddhism sees Islam and Muslims? How is Islam pictured in the eyes of Buddhism and Buddhists?

User
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    I'm sorry I have to close this question. It's an important topic, but it looks like a discussion, while this is a q&A site. – Andriy Volkov Oct 27 '18 at 09:25
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – ChrisW Oct 27 '18 at 12:20
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    See also How can killing of Muslims by Buddhists in Myanmar be justified?, and, Is what is taught under the term “Radical Buddhism” consistent with Buddhist values? – ChrisW Oct 27 '18 at 12:37
  • @ChrisW Thank you. Very useful links, clear the issue totally up!. I was under a false impression by generalization due to my ignorance of Buddhism. It seems to me that radicals exist everywhere and true Buddhism does not accept violence. – User Oct 27 '18 at 13:04
  • I have no idea why this is on hold. Buddhists would see the Sufi tradition as the authentic heart of Islam. Al-Halaj and Rumi would be authentic teachers and Attar's 'Conference of the Birds' would be a sound teaching story. Thus Buddhist have no reason to deny the Sufi claim that they are the 'True followers of Mohammed', just as they would not need to deny the claim that Eckhart, de Cusa, Julian of Norwich and their like are true followers of Jesus. It is the dogma of these Churches with which Buddhists cannot agree, not the teachings of their founders. . . . –  Oct 27 '18 at 13:14
  • @PeterJ I think that Andrei doesn't really trust questions about other religions (i.e. other than Buddhism) -- see e.g. here. It's probably better if this site can't be used to post "your religion is wrong, only mine is right" kind of answers, so I don't mind if he wants to keep this topic closed. OTOH there's a new chat room here where you can still post an answer if you want to. – ChrisW Oct 27 '18 at 13:24
  • @ChrisW - I suppose that's a fair worry. It's a shame though, since it also stops us from discussing and exposing the unity of religion. –  Oct 27 '18 at 13:28
  • @PeterJ That's the other thing, i.e. this is a Q+A site, not a discussion site. but if you'd like to start to discuss it, the chat room is there. – ChrisW Oct 27 '18 at 13:31

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Talking about Rohingyas puts your question in a completely different category. The conflict in Myanmar is a political conflict. Rohingyas are originally from Bangladesh. These people invaded Myanmar and slaughtered the people living in the bordering villages, putting their heads on spikes. When the Myanmar army fought back to protect the citizens, suddenly some media in the West and some officers in the UN with vested interests started talking about human rights. Nowadays it's pretty common knowledge that Western powers use Human rights organizations as tools to create conflicts in countries.

If you did not talk about Rohingyas in your question, the answer would be that Buddhists see Islam in the same way as they see Christianity. It's just another religion based on the belief of an almighty, all creating, all compassionate God. That puts it under Sassatavada, one of the 2 fundamental misbeliefs.

Generally Buddhists are not against anyone's right to believe in whatever they want to believe. They do not put people in jail, stone people to death or butcher them just because they believe something different. But if you think that a Buddhist society will stay idle if you start grabbing their land and butchering them, you are in for an ugly surprise.

Sankha Kulathantille
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    Thank you. Nice answer. You know many things are not obvious for people living thousands kilometers away. I understand from your answer that Buddhism does not have anything in particular against Islam and all what happens there relate in some way to history and political reasons and not because of religion. Purely from religious prespective, Islam, Christianty and Judism are the same in the eyes of Buddhism. – User Oct 27 '18 at 07:15
  • You're welcome! – Sankha Kulathantille Oct 27 '18 at 07:18
  • I think your last sentence in the first paragraph generalizes your belief of Western civilization and you are indirectly falling into the same indiocracies as the OP. – NuWin Oct 27 '18 at 08:55
  • @NuWin saying that western powers use human right organizations to create conflicts does not mean all western countries are involved in such crimes. It just means such behavior has become a clearly observable practice among Western powers. Besides, all western countries are not considered as western powers. I hope this clears it up for you. – Sankha Kulathantille Oct 27 '18 at 09:04
  • @SankhaKulathantille No worries. TBH I do not disagree with your statement. This question is quite subjective and opinionated so IMO, by adding that statement it does not fulfill an entire objective answer. – NuWin Oct 27 '18 at 09:52
  • That statement was added because a part of the question talks about Rohingya crisis. It's not purely a philosophical question. – Sankha Kulathantille Oct 27 '18 at 10:52
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    I disagree with this answer for three reasons: the first paragraph makes claims about history (violence, migration, politics) that are off-topic (so can't be assessed/discussed) on this site but which may be misleading; the second paragraph implies that all theistic religions/beliefs are the same because they're theistic, conversely IMO a Buddhist might assess them e.g. according to the Kalama sutta; the third paragraph about Buddhists not killing people isn't entirely true in fact/history, though perhaps it ought to be. – ChrisW Oct 27 '18 at 10:57
  • @ChrisW it requires a political answer since the question states a political situation. It makes the answer no more off topic than the question itself. The second paragraph implies that Islam is fundamentally same as Christianity. It doesn't imply that all teachings in theistic religions are identical. The third paragraph starts with the word 'Generally'. So perhaps you ought to pay more attention to detail. :) – Sankha Kulathantille Oct 27 '18 at 11:35
  • As a side note: I did not want a political answer. I wanted to know how Buddhism sees Islam from a purely religous view. My first part of the question about the Rohingya people was only to say why I am interested to know about Buddhism's view of Islam. However, all additions were indeed helpful and appreciated :) – User Oct 27 '18 at 11:56
  • I believe my answer covers all aspects of your question. If you wanted a purely religious answer, you could have left out the part about the UN and Rohinjya – Sankha Kulathantille Oct 27 '18 at 14:00
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I am very sorry to hear about the Rohingyas crisis. I have no knowledge how it is started. Does not matter how it started there is no justification to kill or displace innocent civilians. Buddha never spoke about Christians or Muslims. Buddha was born 2600 years ago. Christ was born about 2000 years ago. Mohemed was born about 1500 years ago. Buddha had a great compassion for all beings. So-called Buddhist involve in killings are not true Buddhists. I had many great Muslim and Tamil friends. I am glad you raise this question here to clarify your doubt, I suggest you start reading bit more about Buddhism. Kind regards SaratW

SarathW
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    Thank you for your answer and compassion. Does this mean there is a good proportion of Buddhists who do not approve such killings? In accordance with @NuWin answer, I deduce there are also radical Buddhists (like radical Muslims) whose actions are unjustified by most Buddhists? – User Oct 27 '18 at 08:54
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    Of course. Sri Lankan government compensate for many Muslims suffered from recent clashes in Sri Lanka. – SarathW Oct 27 '18 at 09:16
  • FYI, Buddha was prophesied about Islam and Mohammad and that too in negative way. –  Dec 20 '18 at 14:33
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People of any background, religion, etc may have opinions of a group but that does not mean the entire population has the same view. For example, radical Islamist kill in the name of Islam but other Muslims of the world do not accept or condone their actions.

The answer to your question is that Buddhism accepts all. Your happiness and liberation of suffering, no matter what religion or belief is the ultimate goal.

NuWin
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