Sri Lanka bans Time Magazine’s issue on Myanmar Buddhist extremism
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 July 2013, 23:36 GMT]
The GoSL has banned the Time Magazine’s July 1st edition that had coverage of Buddhist extremism in Myanmar as its cover story. Sri Lankan officials claimed that the issue, which focuses on the anti-Muslim “Buddhist terror” of the 969 Movement in Myanmar led by the monk A. Wirathu, would offend “religious sentiments” in the island. However, progressive media activists from the island questioned why is it that not one international magazine has bothered to cover the several faces of Sinhala ‘Buddhist terror’ that have been collectively responsible for the genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation.
"We did not allow this issue to be distributed in Sri Lanka because we felt it could hurt the religious sentiments of the people," Sri Lankan customs department spokesperson Leslie Gamini told the AFP.
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims were killed by Myanmar state-sanctioned Buddhist violence last year in the Rakhine region.
Anti-Muslim sentiment is also being whipped up in recent times by the Sinhala-Buddhist organization Bodu Bala Sena.
But the island of Sri Lanka being under the rule of competitive Buddhist chauvinists who successively outdid their predecessors in the genocidal persecution of the Tamils for well over 60 years has still not got the criticism that it warrants from the ‘mainstream’ international media, lamented media activists from the island.
The GoSL has banned the Time Magazine’s July 1st edition that had coverage of Buddhist extremism in Myanmar as its cover story. Sri Lankan officials claimed that the issue, which focuses on the anti-Muslim “Buddhist terror” of the 969 Movement in Myanmar led by the monk A. Wirathu, would offend “religious sentiments” in the island. However, progressive media activists from the island questioned why is it that not one international magazine has bothered to cover the several faces of Sinhala ‘Buddhist terror’ that have been collectively responsible for the genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation.
"We did not allow this issue to be distributed in Sri Lanka because we felt it could hurt the religious sentiments of the people," Sri Lankan customs department spokesperson Leslie Gamini told the AFP.
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims were killed by Myanmar state-sanctioned Buddhist violence last year in the Rakhine region.
Anti-Muslim sentiment is also being whipped up in recent times by the Sinhala-Buddhist organization Bodu Bala Sena.
But the island of Sri Lanka being under the rule of competitive Buddhist chauvinists who successively outdid their predecessors in the genocidal persecution of the Tamils for well over 60 years has still not got the criticism that it warrants from the ‘mainstream’ international media, lamented media activists from the island.
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