The relationship between Buddhists and Muslims

Buddhism and Islam are two major religions in this world. The faith of both religions is truly separate from each other, and the core of both religions is in many cases totally the opposite. Both these religions have interacted with each other for the last thirteen centuries.

Over the years, the relationship was friendly as well as hostile based on the conditions of the interaction. Since the start of the interaction, Muslims were always very interested in Buddhism. Several Muslims studied Buddhism and helped in the translation of the books of Buddhism in Arabic. Many Muslim scholars helped out and studied the Buddhist religion. However, the interest of the Buddhist in Islam was never there. They almost never studied Islam, and neither did take part in any of the Islamic activities.

Recently, the relationship between Buddhists and Muslims was very shaky, and there were a lot riots especially in Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Many think that the main reason is that the Buddhism was not able to be spread into the primary Islamic areas, and this was taken from the Buddhists as a threat to their religion.

In Sri Lanka, the halal slaughtering of animals was the major point of issue resulting in many Buddhist monk rallies and boycott of Muslim businesses.

In Burma, the conditions are worse as a few people have died already. Buddhist mobs are attacking mosques and Muslim homes. Many believe that the Buddhists feel that Islam as a threat to their religion, and they have to stop Islam. For them, they are doing this for their religion, so it is the right thing to do riots and kill the Muslims. In today’s age, where Islam is tagged as the most radical and terrorist religion of all, they are trying to show the Muslims that they can terrorize, as well.

An incident happened where a woman who was attacked by a Muslim customer while selling him something. The Buddhist mobs were angry, and they burned quite a few houses in the Muslim community. There were other similar cases, as well. At least 44 people have died in the last 2 months where most of the victims were Muslims.

Similarly in Myanmar, a city in Bangkok witnessed bad conditions between Buddhists and Muslims. There were many incidents already in the last few months as the Muslim population is well spread out in Myanmar. This recent violence has weakened the relationship of Myanmar and its government with the Muslim countries who are now doubting the ability of the government to be able to maintain peace in the city as the government officials are all primarily Buddhists.

Leaving aside the religious differences and also leaving aside the question of which religion is the right religion. What does need to happen is peace between these two major religions as the clashes has caused major concerns for the world’s economy.

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