Myanmar: newly appointed cardinal warns against Buddhist extremism
January 07, 2015
Cardinal-designate Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar (Burma) warned that hate speech by the nation’s influential Buddhist monks against the Muslim minority could trigger a backlash by Islamist extremists.
“So far they [Muslims] have been more on the quiet side, but if they come with the force of an international community of Muslims, then violence, terrorism, suicide bombers and all these things could happen,” said the Yangon archbishop.
The Southeast Asian nation of 51.4 million is 89% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, 3% Protestant, and 1% Catholic. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has characterized Myanmar as one of the world’s worst violators of the right to religious freedom.
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