Militant MONKS in Myanmar (video)

AJ; Trevor Noah (Daily Show '15); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

An Unholy Alliance: Monks and the Military in Myanmar

(Al Jazeera English, March 18, 2019) With almost 90 percent of Myanmar/Burma's population being devoted Theravada Buddhists, the religion [like neighboring Thailand] has been at the heart of the nation's very identity for centuries.

Sometimes monks gotta do "stuff" (CIA).

But while the pillars of Buddhist teachings are love (metta), compassion, and peace, there is a very different variation to the philosophy being taught at the Ma Ba Tha ("Patriotic Association of Myanmar") monastery in Yangon/Rangoon's Insein township.

The monks there are connected to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, the systematic persecution and genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state.

Al Jazeera's unprecedented access to the Ma Ba Tha monastery and its leaders offers a glimpse into how their ultra-nationalist agenda is becoming the blueprint for the political structure of the country.

Is the joining of forces between monks and the dictatorial generals threatening Myanmar's young and fragile parliamentary democracy that incorporates Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi?

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