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He's been described as the "Buddhist Bin Laden," but Ashin Wirathu thinks he has more in common with the world's most famous fictional spy. "James Bond is a nationalist," the cherub-faced monk said in a recent interview. Flashing a smile, he offered a vague recollection of a movie in which 007, in order to extract information from a woman, took her to bed. "While he did not take much pleasure in the act," Wirathu said, "he did it for his country." His questionable reading of Bond aside, the firebrand Wirathu firmly says he is defending Myanmar against the people he...

The popular Boudhanath Stupa has also developed major cracks, said witnesses. Photos of the destroyed structure is being circulated on the internet and messages of support and condolence pour in from all over the world. Many Tibetans have expressed their solidarity with the people of Nepal on their facebook pages.

The Dalai Lama has voiced his support for gay marriage and condemned homophobia, saying that sex is fine as long as it is consensual. Speaking during an interview with American talk show host Larry King, the Buddhist monk said that gay marriage was “okay” and a “personal matter”. He said: "If two people, a couple, really feel that way, it’s more practical, more satisfaction, and both sides fully agree, then okay!” …

Myanmar's constitution guarantees religious freedom. But some radical Buddhists have been railing against Muslims – a tendency which has reached the lawmakers by now.Everything seems normal as children in red clothes play football on a dusty patch. However, this patch is the courtyard of a monastery and the young players with their rolled-up shirts and bare arms are Buddhist novices. Their teacher, U Nayaka, laughs at the notion that a monastery is supposed to be a place of meditation. "It is never quiet here, my students always make noise," said Phaung Daw Oo, director of the monastery school, who is...

A mummified monk found preserved in Mongolia last week has been baffling and astounding those who uncovered him. Senior Buddhists say the monk, found sitting in the lotus position, is in a deep meditative trance and not dead. Forensic examinations are under way on the remains, found wrapped in cattle skins in north-central Mongolia. ... The monk was discovered after being stolen by a man hoping to sell him on the black market.

Ancient Buddhist sculptures have been found in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during an excavation work, a media report said Saturday. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa archaeology and museum director Abdul Samad said the sculptures and heads, dating back to second to fifth century BC, had been discovered during excavation at Bhamala Buddhist Complex in Haripur district, Dawn online reported. He said during excavation, precious coins of Kushana period were also found around the stupa. The official said the Bhamala archaeological site had been declared national and world heritage site located near Khanpur dam, located on the Haro river. "The ruins are situated near...

An Oberlin College professor has filed a lawsuit because, she claims, another professor on the Oberlin faculty has harassed her and created a hostile work environment for female employees for years. The plaintiff is Eunjung An, professor of French and cinema studies ... comparative literature professor Ali Yedes informed an unnamed Oberlin employee last year that he had helped his nephew obtain a student visa to the United States expressly to “stab and kill someone from his department.”.. Yedes serves as the school’s “Muslim Religious Life Affiliate (Islamic Center of Cleveland).” .. An’s lawsuit claims that Yedes has been engaged...

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Louisiana filed a lawsuit this week against a public school district in rural western Louisiana contending that school officials and at least one teacher harassed a Buddhist sixth-grade student for not adhering to Christianity. The ACLU filed the suit against the Sabine Parish school board in U.S. District Court in Shreveport on behalf of parents Scott and Sharon Lane, reports local CBS affiliate KSLA. One of the Lanes’ children, called “C.C.” in the suit, is a Buddhist of Thai descent. The parents claim that school officials began harassing him about his...

Jay Michaelson, a gay Buddhist of Jewish descent, has taken to the pages of the Forward to warn that if you don’t like Pajama Boy, you’re an Anti-Semite.Arguably the State of Israel is a better barometer for antisemitism than Pajama Boy, a creepy Obama-loving manchild. But considering that Jay Michaelson is not exactly a fan of Israel, you can see why he would rather use Pajama Boy as the measure instead.A few weeks before penning for “Leave Pajama Boy Alone” screed, Jay Michaelson wrote that Israel was worse than South Africa. By 1996, Israel and South Africa were on radically...

Renowned activist’s message of nonviolence, mindfulness suffuses Copley SquareWhen the 86-year-old Thich Nhat Hanh was introduced to his audience in Copley Square on Sunday afternoon, he began by saying nothing for 25 minutes. Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk who is an internationally respected peace activist and author, was in Boston as part of a US tour. And as he sat in meditation in front of the crowd of about 2,000, he managed to do something seemingly impossible: He made the city center quiet along with him, to the point where any noise — a skateboard, a car horn, a...

Here is the latest from Fox News on Aaron Alexis, the Washington Navy Yard shooter. He’s been arrested a couple of times for shooting at construction equipment tires and shooting through his roof at his upstairs neighbor because she was too loud. And according to his former roommate, he’s a Buddhist. Watch:

YANGON, Myanmar — The local authorities in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing during earlier sectarian violence. ... It was unclear how the local government would enforce the rule, and the announcement could be as much about playing to the country’s Buddhist majority as about actual policy. It was also unclear what effect the new limits would have; there have already been restrictions on Rohingyas marrying, which analysts said were meant to...

Police in front of a Muslim-owned clothing store's warehouse in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after it was attacked by a mob. An angry mob of hundreds of people, led by Buddhist monks, attacked a warehouse belonging to a Muslim-owned clothing chain in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Thursday. This comes as Buddhist hardliners ramp up their campaigns against Muslims’ lifestyles. The scene was eerily reminiscent of attacks on Muslim-owned stores throughout the past week in Burma. One video shows a monk throwing a rock at a security camera in front of the warehouse, as policemen look on and the mob erupts...

Boston, MA (March 13, 2013) -- The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) welcomed the appointment of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy, following the sudden and unprecedented resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Foundation leaders expressed hope that the Catholic Church, under Pope Francis I, as he will be called, will respect and privilege pluralism and interfaith relations, based on earlier efforts with Nostra Aetete, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions. “As our Catholic friends, neighbors and colleagues celebrate the naming of their pontiff, we, as Hindu Americans, congratulate the Catholic Church and welcome Pope Francis...

Congress will become a shade more religiously diverse this January, after Tuesday’s (Nov. 6) election of the first Hindu representative and first Buddhist senator. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, will become the first Hindu-American congresswoman, after defeating her Republican rival on Tuesday. Ami Bera, a California doctor who was raised Hindu but now identifies as a Unitarian Universalist, according to the Hindu American Foundation, narrowly leads the race for California’s 7th congressional district. [...] Hirono, who is also the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, was one of three Buddhists in the House of Representatives. The other two,...

The outrage and the violent protests organised by Islamists across the world have nothing to do with the supposed desecration of religion. Instead, these incidents are calibrated attempts by so-called religious leaders to firm up their politics, even at the cost of people’s lives Even before the crowd from the previous protest had returned home, a new mob had gathered on the streets. It had been gaining strength throughout the day as hundreds arrived loaded in trucks and buses, and more people from the outside kept pouring in. Over the next couple of hours, the crowd swelled in numbers and...

It's OK - a Buddhist insulted Islam so, of course, the Buddhists must pay. Reuters: Hundreds of Muslims in Bangladesh burned at least four Buddhist temples and 15 homes of Buddhists on Sunday after complaining that a Buddhist man had insulted Islam, police and residents said. Members of the Buddhist minority in the Cox's Bazar area in the southeast of the country said unidentified people were bent on upsetting peaceful relations between Muslims and Buddhists. Muslims took to the streets in the area late on Saturday to protest against what they said was a photograph posted on Facebook that insulted...

An ancient Buddhist statue that was recovered by a Nazi expedition in the 1930s was originally carved from a highly valuable meteorite. Researchers say the 1,000-year-old object with a swastika on its stomach is made from a rare form of iron with a high content of nickel. They believe it is part of the Chinga meteorite, which crashed about 15,000 years ago. The findings appear in the Journal, Meteoritics and Planetary Science. The 24cm (9-inch) tall statue is 10kg (22lb) and is called the Iron Man. Origins unknown The story of this priceless object owes more perhaps to an Indiana...

This site is called Mes Aynak and is nothing short of awe-inspiring: a massive walled-in Buddhist city featuring massive temples, monasteries, and thousands of Buddhist statues that managed to survive looters and the Taliban. Holding a key position on the Silk Road, Mes Aynak was also an international hub for traders and pilgrims from all over Asia. Mes Aynak is set for destruction at the end of December 2012. All of the temples, monasteries, statues as well as the Bronze age material will all be destroyed by a Chinese government-owned company called China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC). Six villages and...