Monk accused of inciting violence against Muslims pardoned
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday pardoned Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, a hardline Buddhist monk accused of inciting violence against Muslims. Sirisena’s office provided no reason for issuing the surprise pardon. Gnanasara is the leader of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), whose name translates to “Buddhist Power Force.” The BBS is a nationalist Buddhist […]
Monk accused of inciting violence against Muslims pardoned
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday pardoned Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, a hardline Buddhist monk accused of inciting violence against Muslims. Sirisena’s office provided no reason for issuing the surprise pardon.
Gnanasara is the leader of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), whose name translates to “Buddhist Power Force.”
The BBS is a nationalist Buddhist group, formed a few years after the decades-long Sri Lankan civil war ended in 2009 that has been linked to mob violence against Muslims for years, some of it fatal. The BBS directs much of its wrath at Sri Lanka’s small Muslim minority but also dislikes Christians and Hindus as “foreign” influences.
The martial interpretation of Buddhism practiced by the BBS is very different from the teachings popular with some Westerners and associated with the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who has spoken out against Buddhist extremists in Sri Lanka and Myanmar and been denounced by them in turn. Gnanasara publicly speculated in 2014 that the Dalai Lama had been “fed misinformation” by Muslims and become unacceptable as a Buddhist leader.
Critics of the Sri Lankan government complain Gnanasara has delivered numerous public speeches that clearly incited violence but has never been held accountable.