Earlier this month, President Trump met with victims of religious persecution, including survivors of genocide in Myanmar — a genocide largely fueled by nationalist Buddhists and targetted at Rohingya Muslims. In the meeting, Trump didn't appear to know much about the Rohingya. When a Rohingya man told Trump that he had fled to Bangladesh, Trump responded, "And where is that, exactly?"
But the genocide in Myanmar is becoming harder to ignore, and Buddhists around the world are increasingly paying attention to the genocide and trying to understand the real role of religion in the rise of Buddhist nationalism. Hateful ideas spread by militant nationalists like Myanmar's Ma Ba Tha – an infamous collective of extremist Buddhist monks who have incited violence against Myanmar's Muslim minority – are obviously incongruent with the Buddha's teachings on peace and compassion. But is Buddhism nonetheless implicated in these acts of hate? Or, despite the term "Buddhist nationalism," is the violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka secular at its core, another manifestation of right-wing ethnic nationalism?
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