Persecution

My mother always tells me don’t bring up religion. If you go to a dinner party, don’t bring up politics or religion. So for my first blog of the semester, I’m going to bring up religion. My sister is currently a junior in college, and recently completed an internship in Raleigh, North Carolina helping Bhutanese refugees new to the United States. Currently in Bhutan, the Buddhist majority government is forcing out the Hindu/Nepal citizens of the country. I will give a brief description of the Buddhist religion:
Buddhist’s believe in karma:
-Karma in Buddhism is the force that drives samsara—the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Good, skillful deeds and bad, unskillful actions produce "seeds" in the mind which come to fruition either in this life or in a subsequent rebirth. The avoidance of unwholesome actions and the cultivation of positive actions is called sila(ethical conduct). In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions (of body, speech, and mind) that spring from mental intent and which bring about a consequence or result.
- Sila is the ethics or morality, or abstention from unwholesome deeds. It includes:

- vāc: speaking in a truthful and non-hurtful way

- karman: acting in a non-harmful way

- ājīvana: a non-harmful livelihood

The description of Buddhism seems to describe those who practice the religion as peaceful pacifists, yet they are currently expelling innocent citizens out of their country due to the citizen’s different religion. This got me thinking; there is such irony in religious persecution. The majority of religions seek equality, and the belief that we should treat people in a fair and kind way, and yet wars are fought, countries our split, and people are killed for practicing different religions. Although I cannot not make a definitive assertion on how religions should be practiced, I believe that religious persecution is an oxymoron that needs to be addressed and changed. Ultimately, I believe that the irony of religious persecution is a terrible occurrence that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later all around the world.