Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka

This article argues that it is not Buddhism, per se, but rather Buddhist extremism, that is responsible for violence against relevant out-groups. Moreover, it suggests that the causes of Buddhist extremism, rather than being determined solely by textual and scriptural justifications for out-group vi...

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Autor principal:	Kumar Ramakrishna
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	religious extremism Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka Buddhist extremism Bodu Bala Sena Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/0ac9851abc174501bdeb8c81c38da205
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0ac9851abc174501bdeb8c81c38da2052021-11-25T18:52:59ZDeconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka10.3390/rel121109702077-1444https://doaj.org/article/0ac9851abc174501bdeb8c81c38da2052021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/11/970https://doaj.org/toc/2077-1444This article argues that it is not Buddhism, per se, but rather Buddhist extremism, that is responsible for violence against relevant out-groups. Moreover, it suggests that the causes of Buddhist extremism, rather than being determined solely by textual and scriptural justifications for out-group violence, are rooted instead in the intersection between social psychology and theology, rather than organically arising from the latter, per se. This article unpacks this argument by a deeper exploration of Theravada Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka. It argues that religious extremism, including its Buddhist variant, is best understood as a fundamentalist belief system that justifies structural violence against relevant out-groups. A total of seven of the core characteristics of the religious extremist are identified and employed to better grasp how Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka manifests itself on the ground. These are: the fixation with maintaining identity supremacy; in-group bias; out-group prejudice; emphasis on preserving in-group purity via avoidance of commingling with the out-group; low integrative complexity expressed in binary thinking; dangerous speech in both soft- and hard-modes; and finally, the quest for political power, by force if needed. Future research could, inter alia, explore how these seven characteristics also adequately describe other types of religious extremism.Kumar RamakrishnaMDPI AGarticlereligious extremismBuddhist extremism in Sri LankaBuddhist extremismBodu Bala SenaGalagoda Atte Gnanasara TheroReligions. Mythology. RationalismBL1-2790ENReligions, Vol 12, Iss 970, p 970 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	religious extremism Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka Buddhist extremism Bodu Bala Sena Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
spellingShingle	religious extremism Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka Buddhist extremism Bodu Bala Sena Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790 Kumar Ramakrishna Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka
description	This article argues that it is not Buddhism, per se, but rather Buddhist extremism, that is responsible for violence against relevant out-groups. Moreover, it suggests that the causes of Buddhist extremism, rather than being determined solely by textual and scriptural justifications for out-group violence, are rooted instead in the intersection between social psychology and theology, rather than organically arising from the latter, per se. This article unpacks this argument by a deeper exploration of Theravada Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka. It argues that religious extremism, including its Buddhist variant, is best understood as a fundamentalist belief system that justifies structural violence against relevant out-groups. A total of seven of the core characteristics of the religious extremist are identified and employed to better grasp how Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka manifests itself on the ground. These are: the fixation with maintaining identity supremacy; in-group bias; out-group prejudice; emphasis on preserving in-group purity via avoidance of commingling with the out-group; low integrative complexity expressed in binary thinking; dangerous speech in both soft- and hard-modes; and finally, the quest for political power, by force if needed. Future research could, inter alia, explore how these seven characteristics also adequately describe other types of religious extremism.
format	article
author	Kumar Ramakrishna
author_facet	Kumar Ramakrishna
author_sort	Kumar Ramakrishna
title	Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_short	Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_full	Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_fullStr	Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed	Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_sort	deconstructing buddhist extremism: lessons from sri lanka
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/0ac9851abc174501bdeb8c81c38da205
work_keys_str_mv	AT kumarramakrishna deconstructingbuddhistextremismlessonsfromsrilanka
_version_	1718410569931816960

Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka

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