Mjpb,

Is that right?

Monks and martial arts! Saudi Arabia a moderate Islamic country!

The Burmese government gets bad press, but Buddhists persecuting Christians?

Hard to believe! Buddhists have a very peaceful reputation.

Fortunately, w has supplied a link to the article you have taken as gospel and, having read it, I must say it could be true or it could be untrue. People can write anything, you know. The article seems pretty flimsy to me, with “a secret report” and hearsay from a villager who might or might not exist

A collegue of mine regularly visits Karen refugees in Thailand and I can tell you that the persecution is real. In fact the burmese regularly attack the karen refugees INSIDE Thailand and the Thai government does nothing

mjpb,

Generalisation and overt duduction does not help make a convincing argument. It is hard to conceive Buddhist monks forming a mob attacking innocent people, if their core belief is to be eradicate their worldly desires and anger. Please study the Buddist belief system before coining them as another mob with great political aspirations.

As with your title "If you think Christians are unwelcome here...", I assume by "here", you are referring to our own country. So since when has there been another religion in Australia that is more popular and widespread than Christianity?

May I also add, there are people calling themselves "Christian" (I have met quite a number of them), but their only concern is how to satisfy their materialistic needs (such as buying the latest iPod, cars, fashion etc). While there is nothing wrong with this, I would have thought that genuine Christians would be a "man for others", rather than for themselves. So your question might be valid if you are referring to these professed 'Christians" who are really taken up by all the temptations around their existence.

"'Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma", the incendiary memo contains point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out of the state.

The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness.' "

Oh, if only it were true... can we not extend this policy to Australia, include Islam, and rid our society of all of the goat-herders' tiresome hocus pocus?

I'm quite sure both Australia would be a much more congenial place in which to live. Not so sure about Burma :)

Hey,

Yeah I agree, most Buddhists are SO nice. Even as a non-Buddhist I felt sad when learning about the persecution because I thought "my goodness, even some of the Buddhists are anti-peace!"

I agree, there's a difference between Bible bashing and private worship. I've met numerous "missionaries" who were basically just pastors of local underground churches but if they were caught with merely the Bible as a possession they would be killed. Its scary.

Open Doors is a reputable organisation, started by Brother Andrew, a man who used to smuggle Bibles into Communist countries (and escaped death many times). They work to strengthen the millions upon millions of Christians around the world who are denied basic human rights purely on the basis of their Christian beliefs. While some are quite obviously "zealous", most are very respectful. Feel free to browse the website, especially the newsletters, and see pictures of women widowed by "extremists" (who the government turns a blind eye to) simply because their husbands were Christians. Or the three women who were put in jail in Indonesia for teaching a Sunday School class- even though the parents of the Children had given permission for their children to attend.

Freedom of religion (including freedom of non-forceful conversion) is one of the "Aussie values" I'm really proud of today :)

Who thinks Christians are unwelcome here?