“There’s a fear among large segments of the Buddhist population in Myanmar,” says Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, an independent organization to protect and defend human rights, “that the country is at risk of being taken over by Muslims. It’s a very unreasonable, irrational fear.” Originally broadcast April 18, 2014 More →

August 15, 2014

“There’s a fear among large segments of the Buddhist population in Myanmar,” says Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, an independent organization to protect and defend human rights, “that the country is at risk of being taken over by Muslims. It’s a very unreasonable, irrational fear.” More →

April 18, 2014

“There is a lot of irony in the fact that the monk Wirathu and his followers are using fear in order to incite acts of violence that are precisely against the spirit of so much Buddhist teaching,” says Eyal Aviv, a professor of religious studies and international affairs at George Washington University. More →

August 22, 2013

by Anne-Marie Slaughter The death toll continues to rise in Burma, also known as Myanmar. As of this writing at least 32,000 people have died and that number is expected to rise significantly in the days ahead. Most of us … More →

May 16, 2008

There is no generally agreed figure on the human cost of the crackdown in Myanmar on Buddhist monks and others protesting dictatorial rule. The mass exodus from the country, formally and more widely known as Burma, continues. More →

November 16, 2007

In Myanmar in Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of Buddhist monks have been marching against the military government and where the regime has harshly cracked down. More →

September 28, 2007

Read analysis and commentary on the Buddhist protests in Burma: The sangha, the community of Buddhist monks, played an important role, second only to that of students, in the democracy movement of 1988. In Mandalay, for example, it is widely … More →

September 28, 2007

In Myanmar, which many still call Burma, military rulers allow no democracy or free speech and persecute religious minority groups. Human rights groups say there is a campaign of oppression that has resulted in almost a million and a half displaced people. Critics say the generals who control the area are conducting a form of ethnic cleansing hidden from the eyes of the outside world. More →

April 21, 2006