Burma: Buddhist Peace Conference Begins

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A three-day world Buddhist peace conference convened in Myanmar on Jan. 22 with the aim of building harmony among religions.

“The world is full of chaos so it is a great challenge for religious leaders but we need to work together to have a peaceful coexistence and harmony among the religions,” Ashin Nyanissara said during opening ceremonies on Jan 22 at the Sitagu International Buddhist Academy in Sagaing.

Myanmar has seen religious violence by hard-line Buddhist groups aimed Muslims in recent years. In 2012, anti-Muslim violence in Rakhine state left more than 100 dead and displaced 140,000 mostly Rohingya Muslims.

The anti-Muslim campaign has been led by monks from the Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion, commonly known as Ma Ba Tha, who have successfully pushed for restrictive laws governing religion.

UCA News

The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.

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