Sad to say, but the Maha Chulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU), a public Buddhist university in Thailand, is playing with fire.
The Dhammakaya Temple, whose abbot is in hot water with the law, reportedly gave an award to a radical anti-Muslim monk from Myanmar, also known as Burma, in recognition of his promotion of Buddhism in his country.
Prachathai news website quoted a Buddhist scholar, Somrit Luechai, as saying the kind of welcome that the Thai monks gave the controversial Burmese monk, Ashin Wirathu, has surprised and frightened him.
Somrit pointed to the anti-Muslim movement that Wirathu pushed in Burma and suggested that such action and activities have no place in Thailand.
The scary part is that "it seems as if this is normal", Somrit wrote.
Photos of Thai monks welcoming Wirathu were posted on social media with the words "We Love Wirathu".
According to Prachatai, on the same day, Lalita Harnwong, a Thai historian lecturing at Maha Sarakham University who also posted the same set of pictures on her Facebook page, wrote "the behaviour of Dhammakaya and CMU in opening their arms to welcome Wirathu shows the xenophobic logic and thoughts of certain Buddhist groups in Thailand". (Source of The Nation)
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