Here are a couple of articles offering perspective on the violence in Burma, which involves Buddhists monks and laypeople. Please note that I have no personal knowledge of what's happening in Burma, but these articles seem plausible.
Aung Zaw, founding editor of the news organization Irrawaddy Publishing Group, writes in the New York Times that "the deadly anti-Muslim riots are no accident but the product of an effort led by army hard-liners to thwart both the reforms and Myanmar's opening to the world." Aung Zaw says hate speech from the hard liners has infected many of Burma's Buddhists and driven them to violence against Muslims.
Aung Zaw also says that corruption of the sangha is a legacy of the brutal military regime that ruled Burma for so many years. "Some monasteries have become breeding grounds for extreme nationalism," Aung Zaw writes. "Many senior monks are corrupt, including those in the state-sponsored Buddhist council, the Sangha." (See also earlier blog post, "Understanding Buddhist Violence in Burma.")
In the magazine Foreign Policy, Francis Wade describes how monks have been behind inciting violence, and that Buddhism is being used to apply a veneer of respectability to something resembling an ethnic cleansing campaign. Wade quotes U Gambira, a monk and leader of the Saffron Revolution of 2007, as being saddened by this.
Like Aung Zaw, Wade thinks that hardliners in the government are the primary source of the hate campaign. The violence is being used as an excuse to push forward unpopular government plans, such as a China-backed oil and gas pipeline.
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