This week's bombing of a Buddhist temple in Indonesia shows us that tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Asia are spreading and intensifying. Of course, in some parts of Asia, such as in Sri Lanka and southern Thailand, there has been open enmity for some time.
Blame for this situation could be spread among many people, if that's what you're into. For now, I just want to advise people not to make hasty assumptions about who is at fault. The situation may not be as it appears on the surface.
Via Justin Whitaker, here is a Foreign Policy article about a man in California trying to organize support for Buddhist radicalism in Burma. This young man didn't recognize the name Aung San Suu Kyi, so he must be unaware that the radical monks are almost certainly being encouraged and supported by anti-democratic hard-liners in the government who want to discredit her for their own political ends.
This is what I'm talking about. Don't assume you understand what's going on in Burma by what it might look like to you from a distance.
The same thing is true of events of the past. Some people commenting here have blamed Muslim armies for the destruction of Buddhism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it isn't that simple.
Buddhist civilization in what is now the Middle East reached a peak in the 2nd century CE or so, then began a slow decline. The single biggest blow to that civilization was delivered by an invasion of Huns in the mid 5th century, more than a century before the Prophet Muhammad was born.
Many communities that survived the Huns, notably in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, appear to have lingered for a few centuries before fading away. I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly what happened to them. They may have been doomed with or without Islam.
The situation in Burma between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims has a complicated history. But the Rohingya genuinely have been oppressed by the government of Burma for many years. I don't think Buddhism is to blame for that, but individual Buddhists certainly have contributed to it.
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