{"id":23065,"date":"2019-04-24T13:38:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T17:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=23065"},"modified":"2019-04-22T14:52:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T18:52:17","slug":"was-there-a-golden-age-of-religious-coexistence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/24\/was-there-a-golden-age-of-religious-coexistence\/","title":{"rendered":"Was there a golden age of religious coexistence?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/21\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-religion-christians.html\">&#8220;Religious Minorities Across Asia Suffer Amid Surge in Sectarian Politics&#8221;<\/a> (nytimes), first three paragraphs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The deadly attacks in Sri Lanka on Sunday highlighted <em>how easily religious coexistence can be ripped apart in a region where secularism is weakening<\/em> amid the growing appeal of a politics based on ethnic and sectarian identity.<\/p><p>In India, the country\u2019s governing right-wing Hindu party is exploiting faith for votes, pushing an us-versus-them philosophy that has left Muslims fearing they will be lynched if they walk alone.<\/p><p>In Myanmar, the country\u2019s Buddhist generals have orchestrated a terrifying campaign of ethnic cleansing against the country\u2019s Rohingya Muslims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(the reader who did not scroll to read the entire article would infer that Muslims were the victims of the recent sad events in Sri Lanka, according to the NYT.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the &#8220;news&#8221; section of the paper, not &#8220;opinion.&#8221; There is an implicit factual assertion that there were some good old days of religious coexistence. Everyone in Asia had one of those &#8220;coexist&#8221; bumper stickers: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23067\" width=\"484\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/image-1.png 965w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/image-1-300x85.png 300w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/image-1-768x216.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Is this assertion true? The &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Two-nation_theory\">two-nation theory<\/a>&#8221; that led to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Partition_of_India\">partition of India<\/a> (millions killed and\/or displaced) started in the 19th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Has secularism &#8220;weakened&#8221; in the region since 1947 when 14 million people were displaced on the theory that Muslims should not have to live among Hindus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Religious Minorities Across Asia Suffer Amid Surge in Sectarian Politics&#8221; (nytimes), first three paragraphs: The deadly attacks in Sri Lanka on Sunday highlighted how easily religious coexistence can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Was there a golden age of religious coexistence? 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