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| Myanmar President Thein Sein (centre) gives a speech during a ceremony at a stadium in Yangon on June 2, 2013. In a radio address, President Thein Sein said Time magazine, in its recent issue on the country, has created "misconceptions" about Buddhism by "depicting a few individuals who are acting contrary to most Myanmar people". -- FILE PHOTO: AFP |
IN A radio address, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein has said Time magazine, in its recent issue on the country, has whose recent issue on Myanmar has been banned from the country, had created “misconceptions” about Buddhism by “depicting a few individuals who are acting contrary to most Myanmar people”.
It was his first mention of a controversy after the publication of the July 1 issue of the magazine – since banned – that carried the headline “The Face of Buddhist Terror” across a cover photograph of the monk Ashin Wirathu, known for his inflammatory anti-Muslim and Buddhist views.
The magazine’s cover, more than the actual article’s content, drew many hundreds onto the streets and thousands to the Internet in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in angry condemnations of Time and the reporter who wrote the piece.
The issue was also banned yesterday in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, which similar to Myanmar, has seen Buddhist supremacist monks target minority Muslims with incendiary hate speech.
Straits Times
