WCC expresses solidarity with Buddhists over Mahabodhi blasts

Geneva, July 19: The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has expressed “heartfelt sorrow and solidarity” with the Buddhist community over the recent bomb blasts at the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya, in the north Indian state of Bihar.

A UNESCO World Heritage site and a holy place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, the Mahabodhi Temple was rocked by a series of explosions on Sunday, 7 July. While two people were injured according to media reports, the interior of the temple avoided major damages.

The temple holds a special significance for Buddhists, as Gautama Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment at this place under the Bodhi tree (tree of awakening).

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is the global organization of protestant churches and their organizations worldwide. Various Christian organizations like National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), African Council of Churches etc. are affiliated members of WCC.

In most countries of the Third World, the WCC and its member chuirches are engaged in providing health, education and other social services to the needy and deprived sections of the society.

Though they deny involvement in conversion activities, it has been an open secret now that all these activities are used as a camoflouge to carry out conversion of these poor, deprived and neglected sections of the societies in the countries where WCC and its affilaited church organizations have been working.

In India, they have targeted the neo-Buddhists who had adopted Buddhism following the footsteps of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, who drafted the Constitution of Modern India. During the recent past, a good number of such neo-Buddhists have been lured to get converted to Christianity by these chgurch organizations.

It is agaisnt this background the letter written by the WCC General Secretary to the larger BUddhist community needs to be perceived.

“What has been subjected to attack is not only an important religious site but also the moral fabric of respect for difference and diversity, which encourages and ensures the equality of people of all faiths,” said Tveit.

While he expressed relief that the interiors of the Mahabodhi temple and the Bodhi tree were not damaged, Tveit acknowledged targeting a religious shrine as being “hugely detrimental to peaceful relations between religious communities”.

Addressing the wider Buddhist community, Tviet added: “We wish and hope that this incident, despite its traumatic and tragic dimensions, may be transformed into an opportunity to offer the world a glimpse of the best of your morality and spirituality.”