{"id":3279,"date":"2013-11-20T21:06:12","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T21:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2013-11-20T21:06:12","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T21:06:12","slug":"the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html","title":{"rendered":"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: “Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
(clip of the facebook posting from The Onion<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism\u2019s ever-so-peaceful image in the West, I began to feel a bit uneasy<\/strong>. The article is clever enough (although the mish-mash of Buddhist traditions leaves much to be desired) but the parody instead is on the Western image of Islamic terrorism (principally that of al-Qaeda).<\/p>\n

It may just be that I recently finished a grueling up-and-down week of teaching Islam to undergraduates in a world religions course which could be making me a bit overly sensitive. (Happily, the class was far more \u2018up\u2019 than \u2018down\u2019 with a couple in varying contexts wishing that the course were required for all undergrads and\/or taught in high schools.)<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Do lines like this make us laugh or cringe?:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the name of ___, we will stop at nothing to unleash a firestorm of ____, ____, and ____\u00a0upon the West,\u201d<\/p>\n

inserting \u201cthe Great Teacher\u201d where we might expect \u201cAllah\u201d and \u201cempathy,\u201d \u201ccompassion,\u201d and \u201ctrue selflessness\u201d where we would expect terms of violence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For me it was definitely more of a cringe.<\/p>\n

After that, this got me positively squeemish:<\/p>\n

Kamma\u1e6d\u1e6dh\u0101na [the \u2018extremist cell\u2019] first came to international prominence in 1997, when five of its members boarded a New York City subway car and held 42 hostages in a state of transcendent serenity for seven hours while performing atonal syllabic chants. The group then claimed responsibility for a severe 2004 outbreak of interconnectedness in central London, later traced to a 23-year-old Kamma\u1e6d\u1e6dh\u0101na sleeper cell operative who sat cross-legged in Trafalgar Square and read aloud from\u00a0The Gateless Gate<\/em>\u00a0collection of 13th-century Zen koans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was, for one, a real subway attack by so-called Buddhists<\/a>\u00a0(a syncretic New Religious Movement or \u2018cult\u2019 led by a self-styled Buddhist monk) in Japan about 20 years ago involving sarin gas, killing twelve and injuring thousands. But of course the references to New York and London seem to draw our minds too much to the al-Queda attacks in those cities in 1993, 2001, and 2005.<\/p>\n

The humor, and I\u2019m sure that is the intent, is simply lost for me in the proximity to a very horrific reality.<\/strong> And it\u2019s a reality not just for those who were traumatized in the real-life attacks, but one lived each day by Muslims (and often enough Sikhs) around the world who are stereotyped as violent al-Queda or Taliban members or supporters. So my criticism isn\u2019t for its treatment of Buddhism\u2019s image in the West, which I think is pretty fair game for parody, but rather for using and perhaps exacerbating a very damaging stereotype placed on Muslims and (again) Sikhs.<\/p>\n

But it\u00a0is<\/em> the Onion after all. I\u2019m the last one to want to put down comedy or free expression and I\u2019m happy to raise questions around practices and ideas I see as potentially harmful (c.f. past posts on the \u201ccult of relics<\/a>\u201d and \u201cdeath in the desert \u2013 on \u2018Geshe\u2019 Michael Roach<\/a>\u201c).<\/p>\n

So perhaps in my teaching and living in an interfaith household with friends who have faced blatant racism around me and all of that, I have become a bit\u00a0too sensitive. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>How did you feel about the story? Laugh? Cringe? Shrug? Let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a cross-section of just a few of the comments on the original post<\/a> (which is public) \u2013 don\u2019t miss the \u2018no true Scotsman fallacy\u2019):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A \u2018joke\u2019?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then there was this (see, for instance #4 here<\/a>\u00a0or this recent post on Buddhist Violence<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism\u2019s ever-so-peaceful image in the West, I began to feel a bit uneasy. The article is clever enough (although the mish-mash of Buddhist traditions leaves much to be desired) but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,23,31,33],"tags":[520,80,47,530,37],"class_list":["post-3279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism","category-humor","category-interfaith","category-islam","tag-buddhism","tag-humor-2","tag-interfaith-2","tag-islam","tag-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Onion satirizes Buddhism: "Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: "Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-20T21:06:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2013\/11\/Onion-buddhism.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"611\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"472\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html\",\"name\":\"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: \\\"Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-20T21:06:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-20T21:06:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: “Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: \"Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West\"","description":"You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism's","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: \"Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West\"","og_description":"You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism's","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html","og_site_name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","article_published_time":"2013-11-20T21:06:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"611","height":"472","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2013\/11\/Onion-buddhism.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Whitaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Whitaker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html","name":"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: \"Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-11-20T21:06:12+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-20T21:06:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9"},"description":"You can read the full story for yourself at The Onion. But after settling in for what I thought would be a light-hearted parody on Buddhism's","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/11\/the-onion-satirizes-buddhism-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquility-on-west.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Onion satirizes Buddhism: “Extremist Cell Vows to Unleash Tranquility On West”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/","name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9","name":"Justin Whitaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Justin Whitaker"},"description":"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}