Rev. Danny Fisher

"Chinese tourists dressed as Tibetans, from 'Demonizing Tibet.'" Image via spiked.

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review‘s great editor and publisher James Shaheen offers a thoughtful response to a recent series of articles by spiked editor Brendan O’Neill, who is visiting and writing from Tibet. Here’s an important snippet from James’ post:

How, then, to look at the “Tibet issue?”

For one thing, it is not unique; in fact, it is not the exception but the rule. As difficult and tragic as the situation is, there is historical precedent for it. This is not a case of a pure and happy people facing an enemy bent on evil; nor is it a case of an enlightened people liberating a feudal society. It is yet another case of a modern industrialized state finding within its boarders a nation people whose very existence it considers an existential threat. There are plenty of contemporary analogues (consider Kurdistan, say, or Chechnya, or Palestine, or the many members of Unrepresented Nations and People Organization, known by its acronym, UNPO). We need only look to our own history and the fate of the Native American to understand how common—and close to home—such conflicts are. In fact, according to UNPO (whose president is a Tibetan), over 90% of the conflicts in the world are intra-national. Because these peoples live in isolation from one another, representing different cultures and languages, countervailing ideology has not yet fully emerged. Organizations like UNPO, it should be noted, may formulate such an ideology that will unify these otherwise separate causes.

Tibetans are among many others who find themselves within the geographical borders of a modern state that is hostile to it. People can chafe at comparisons with Native Americans, but Tibetan exceptionalism is a failure to see what it is the Tibetans face and more, it’s a failure to see ourselves.

Read the rest here.