On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 7:42 AM, ss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tuesday 25 Nov 2008 9:10:07 am Charles Haynes wrote: > From a Hindu viewpoint, conversion to Buddhism is safe because Buddhism does > not seek to tell its followers that other resligions are wrong and other Gods > are false. The real problem with conversion comes from Christianity and Islam > which both dicate that other religions are false, and both religions have > track record of wiping out religions that predated them. >
Same could be said for hinduism wiping out any number of adivasi / tribal religions... turning them into designated scheduled castes / scheduled tribes.... You could also say a lot of christian / muslim conversion has been assimilatory rather than a clearly marked conversion that leaves the past behind. e.g. the variety of islam practices on the east african coast is a strange blend of traditional bantu religious practices and islam. In fact some of the most well known 'medicine men' in east africa come from Pemba and Zanzibar.. yet they all profess islam. You see the same in Senegal and parts of Nigeria.... i saw this mosque in Saint-louis in senegal which had a giant fig tree inside it and the tree had thousands of traditional fetish dolls tied onto the leaves... the tree and the importance of the sport supposedly predated the mosque and had lot of significance in traditonal relgion.
