There is no evidence to suggest that the Chinese Communist Party funds the ISC or any of its affiliated organizations, which are based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, India, and China itself. Specifically, the International Shugden Community (ISC), a California-based organization representing a small religious sect whose members worship Dorje Shugden, and whose website claims its mission is “exposing the dark side of the Dalai Lama.” But its publishers are, in fact, enthusiastic Buddhists. One might think, given Beijing’s well-known hostility toward the Tibetan spiritual leader, that the book is a work of calumny sponsored by the ruling Chinese Communist Party. The book describes its purpose as helping people to “understand the deceptive nature” of the Dalai Lama, who stands accused of “destroying pure Buddhism in this world.” If that weren’t enough, it depicts the Tibetan spiritual leader as a “Muslim” who is firmly in the grip of a “fascination with war and Nazism.” Consider, for example, The False Dalai Lama: The Worst Dictator in the Modern World, published in October 2013. 6 edition, Newsweek put the Dalai Lama on its cover with the headline “Relentless: The Real Dalai Lama.” A Shugden supporter gleefully handed me a photocopy of the article, in part because the article included the subheading “False Dalai Lama” - the same chant Shugden followers make at protests.īesides protesting the Dalai Lama during his trips to the United States and Europe, Shugden followers produce websites filled with anti-Dalai Lama material and write and distribute pamphlets, articles, and books denouncing the Dalai Lama. Recently, Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Washington Post, among other outlets, have covered the Shugden followers’ protests, and in a measured tone - surprising for the absurdity of the Shugden followers’ claims. And though the spirit’s followers in the Western world probably number only a few thousand, they’ve been surprisingly successful at generating attention for themselves and their campaign to discredit the Dalai Lama.
And unlike Obama, another famous person spuriously accused of being a Muslim, the Dalai Lama has never denied being a Muslim, this man told me.ĭorje Shugden is an obscure trickster spirit, believed to have originated in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in the 17th century. Another man, a 37-year-old Shugden follower from Washington state who declined to give his name, told me that the Dalai Lama might actually be a Muslim because he has not expressly claimed to be a Buddhist. I asked one of the movement’s spokespeople, 41-year-old William Fettig, a former Long Island middle school English teacher, whether he actually thought that the Dalai Lama is the worst dictator in the modern world. One of the movement’s members handed me a flier among other disparaging accusations, it claimed that the Dalai Lama is “the worst dictator in this modern day.” President Barack Obama was headlining the annual National Prayer Breakfast, and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, was in attendance. 5, roughly 100 people affiliated with the fringe sect of Buddhism that worships the spirit Dorje Shugden chanted slogans and waved signs denouncing the Dalai Lama outside the Hilton in downtown Washington, D.C.
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