Book Talk – The Robe and the Sword: How Buddhist Extremism Is Shaping Modern Asia
Join us for a book talk with Sonia Faleiro (author), in collaboration with Palestine Land Studies Center and the Center for Arts and Humanities at the American University of Beirut
The Robe and the Sword: How Buddhist Extremism Is Shaping Modern Asia
Date: Wednesday November 5 at 2:00 PM
Location: Issam Fares Institute, Conference Room, 4th floor, AUB
In conversation with: Jamil Mouawad and Rania Abouzeid
This event is open to the public
About the talk
When the robe becomes a weapon, who can stop the violence?
We think of Buddhism as a faith of peace—rooted in compassion, patience, and nonviolence. But across South and Southeast Asia today, the robe is being turned into a weapon as radical monks and nationalist movements unleash hatred and war. In The Robe and the Sword, acclaimed journalist Sonia Faleiro travels from Sri Lanka’s riot-scarred towns to the homes of refugees along the Myanmar border to Thailand’s fortified temples, uncovering how militant monks have transformed a tradition of nonviolence into a tool of terror. She reveals how Sri Lanka’s Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara incited mobs against Muslims, how Myanmar’s Ashin Wirathu helped ignite a genocide, and how elements of Thailand’s clergy have entrenched military rule.
Through vivid portraits of zealots, survivors, and dissident monks fighting to reclaim their faith, Faleiro delivers an unflinching investigation into the colonial trauma, economic grievances, and political forces fueling a dangerous new extremism. The Robe and the Sword is a searing and indispensable work of narrative nonfiction, urgently needed to understand how sacred traditions are being weaponized—and what is at stake for the future of our interconnected world.
Bios
Sonia Faleiro is the author of The Robe and the Sword: How Buddhist Extremism is Shaping Modern Asia (2025). Her previous books include The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and finalist for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, and Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars, a finalist for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage. She is also the co-editor of Gaza: The Story of a Genocide (2025). Sonia is the founder of South Asia Speaks, a free mentorship program supporting emerging writers from across the region and the co-founder of the philanthropic initiative Books for Gaza.
Jamil Mouawad is Assistant Professor of Politics and Policy, and Director of the MA Program in Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) at the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration, American University of Beirut.
Rania Abouzeid is a multi-award-winning journalist who has reported from across the Middle East and South Asia for more than two decades. She is the author of three books about Syria including the acclaimed No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships including the Harvard Nieman and New America. A New Yorker contributor and current European Council on Foreign Relations fellow, her work has appeared in a host of outlets including Time Magazine, National Geographic, The Nation, and The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Beirut, Lebanon.