Please respect the civil rights of Mr. Thich Minh Tue

Recently, the phenomenon related to Mr. Le Anh Tu (Thich Minh Tue) continues to cause noise on social networks. Although information exploiting this phenomenon to defame and attack Buddhist monks of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha has decreased, strange religious views with superstitious colors have reappeared, affecting people's trust in the Sangha. Political opponents "take advantage of the situation" to continue writing offensive articles to divide the great national unity bloc and oppose the religious policies of our Party and State.

In fact, since the phenomenon related to Mr. Thich Minh Tue was widely spread by youtubers and tiktokers on the internet, it has had a multi-dimensional impact on people and public opinion. From a positive perspective, Mr. Le Anh Tu has spread the beauty of a "child of Buddha", abandoning "greed - anger - ignorance" to live a peaceful life. The image of a pedestrian with humble words, calling himself a "child" to everyone, giving up all worldly material conditions to "study and follow the Buddha's teachings" has created sympathy with many people.

However, the transformations from the Thich Minh Tue phenomenon have also created a wave of "dirty media" aimed at attacking and discrediting the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. Bad elements have even turned the spearhead to oppose the regime and defame Vietnamese officials who have relationships with monks of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. There have been endless arguments and debates between groups of people with different views, leading to conflicts and contradictions in cyberspace and in real life. This not only negatively affects security and order, but also creates variations of superstitious activities, affecting the faith of true Buddhism.

This is a sad reality in modern society, although life is increasingly developing in terms of material, the level of education and awareness of the people is raised, many people still cannot escape the "darkness" of ignorance, the desire to seek mystical and illusory things in spirituality. And in this thirst, many people have unintentionally or intentionally turned genuine practitioners into objects of blind worship.

In many statements, Mr. Le Anh Tu affirmed that "I am not a monk, teacher, god, or Buddha." He affirmed that he is simply a person who is following the Buddha's teachings and deserves to have his right to live a peaceful life respected. However, it seems that those sincere words are nothing compared to the spiritual and divine thirst of a group of people who consider themselves religious. They worship and deify beyond control, then give themselves the right to bother others, regardless of all requests and refusals. This is no longer respect but has become an alarming form of fanaticism.

These are dangerous variations that are not difficult to see from the noise related to the internet phenomenon Thich Minh Tue. Realizing the above problem, Mr. Le Anh Tu and his family recently sent a petition to the authorities with the hope that people will not film, take photos and post his personal image on social networks because it will affect his practice. According to Mr. Le Anh Tu's petition, he requested that people not gather in large numbers to ensure traffic safety and not to spread his image on social networks without permission. In the past, the gathering, "surrounding" and following him everywhere, arbitrarily filming and posting images on the Internet have significantly affected his practice. He hopes that the authorities will handle those who arbitrarily post his image and personal information on social networks.

It can be seen that Mr. Le Anh Tu had to submit a petition to the authorities as a cry for help, showing that this man was tired of advising curious people, especially youtubers and tiktokers who followed and bothered him 24/7. Because Mr. Tu understood better than anyone that these daily troubles were obstacles on his path of cultivation. Therefore, in the petition to the authorities and many times in his statements, Mr. Tu affirmed that he was not a living saint for people to admire and worship because he was simply studying to achieve the desire to understand the teachings of Buddha, persevering in his practice to reach the realm of "Nirvana".

Regarding Buddhist beliefs, if every day and every hour there are still many people following Mr. Tu, causing insecurity, disorder, and creating trouble for society, it will make him feel insecure, without a private space to "meditate", and it will be difficult for him to learn the philosophy of primitive Buddhism. Accordingly, those who claim to love Thich Minh Tue are directly sabotaging this man's path of true practice.

Looking at the issues surrounding the Thich Minh Tue phenomenon from the perspective of current law, the fact that Mr. Le Anh Tu is not a professional monk and does not have a legal identity means that any activities of propagating religion or building places for religious activities spontaneously are not guaranteed according to the provisions of Vietnamese law. Although the policies of our Party and the legal system on religion always respect and ensure the right to religious belief of citizens, all individuals and organizations operating in religious belief must comply with the law.

Religious activities that benefit the country and the people, in accordance with the legitimate and legal aspirations and interests of believers are guaranteed. On the contrary, any act of taking advantage of religion to disrupt social order and security, sabotage the policy of national unity, oppose the policies of the Party and State or damage the moral values, lifestyle and culture of the nation must be handled according to the law. Those who express their "faith" in Mr. Thich Minh Tue should remember and respect what he said: he is not a living saint for everyone to admire, nor is he a means for someone to satisfy their spiritual needs because he is simply a person who is following the Buddha's teachings and deserves to have his right to live a peaceful life respected.

Therefore, please respect his requests in the petition sent to the local authorities as well as what he shared about his practice process. Thereby contributing to preventing consequences, negative impacts on the security and order situation and also a way to help Mr. Le Anh Tu achieve his wishes and aspirations to practice the 13 ascetic practices according to the Buddha's teachings.