{"id":933,"date":"2008-02-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/en\/venerable-thich-quang-do-is-nominated-for-2008-nobel-peace-prize-by-137-mps-from-europe-the-usa-and-asia\/"},"modified":"2016-09-09T13:47:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T13:47:40","slug":"venerable-thich-quang-do-is-nominated-for-2008-nobel-peace-prize-by-137-mps-from-europe-the-usa-and-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/venerable-thich-quang-do-is-nominated-for-2008-nobel-peace-prize-by-137-mps-from-europe-the-usa-and-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Venerable Thich Quang Do is nominated for 2008 Nobel Peace prize by 137 MPs from Europe, the USA and Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS, 1st February 2008 (IBIB) &#8211; As the Nobel Selection Committee for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize closes the deadline for nominations today (1st February 2008), the <strong>International Buddhist Information Bureau<\/strong> (IBIB) is informed that the Most Venerable <strong>Thich Quang Do<\/strong>, Deputy leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has been nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize by a wide range of academics and legislators from Europe, the United States and Asia.<\/p>\n<p>Sixty Members of the European Parliament from all major political groups from left to right endorsed Thich Quang Do\u2019s nomination in letters sent to the Nobel Committee in Oslo yesterday. The signatories included <strong>Graham Watson<\/strong>, leader of ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), <strong>Daniel Cohn-Bendit<\/strong> and <strong>Monica Frassoni<\/strong>, Co-Presidents of the European Greens, <strong>Pasqualina Napoletano<\/strong>, Vice-President of the European Socialist Group, and five Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, <strong>Edward Mc-Millian Scott<\/strong> (EPP-DE, European and Christian Democrats Party), <strong>Diana Wallis<\/strong>, <strong>Luigi Cocilovo<\/strong>, <strong>Gerard Onesta<\/strong> and <strong>Mario Mauro<\/strong>. Other prominent Euro MPs backing the nomination were <strong>Bronislaw Geremek<\/strong>, former Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italian MEP <strong>Marco Pannella<\/strong> and <strong>Marco Cappato<\/strong> (EP Rapporteur on Human Rights), <strong>Charles Tannock<\/strong> (UK), <strong>Paulo Casaca<\/strong> (Portugal), <strong>Richard Czarnecki<\/strong> (Poland), <strong>Pia Locatelli<\/strong>, President of the Women\u2019s Socialist International and Baroness <strong>Sarah Ludford<\/strong>, Vice-President of the EP Sub-Commission on Human Rights. <em>\u201cBy nominating Thich Quang Do, we are not only honouring a personality of great merit and value who has spent a great part of his life in prison under successive political regimes\u201d said MEP Marco Cappato in Brussels, \u201cwe are acknowledging the political value and efficiency of Thich Quang Do\u2019s methods of non-violence as the best way of promoting democracy and human rights\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Sixty-seven Members of the Italian Parliament from all political parties, including a member of the Italian Communist Party also nominated Thich Quang Do for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. \u201cReligious freedom is the key to democracy in South-East Asia\u201d, said Italian MP <strong>Bruno Mellano<\/strong>, <em>\u201cVenerable Thich Quang Do is a symbol of the peaceful struggle for religious freedom and human rights\u201d<\/em>. In France, several prominent members of the National Assembly, including <strong>Fran\u00e7oise Hostalier<\/strong>, former Secretary of State for Education, also endorsed the appeal. <em>\u201cThich Quang Do\u2019s vision of democracy extends beyond Vietnam\u2019s borders. In September 2007, he expressed solidarity with the democratic protests of Buddhist monks and civilians in Burma, calling for urgent UN action to cease the violence\u201d<\/em> wrote the French MPs, noting that <em>\u201cThe Vietnamese authorities reacted by launching a widespread vilification campaign against Thich Quang Do in the State-controlled media and threatening his imminent arrest\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the United States, prominent Members of Congress including Congressman <strong>Edward Royce<\/strong> (R.), <strong>Zoe Lofgren<\/strong> (D.), <strong>Tom Davies<\/strong> (R.) and <strong>Loretta Sanchez<\/strong> (D.) launched bi-partisan nominations for Thich Quang Do. In letters to the Nobel Selection Committee in Oslo, they declared that Thich Quang Do\u2019s <em>\u201cadvocacy for liberty is of historic proportions, and deserves to be recognized by members of your Committee\u201d<\/em>. The Nobel Peace Prize for Thich Quang Do, they wrote, would <em>\u201cnot only honour a courageous proponent of peace, but also acknowledge the silent struggle of all those who risk their lives daily for the cause of human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam and elsewhere\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Many university professors and academics also submitted nominations on Thich Quang Do. Dr Paul Scott, Professor of Asian Studies at the Kansai Gaidai University, Japan, wrote: <em>\u201cThe Nobel Prize committee honoured us all by making Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a recipient. It is my strongest opinion that the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, a Buddhist monk, an inspired writer and Deputy Head of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), stands in the same ranks with Dr. King.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS, 1st February 2008 (IBIB) &#8211; As the Nobel Selection Committee for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize closes the deadline for nominations today (1st February 2008), the International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) is informed that the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, Deputy leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has been nominated for &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-ibib"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}