Título: Thích Quảng Đức
Seção: Religious background
Background: Thich Quang Duc (Vietnamese: [thic kwa:NG dik] ( listen); 1897--11 June 1963, born Lam Van Tuc), was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Quang Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Photographs of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diem government. John F. Kennedy said in reference to a photograph of Duc on fire, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."

Conteúdo: In a country where surveys of the religious composition at the time estimated the Buddhist majority to be between 70 and 90 percent, President Diem was a member of the Catholic minority, and pursued discriminatory policies favoring Catholics for public service and military promotions, as well as in the allocation of land, business arrangements and tax concessions. Diem once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that the officer was from a Buddhist family, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Many officers in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam converted to Roman Catholicism as their military prospects depended on it. Additionally, the distribution of firearms to village self-defense militias saw weapons given only to Roman Catholics, with some Buddhists in the army being denied promotion if they refused to convert to Roman Catholicism.  Some Roman Catholic priests ran their own private armies, and there were forced conversions and looting, shelling, and demolition of pagodas in some areas, to which the government turned a blind eye. Some Buddhist villages converted en masse to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diem's regime. The "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to be obtained by those wishing to conduct public Buddhist activities, was not repealed by Diem. Catholics were also de facto exempt from corvee labor, which the government obliged all citizens to perform, 

user: What was his religious background?

assistant: Buddhist

user: Was most of the country also buddhist?

assistant: the religious composition at the time estimated the Buddhist majority to be between 70 and 90 percent,

user: If they were the majority, then why were they being persecuted?

assistant: President Diem was a member of the Catholic minority, and pursued discriminatory policies favoring Catholics for public service and military promotions,

user: How did the people react to this?

assistant: Some Buddhist villages converted en masse to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diem's regime.

user: So did Catholics then become the majority?

assistant: The Roman Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country and enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition,

user: Is there anything else interesting from this article?

assistant: Buddhist discontent erupted following a ban in early May on flying the Buddhist flag in Hue on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha.

user: Did they protest or do anything to fight the ban?

assistant: A large crowd of Buddhists protested the ban, defying the government by flying Buddhist flags on the Buddhist holy day of Vesak and marching on the government broadcasting station.

user: What happened to them when they protested?

assistant: Government forces fired into the crowd of protesters, killing nine people.

user: What was the reaction to those killings?

assistant: Diem's refusal to take responsibility -- he blamed the Viet Cong for the deaths -- led to further Buddhist protests and calls for religious equality.