Buddhist monks led an anti-Muslim boycott and incitement campaign in Myanmar

Evidence

In Myanmar, the flames of genocidal ethnic cleansing against Rohingya were directly fanned by a group of right-wing Buddhists that were part of an extremist group known as “969.” Positioning itself as a patriotic grassroots movement, 969’s most vocal cheerleader was an extremist Buddhist monk named Wirathu who had been previously jailed by the former military junta running Myanmar for anti-Muslim violence. Wirathu told his fellow Buddhists to boycott Muslim shops and shun interfaith marriages. He openly referred to mosques as “enemy bases” and—in sentences that were not carried out in full—was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for distributing anti-Muslim pamphlets inciting communal riots. Most notoriously, this 969 leader, for a period, even began referring to himself as the “Burmese bin Laden” and finally surrendered himself to Myanmar police in November 2020 after a year of evading arrest on sedition charges. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 136

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the pattern of Islamophobic leaders framing themselves as defenders of the nation against a Muslim threat—parallel to Boykin, Geller, and European far-right figures in the other chapters. — connects to: Western War on Terror tropes shaped the Buddhist-nationalist genocide of Rohingya.; The War on Terror label accelerated Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingya Muslims. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 661; One million Rohingya were displaced into perpetual exile by Myanmar’s crackdown
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 136

Related

• The War on Terror label accelerated Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingya Muslims. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Western War on Terror tropes shaped the Buddhist-nationalist genocide of Rohingya. #corroborates (0.50)
• The War on Terror label accelerated Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingya Muslims. #corroborates (0.50) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 661
• One million Rohingya were displaced into perpetual exile by Myanmar’s crackdown #contradicts (0.20)