EXTREMIST GROUPS
Ma Ba Tha (The Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion) is a Burmese religio-nationalist movements, which oppose Muslims within predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Ma Ba Tha was a significant force during the attacks on Myanmar’s Muslims in 2017 and in creating the hostile climate to Muslims prior to the attacks.
Myanmar has experienced ethnic strife since its independence in 1948, enduring some of the world’s longest civil wars. It has been under repressive military rule for the majority of that period, apart from a decade in which the formerly imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy took control of the country. Western observers assumed her rise to into power from 2010 onwards would restore peace and justice to Myanmar. However, her party remained dependent upon support from the military and the Buddhist majority, and she took no substantive action to quell the violence against Muslims by Buddhists, including Buddhist clerics. In 2021, she was ousted and arrested in a coup d’etat – following elections in which she had been elected by an apparent supermajority. This closed the window of quasi-democracy Myanmar had enjoyed. Myanmar fell immediately back under military control, which is likely to further spur on extremist Buddhist activists in Myanmar who enjoy the military’s support.
Ma Ba Tha – also known as the Buddha Dhamma Prahita Foundation after the organisation was formally banned – was formed later in 2010 but has had greater impact upon policies, and a far closer relationship with the military. They proposed the ‘Protection of Race and Religion Laws’ which criminalised polygamy and required formal permissions for anyone seeking to change religion. Their petition for this legal change reached almost five million signatures. Ma Ba Tha combines anti-Muslim activism with community work and disaster relief. This increases their influence and status within local communities – superseding local government. They also provide Sunday schools which spread Buddhist teachings as well as anti-Muslim rhetoric, and run similar campaigns to urge boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses.
Both organisations are part of an increasing politicisation of Buddhism as an ethno-nationalist movement which is increasingly popular with young monks. Similar movements are growing amongst Sinhalese Sri Lankans, and a Buddhists in Thailand.
In Myanmar, a particular target are the Rohingya, an ethnic group following the Islamic faith who live in Rakhine province. According to those hostile to their presence, they are considered to be Bengalis who entered the country during British rule; the Rohingya themselves claim deeper historical roots in the country. Muslims in Myanmar were described as having links to violent Islamist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Since 1962, subsequent governments stripped away the rights of the Rohingya, and have increasingly identified citizenship of Myanmar with the Burmese ethnicity or the Buddhist faith. Significantly, in 1974, Rohingya Muslims were issued identity cards that described them as ‘foreigners.’ Besides Muslims, other ethnic minorities have been negatively impacted by identification of Burmese ancestry and Buddhist practice with citizenship. The Rohingya, already vulnerable, were most affected. With each electoral cycle, the rights and status of Rohingya in Myanmar were eroded.
Another movement related to Ma Ba That is the 969 Movement. It’s keynote campaign was encouraging a boycott of Muslim-owned shops. While Muslims are a minority in Myanmar – at around 4% of the population – many have founded successful businesses, raising Buddhist resentment and suspicion. The 969 movement was established during the 1988 uprising. The name of 969 movement has numerological significance within Buddhist teachings – and also functions as a riposte to the use of the number 786 to denote Muslim-owned businesses. The movement produce and distribute stickers to demarcate Buddhist-owned businesses to encourage a boycott of Muslim establishments by the Buddhist majority. The 969 movment is mainly formed by participants of the 1988 uprising, which had unsuccessfully challenged Myanmar’s regime.
Ashin Wirathu, a monk who heads the New Masoyein monastery in Mandalay, has been a member of both the 969 Movment and Ma Ba Tha. He has been identified as the most high-profile figure actively engaging in anti-Muslim activities in Myanmar, described as ‘Buddhism’s Bin Laden.’ In an infamous feature in Time Magazine, Wirathu is quoted as saying ‘You can be full of kindness of love, but you cannot sleep next to a wild dog.’ He warned of Myanmar becoming a Muslim nation if Buddhists are ‘weak’ pointing to the history of Muslim expansion in Asia. He alleged that the article had been produced by Muslims intending to wage jihad against Muslim Burmese, through the influence of ‘Arab capital’. Wirathu’s xenophobic statements have also accused Muslims of outbreeding Buddhist Burmese, and of the rape and forced conversion of Burmese women and girls.
The issue of Time was banned in Myanmar. Thein Sein, president of Myanmar (2007-10), expressed support for Wirathu’s sentiments and proposed a plan to deport Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh. In 2012 Wirathu led a rally of Buddhist monks in support of Sein’s deportation policy. Hundreds of supporters demonstrated in support of the movement. This rally occurred just a month before genocidal violence erupted in Rakhine. Communalist violence was triggered when the gang rape and murder of Burmese woman was attributed to local Muslims men. Over a hundred thousand Rohingya Muslims were driven from their homes, scores were murdered and Muslim-owned businesses were looted. Wirathu was captured on film campaigning in the Rakhine area during this period.
Myanmar’s highest Buddhist authority banned Wirathu from preaching, but did not enforce any action against him and he continues to spread his ideas. His most effective channel for spreading hate speech was Facebook. Almost half the population of Myanmar use the platform. Moderation standards were slack and much of Wirathu’s content remained available, impacting huge numbers of the population. Facebook did not close Wirathu’s personal page until 2018. Other monks played significant roles: some sat on the board of a magazine dedicated to sharing anti-Muslim content in Rakhine. Ashin Kawi Daza, head of a monastery circulated an order forbidding Buddhists to lease land to Muslims, shop in their stores, and forbade women from marrying Muslims.
This climate of exclusion and hatred was inflamed when armed attackers targeted police border posts in Rakhine in 2016. Harakah al-Yaqin, an extremist ethno-nationalist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks. This sparked a massive crackdown upon the local population by Myanmar’s military. They launched a brutal attack upon the Rohingya, and 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 infants, were killed in a single month in 2017, according to data from the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières. The United Nations released a report in that year based in interviews with 200 refugees revealing horrendous crimes: nearly half of them had seen a relative killed, and half of the female respondents had been raped. The destruction of Rohingya property was systematic, and those fleeing to safety on boats faced shelling by mortars and machine-guns. Many survivors were immiserated, facing fates as bleak as being forced into slavery as fishermen in Thailand, or confined to desolate refugee camps. Over 700,000 Rohingya were driven into neighbouring Bangladesh where they live under appalling conditions.
In the aftermath of the crisis, Winrathu directed his attention towards Aung San Suu Kyi and her government. He was jailed under her government but released in September 2021, seven months after the coup in which she was imprisoned. His release was announced by a spokesman for Myanmar’s military.
The World Court at the Hague has announced that Myanmar will face legal actions for genocide in July 2022. UN Observers have stated that the military had acted with ‘genocidal intent.’ In the aftermath of the coup, the regime has burned down villages, killed civilians and conducted airstrikes to maintain control of the country.
The message of religious ultra-nationalism is particularly appreciated by factions in Myanmar who support military rule. Through hearkening to an idealised past and drawing on the authority of religious faith, the messaging of extremist Buddhist groups continues to influence the population. Communalist tensions remain precarious, with regular incidents of violence between Muslims and other citizens of Myanmar. The close relationship between the ruling military junta and Ma Ba Tha suggest shared aims and values. The prevalence of anti-Muslim rhetoric in Myanmar remain a source of concern for the country’s Muslim population and diaspora. Rohingya refugees are increasingly desperate after living in squalid refugee camps on the borders between Myanmar and Bangladesh, and some see no other future but return to an uncertain Myanmar. The situation remains febrile, with the potential for communalist violence to spiral into further atrocities and for extremist actors to be able to perpetrate mass violence with impunity.