7 Background The March 2025 Earthquake On March 28, 2025, at about 12.50 p.m., a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar along the Sagaing Fault, causing widespread destruction in Mandalay and Sagaing Regions, Naypyidaw Union Territory, southern Shan State, and Bago Region.1 The earthquake struck on a Friday during Ramadan, when many mosques were crowded with worshippers. BHRN documented 180 earthquake-affected mosques and other Islamic religious buildings across the five affected administrative areas, including 149 in Mandalay Region, 16 in Naypyidaw, seven in Bago Region, six in Sagaing Region, and two in southern Shan State. The juntarun Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture reported 136 affected mosques.2 Longstanding Restrictions on Mosques Muslim communities have lived in Myanmar for centuries, including in royal capitals and trading towns. Historical sources reviewed by BHRN describe Muslim service in royal courts and royal grants of land for religious use, including support for mosque construction in Mandalay under King Mindon. Several mosques damaged in the 2025 earthquake date to the nineteenth century or earlier.3 Many historic mosque compounds were established under land and religious arrangements that predate Myanmar's present registration system. A lawyer interviewed by BHRN said some longstanding mosque properties in Mandalay lack formal ownership documents and instead rely on records of waqf donations, utility accounts, or older royal and ancestral arrangements. Present-day permit processes can require land documents that these longstanding religious sites do not possess.4 Restrictions on mosque construction were already evident before the 1962 coup. On October 29, 1961, more than 200 Buddhist monks protested outside Prime Minister U Nu’s residence against government permission for mosque construction in North Okkalapa. About 50 monks then occupied a mosque under construction in North Okkalapa and demanded that construction be suspended.5 General Ne Win's 1962 coup began decades of military rule. Restrictions on Muslim religious institutions expanded under successive military governments, including limits on new mosque construction and major renovation. Human Rights Watch has separately documented that restrictions on mosque construction and repairs have existed since at least the early 1960s and have contributed to severe disrepair at some mosques.6 1 U.S. Geological Survey, “M 7.7 - 2025 Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar) Earthquake,” 28 March 2025. United Nations in Myanmar, “100 Days After the Myanmar Earthquake. Stories from the Margins,” 8 July 2025. 2 Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture statement, 13 April 2025. Reuters, “Myanmar quake struck mosques as minority Muslims gathered for Ramadan prayers,” 29 March 2025. 3 Thein Myint, “Religious Building,” in Than Htun 100th Birthday, Famous People and Notable History, p. 124. 4 BHRN Interview 11, Myanmar, 16 May 2025. 5 Myanmar Historical Events Documentation Group, Myanmar Politics 1958–1962, vol. 3, p. 156. 6 Myanmar Historical Events Documentation Group, Myanmar Politics 1958–1962, vol. 3. BHRN Interview 10, Myanmar, 13 May 2025. BHRN Interview 11, Myanmar, 16 May 2025. Human Rights Watch, “Burma. Two Islamic Schools Shuttered in Rangoon,” 8 May 2017.