x Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward Islamic teachings and objectives. These groups have also begun to advocate aggressively for a series of laws that would restrict religious freedom, and they have developed religious education curricula for “Buddhist Sunday Schools” and leveraged media—particularly social media—to advance their cause. The shift from 969’s initial knee-jerk “Buy Buddhist” campaign to targeted political and legal advocacy efforts through MaBaTha reflects both the ability of those promoting Buddhist nationalism to alter their strategies in response to changing political conditions and opportunities and the emergence of new actors in the political landscape. By providing political, social, religious, and historical context to Myanmar’s current situation, this paper challenges the claim that the recent violence between Buddhists and Muslims is inevitably rooted in communalism. Although nationalist movements such as 969 and MaBaTha express themselves in religious terms, they are not seeking to defend a doctrinal stance as such. Instead, they refer more to notions of Burmese Buddhist national identity and traditional ideas about the fragility of Buddhism and its teachings that have circulated within Theravada Buddhist societies for centuries. The paper examines the dimensions of Buddhist national identity in Myanmar expressed through these movements, considering their dominant narratives that justify fear and hatred, their resonance among the public, and their leaders’ denial of responsibility for violence fueled by these narratives. In doing so, it acknowledges a reflexive defense against what is perceived by some to be the threat of a globally spreading Islam, as well as the motivation to preserve and promote Buddhist practice and behavior in Myanmar during a time of significant change. These overarching concerns regarding the fragility and perpetuation of Buddhism help to explain the widespread popularity of the movements, but also complicate characterizations of them as exclusively “anti-Muslim.” The analysis in this paper reveals more complex motivations for the popular support of 969 or MaBaTha. The authors situate arguments for Buddhist nationalism and the rise of these movements within the history of monastic mobilization and religious/ethnic conflict in Myanmar, highlighting the ways in which current monastic political mobilization can be seen as an extension of past anti-colonial movements and rooted in traditional roles of the monastic community to defend the religion, respond to community needs,