Contesting Buddhist Narratives 33 I deeply denounce religious, racial, and commercial conflicts in varying degree with no exception. Lord Buddha’s teaching is ‘non-violence’…There are almost 500 thousand monks, numbers nearly matched by Myanmar Army personnel. Like soldiers defending the motherland’s peace and stability, a colossus of sanghas is strongly asked to deploy the weapon of loving kindness in dismantling ugly social unrest, and at the same time to help establish peace, stability, and unity by working to their utmost abilities hand and hand with any religious leader having similar goals.34 Despite the existence of some of these voices of opposition, there is still some truth to the accusation that Buddhists have not responded forcefully or quickly enough to stem the tide of interreligious hostility that seems to have contributed to the violence. A complicating factor is the general unease monks feel about criticizing fellow monastics in public. According to a monk activist interviewed While examples abound of monks in July 2013: “There are protecting Muslims, most are hesitant divides within the monks— Saffron Revolution monks to criticize fellow monastics in public and 88 Generation monks do not agree with these 969 monks. The 88 and Saffron monks have intentions to live peacefully. But they are less powerful than the 969 monks. They lost many from their ranks due to arrest or exile.”35, 36 Thus, while support for the 969 movement can appear broad, there could be more opposition to it within the sangha than meets the eye. The same is likely true of MaBaTha, which, as explained above, has several prominent monks associated with it who have supported interfaith activities. This adds to the confusion regarding the group’s purpose. One monk stated in a private interview that “the Buddha’s perspective and the MaBaTha perspective are directly opposed to one another.” He shared this idea with his lay supporters, but not necessarily through more public channels.37 The unwillingness to criticize fellow monks is rooted in monastic rules and values,38 as well as social and political pressure. “We dare not criticize the extremist monks because they are very strong. So if we make a move, a criticism, we are attacked