Executive Summary For the past few years, Myanmar’s political transition has been hampered by violence between Buddhists and Muslims. A nation with an ethnically Burman and religiously Buddhist majority, the population also comprises a large minority of Muslims and members of other religions, and includes many different ethnic groups. As such, Myanmar society is complex and innately plural. While the country has struggled with a range of political and socio­ economic challenges related to the transition, the violence between religious groups has taken center stage since 2012, particularly with the rise of the 969 movement and MaBaTha (the Organization for the Protection As Myanmar wrestles with of Race and Religion). These Buddhist nationalist groups, led by Buddhist political transition, violence monks, claim that their purpose is to between religious groups has protect and promote Buddhist values and traditions in the midst of the countaken center stage try’s transformation and as it opens up to the modern world. Leaders associated with both groups articulate a Buddhist national discourse that describes its culture, values, practices, identity, and even its very existence as threatened by foreign elements within and outside the country. They have accused Muslims—particularly those from the Rohingya ethnic community—as seeking to displace Buddhism, and they have articulated through sermons and publications anti-Muslim sentiments that are often based on rumor or mischaracterizations of