• Muslims as Threats to Buddhist Religious Sanctity through their religious values, such as sacrificial animal slaughter and veiling that are inimical to Buddhists’ sensibilities. These themes are regularly expressed in terms of the ‘offence’ they cause and the danger they could pose to inter-faith harmony. Theme 1: An Existential Physical Threat Myanmar’s population is 90 percent Buddhist, with a Muslim minority of 4 percent, as reported by the last census in 1981.85 86 Today, most credible estimates place the Muslim population at between 5-10 percent.87 Consequently, the idea that the majority Buddhist population faces a significant, let alone existential, Muslim threat appears implausible. However, this is a central and reappearing theme in the Ma Ba Tha message, tying various other narratives together. This threat is regularly couched in terms of both national and physical security, as well as civilizational and spiritual security. Ma Ba Tha monks point to the decline of Buddhism between the twelfth and fifteenth century in the face of Islam in countries such as Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to reinforce the idea of a ‘race and religion’ under threat. These historical trends are reinforced by a steady flow of international news relating to atrocities and violence from around the world that is often placed out of context to link violence and illegal immigration in Rakhine state to broader trends in global Islamist terrorism. This “illegal immigration” concern was evident in the white card incident from February 2015, when President Thein Sein announced the expiration of white cards (temporary identification cards) for the Rohingyas, without which they would become illegal immigrants.88 The government provided the Rohingya with the option to apply for citizenship using green cards; however, as “Rohingya” is not a nationally recognized race in Myanmar,89 they would have to use a different term to define themselves, stripping them of their ethnicity. The Ma Ba Tha’s messaging often centers around two distinct issues: the threat of illegal immigration via the “boat people” and the threat of terrorism via “jihadists.” As exemplified in the June 2015 copy of the Ma Ba Tha magazine Aung Zeyathu, which was posted online on social media, five out of the six articles mentioned on the lead page involved Muslims as ‘boat people’ and ‘jihadists.’ 90 Image 11: Copy of June 2015 Ma Ba Tha Magazine Publisher: Aung Zeyathu Date: July 24, 2015 Articles 1. The 2015 Election and the Danger of Jihadist Incursion 2. How to Respond to the Boat People 3. Op: Ed: I am Worried About the Boat People 4. Op: Ed: Like the Byat Brothers who Arrived by Raft 5. The Jihadist Threat of the Homebound Journey 6. The Hope of Expectant Moms A key component of the threat narrative is the notion that Buddhists, in their values and traditions, are too pacifist to sufficiently defend against the apparent Muslim threat. For example, one Ma Ba Tha Central Committee statement from June 2015 found on Facebook and purportedly signed by Chairman 15