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Conflict in the Rakhine State Myanmar has been home to serious conflicts between Buddhist and Muslim communities with both parties having suffered. The Rakhine State has seen the damaging impact of this conflict with an estimated 146,000 people displaced since 2012.27 According to figures by Selth (2004) around 15,000 Rohingya’s fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in 1975, and another 200,000 joined them three years later to flee from a military operation.28 They are said to have been suffering genocidal behaviour towards them, with the military attempting to erase the Rohingya ethnic identity, though this has been continuously rejected by Myanmar officials such as U Zaw Aye Maung, the Rakhine Affairs Minister for Yangon Region.29 Buddhism and Islam in Myanmar Buddhism is considered an inherent part of Burmese culture, dating back to King Anawrahta who set about embedding Theravada Buddhism as the religion of the Bamar.30 South Asian Muslims, including many Bengali Muslims, migrated to Myanmar in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century; anger arose from many Bamar (largest ethnic group) Buddhists, directed against Muslim migrants, which blamed the British for ‘Indicizing’ the country, purportedly to the economic detriment of the Bamar.31 Since then a number of Myanmar’s Theravada Buddhists have shown intolerance towards Muslims, and have participated alongside the government in the 27 Schissler, M., Walton, M., & Phyu Thi, P., (2015) ‘The Roots of Religious Conflict in Myanmar’, The Diplomat, available at: http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/the-roots-of-religious-conflict-inmyanmar/ [November]. 28 Selth, A., (2004) ‘Burma's Muslims and the War on Terror’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, vol. 27, no. 2, pp.107-126, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10576100490275094 [November 2015], p.6. 29 Schissler, M., Walton, M., & Phyu Thi, P., (2015) ‘The Roots of Religious Conflict in Myanmar’, The Diplomat. 30 Nilsen, M., (2015) The Rise of Political Buddhism in Myanmar, Tricycle, available at: http://www.tricycle.com/blog/rise-political-buddhism-myanmar [November 2015]. 31 Coclanis, P., (2013) ‘Terror in Burma: Buddhists vs. Muslims’, World Affairs Journal, available at: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/terror-burma-buddhists-vs-muslims [November 2015]. - 20 -

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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English

Topic

Hate Speech
Rohingya Crisis

Author(s)

Bethany Davis

Date Published: Dec 1, 2015

Abstract: Myanmar is home to one of the longest running intrastate conflicts in the world, involving a series of ethnic and religious clashes that have caused harm to all parties involved. The ideology of a homogeneity based on Buddhism and the Bamar ethnicity has marginalized minority groups, which make up a third of the population, and has particularly affected the Rakhine state’s Buddhist and Muslim communities, the latter of which are subject to what international human rights organizations are calling an ethnic cleansing. Since the government relaxed restrictions to the access of foreign websites, the social media site Facebook has become a popular means to disseminate misinformation and rumours, and this has created mistrust and hatred against Muslims across the country, heightening the polarization between Buddhist and Muslim groups. This study will combine conflict analysis with the assessment of different approaches of countering hate speech to propose which methods of intervention are most suitable for this situation in Myanmar. Lederach argues that to counter hatred and avoid reoccurrence of violence, deep alterations of the parties’ relationships is needed. This idea forms the basis for chapter three which examines educational methods, interfaith projects and social media campaigns to both prevent and change negative attitudes towards the religious ‘Other’. It argues that education and awareness campaigns are more effective than the implementation of legal regulation as we need to combat the underlying issue. In addition to secondary sources, this study involved field research to collect information about how the youth are influence by hate speech and counter hate campaigns in Myanmar.

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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