media and conflict in myanmar: opportunities for media to advance peace One strand of the perceived threat relates to concerns about population takeover. The belief that Buddhist women who marry Muslim men will be unwittingly converted to Islam is widespread. This feeling is fed in part by Islamic disapproval of interfaith marriages and practices that deny non-Muslim wives the right to marital property in the event of death or divorce. Concerns over this issue led to a call in mid-2013 for a law to prevent Buddhist women from marrying Muslim men. Combined with the perception (real or otherwise) that Muslim families have more children (in Rakhine State at least), there is a fear that followers of the Islamic faith will come to outnumber Buddhists. This fear is also evident in official recommendations made in April 2013 in response to the Rakhine conflict that called for “reproductive education,” which in the Myanmar context is a euphemism for limitation of Muslim population growth. Culturally and religiously, Myanmar’s citizens often perceive Muslims as less willing to integrate into Myanmar society than previously. According to interviewees, citizens sense an increase in symbols of Islam, such as mosques, women in hijabs and burqas, and men with kurtis (long shirts), beards, and prayer caps. The fear of Islamification is not helped by the fact that Islamic communities, including mosques and madrasas, remain relatively closed to outsiders, rousing suspicion about the attitudes and practices of Muslim communities. “The Muslim population has been isolated within Yangon for so long, so we need to get them involved, to practice citizenship and take part,” one youth activist said. Fear of Islamification in Myanmar also manifests in economic competition. Since colonial times, South Asian migrants, sometimes Muslim and sometimes not, have grown in influence in Myanmar’s merchant economy. In modern times, Islamic mercantilism is often numerically symbolized in signs displaying 786, which refers to halal produce in accordance with the Quran. Numerology being influential in Myanmar Buddhist consciousness, many Buddhists are quick to assume that 786 has hidden meanings. They have also come to believe that it is a marker that leads Muslims to buy exclusively from Islamic businesses. The reaction to this phenomenon is evident in the 969 movement, which invokes the Buddhist principles (the three precious gems) of the Buddha, the Dhamma (teachings), and the Sangha (monkhood) and calls on the faithful to boycott Muslim businesses in favor of “buying Buddhist.” The economic dimension of these anti-Islamic attitudes have manifested in the looting of Islamic businesses during communal violence. Polarized reporting by domestic and international media has often reinforced the divisions between these communities. According to interviewed experts, domestic journalists and opinion leaders are more likely to report negatively on Muslims than on Buddhists. Western journalists, on the other hand, have tended to report Buddhist-Muslim violence through a normative, rights-based framework that victimizes Muslims and blames Buddhists. This reporting circulates back into Myanmar, reinforcing anxiety about threats to Buddhist identity that gave rise to the conflict in the first place. One expert commentator argued that for Buddhists, this anxiety leads to calls to “defend the Sasana,” invoking a deeply rooted duty to protect the Buddhist tradition, considered the moral spine of Myanmar nationhood. This dynamic was evident for example in Time magazine’s reporting on Buddhist nationalist monk U Wirathu as “the face of Buddhist terror”­—perceived as highly disrespectful and inflammatory for Myanmar Buddhists. Censorship of this publication may have stifled debate on a highly important topic, but it was done so by authorities to prevent violence. International Islamic commentary has had a similar effect on root causes. Here communal violence is framed as part of an international tendency to persecute Muslims as part of the global war on terror. These accounts link to powerful global advocacy networks, Islamic instituUSIP.ORG  13