1/3/22, 11:55 AM Dangerous disinformation: a Buddhist monk’s fake rendition of the Muslim call to prayer | Dangerous Speech Project Buddhist monk Ashin Ka-U Nawbata spoke to the crowd as a representative of the Buddhist faith, and also as a member of the “969 Movement,” a nationalist group opposed to the perceived expansion of Islam in Myanmar.[4] 969 is led by a monk named U Wirathu, who is well-known and notorious for ranting against Muslims, describing them as mad dogs[5] who will take over Myanmar if Buddhists do not prevent that.[6] Ashin Ka-U Nawbata echoed the famous monk’s claim in his own sermon. Burmese Buddhists are taught to respect and obey monks, so Ashin Ka-U Nawbata had strong authority over his Buddhist audience. Leaders of the 969 Movement became especially influential in Myanmar, in part thanks to their education and social service programs. They drive animosity against Muslims by arguing that Islamic culture is incompatible with what they deem Burmese culture and religion.[7] When this sermon was delivered, the group enjoyed wide-ranging support, including from government officials and from establishment religious figures.[8] This made 969 monks’ speech more dangerous. AUDIENCE A crowd of Buddhists at a monastery in Taunggyi, a town of 381,639 people in 2014[9] one of only three towns of significant size in the largely rural Shan State.[10] As noted above, this audience would see a monk as an authoritative figure, to be deferred to and obeyed. The audience members were also clearly aware – as their reactions to the sermon illustrate – of conflicts between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar. CONTEXT Myanmar’s population is about 90 percent Buddhist. Fewer than five percent are Muslim, and about half of those are Rohingyas, who have long been disparaged by Burmese political and religious leaders as foreigners from Bangladesh,[12] though most [11] Rohingyas are from families that have been in the country for generations. Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law denied most Rohingyas citizenship, creating the largest group of stateless people in the world – more than one million.[13] In 2012 and 2013, influential extremist monks and other Burmese leaders incited Buddhists against Muslims, especially Rohingya, in sermons and in innumerable posts on social media, for example by asserting that Muslim men had raped Buddhist women. This led to attacks, and then a coordinated campaign of violence.[14] Many Rohingya and other Muslims were killed, and about 125,000 were displaced from their homes.[15] Since the period when Ashin Ka-U Nawbata delivered his sermon, violence against Muslims has continued. In the past five years, the Burmese military attacks on the Rohingya have fueled a refugee crisis in which hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people have been forced to flee to neighboring countries or internal displacement camps.[16] MEDIUM Ashin Ka-U Nawbata spoke in person at a monastery. The sermon was filmed and the video was uploaded to YouTube. The monk also mentions that audience members may have seen him on CD – this is a very common way for monks to get their messages out to wide audiences in Myanmar, especially in rural areas. REFERENCES [1] In 2018, for example, the UN Human Rights Council’s international fact finding mission on Myanmar recommended that top military leaders in Myanmar be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf [2] https://www.learnreligions.com/what-do-the-words-of-the-adhan-mean-in-english-2003812 [3] Linthicum, Kate. 2013. “Myanmar Villages Burned in Deadly Religious Violence.” Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-oct-02-la-fg-wn-myanmar-religious-violence-20131002-story.html [4] Fuller, Thomas. 2013. “Extremism Rises Among Myanmar Buddhists.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/world/asia/extremism-rises-among-myanmar-buddhists-wary-of-muslimminority.html [5] Carroll, Joshua. 2019. “Myanmar: Arrest warrant issued for anti-Muslim monk Wirathu.” Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/5/29/myanmar-arrest-warrant-issued-for-anti-muslim-monk-wirathu [6] Hookway, James. 2017. “Buddhist Leader Spreads Hatred of Muslims in Myanmar.” The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/buddhist-leader-spreads-hatred-of-muslims-in-myanmar-1507806002 [7] Ibrahim, Azeem. The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide. Hurst, 2016. [8] Marshall, Andrew. 2013. “Special Report: Myanmar gives official blessing to anti-Muslim monks.” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-969-specialreport/special-report-myanmar-gives-official-blessing-to-antimuslim-monks-idUSBRE95Q04720130627 [9] Department of Population Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. 2017. “The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census: Taunggyi Township Report.” https://myanmar.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/Shan_Taunggyi_en.pdf [10] Ibid. [11] Kyaw Ye Lynn 2016 “Census data shows Myanmar Muslim population has fallen” AA https://www aa com tr/en/asiahttps://dangerousspeech.org/dangerous-disinformation-a-buddhist-monks-fake-rendition-of-the-muslim-call-to-prayer/ 2/3