1/3/22, 11:55 AM Dangerous disinformation: a Buddhist monk’s fake rendition of the Muslim call to prayer | Dangerous Speech Project DANGEROUS DISINFORMATION: A BUDDHIST MONK’S FAKE RENDITION OF THE MUSLIM CALL TO PRAYER by Dangerous Speech Project While delivering a sermon in the Taunggyi Township in the Shan State of Myanmar, Ashin Ka-U Nawbata, a Buddhist monk, taught his followers to fear their Muslim neighbors by falsely translating the Islamic call to prayer that they hear five times a day from local mosques, but cannot understand as it is in Arabic. The monk said that the call to prayer tells Muslims to destroy all non-Muslims and raze their cities and villages. In fact, the call is a reminder to Muslims to stop, listen, and pray. This dangerous speech is one of many examples of similar rhetoric from religious and military figures of authority in Myanmar, portraying the country’s tiny Muslim minority as a terrifying, powerful threat to its Buddhist majority and Myanmar’s existence as a Buddhist nation. Such messages were spread offline and online and were widely believed. Violence broke out against Muslims in 2012 and 2013, and in late 2016 the Burmese military began to drive hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims from their homes, raping and killing many of them en masse. It was genocide, independent investigators concluded, since it was committed with intent to wipe out the whole group.[1] DATE Uploaded to YouTube on January 4, 2014. The date of the sermon is unknown. It was probably given between 2012 and 2014 since that was when the nationalist movement with which this monk is associated (called 969) was most active. LOCATION Taunggyi Township in Shan State (Muang Tai), Myanmar LANGUAGE Burmese (officially, “Myanmar language”) MESSAGE After greeting the crowd, Ashin Ka-U Nawbata told them that he was about to deliver a sermon different from the ones monks from their town normally give, which focus on Buddhist scripture. He also reassured them, saying that although his sermon was different, “it is not against Buddha’s teachings.” He started with a story about a time where he explained to another senior monk that Buddhism and Islam could not coexist. He then told the crowd that he would introduce them to the teachings of Islam, and began to mimic the Muslim call to prayer, chanting it as if in Arabic, to laughter from the audience. Then he falsely translated it line by line. He told them it means: Oh almighty Allah / Destroy all other religious believers except Muslims / Eradicate all institutions and religious buildings of those other religions / Break the foundations of those religions. / Raze and demolish the villages and towns of other religious believers except for Muslims / Those who don’t obey Allah or evils or non-believers shall be punished severely. In truth, the Muslim call to prayer makes no mention of other religions or violence. It says this: God is Great/ I bear witness that there is no god except the One God / I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God / Hurry to the prayer (Rise up for prayer) / Hurry to salvation (Rise up for Salvation)/ God is Great / There is no god except the One God[2] The video of the sermon can be viewed here, starting at 10:40. A full translation of the speech into English is here. HALLMARKS Accusation in a mirror. The monk’s sermon contains a hallmark of dangerous speech known as accusation in a mirror. This means that a speaker attributes to the audience’s perceived enemies the very acts of violence that the speaker hopes to convince the audience should be committed against them. The monk claimed that Muslims were being instructed to destroy non-Muslims and raze their villages, when in reality, non-Muslims were burning the homes and mosques of Muslims during the same period.[3] To predict that another group will commit violence against the in-group is especially powerful since it makes violence against that group seem not only acceptable but defensive and necessary. TARGET GROUP Muslims in Myanmar SPEAKER https://dangerousspeech.org/dangerous-disinformation-a-buddhist-monks-fake-rendition-of-the-muslim-call-to-prayer/ 1/3