M.MAS 1/12/17 Religious framings, from conflict to violence These four cases highlight the way in which framing conflicts in religious terms can serve to expand and escalate them. Effective collective action frames can accentuate and expand the resonance of particular grievances and mobilise a broader range of participants. 45 Whatever the cause of the fight between the young men in Case Study 1, for example, subsequent emphasis on the religious identities of the young men both drew in new actors and offered the potential for escalation beyond the initial dispute and its aftermath. The monk who came to visit the bereaved mother of one of the victims in this case, as well as those who subsequently pressured her to seek revenge, became involved because of identities understood in religious terms and directed antagonism towards a community larger than the young men involved or their families. Similarly, those concerned that the case might escalate recognized this potential for wider involvement and escalation. This underscores the fact that, in an environment with heightened attention to religious difference, the possibility always exists for quotidian incidents to be re-framed as religious or as having broader implications for religious communities. It also highlights the way that fears of “terrorism” in Rakhine State may become the basis for expanding violence towards Muslims elsewhere in Myanmar. Re-framing a conflict as religious in nature both reinforces and is reinforced by already-existing stereotypes of religious others. M.MAS Working Paper 1:1 explored some of the narratives circulating about Muslims in non-Muslim communities, for example—that they are potential threats and that, as a group, they are intolerant, violent, and rapacious (or at least, potentially so).46 With this image of Muslims in circulation, religious framing of conflicts between individual followers of Buddhism and Islam can also help to paint both the participants and their coreligionists as aggressors. The bare facts of the individual stories at hand—a fight between young men, unsanctioned slaughter of cows, or the (rumoured) stockpiling of weapons—may or may not be true, but these examples underscore that the salient point is their framing and the resonance of that framing with pre-existing stereotypes. Just as broad stereotypes are effectively applied to marginalized or excluded groups (with corresponding positive actions generally ineffective in shifting the narrative), individual acts of violence committed by Buddhists (as the dominant majority) do not affect the majority’s view of themselves as a whole. Indeed, throughout the violence in Myanmar, Buddhists have insisted—sometimes contrary to all evidence—that “Buddhists” are not violent. Framing disputes and other conflicts in religious terms may be instrumental—by actors with political interests—or produced from existing narratives. In this sense, many disputes are not religious per se but are framed as such. It is also necessary, however, to recognize that some of these conflicts undeniably concern religious tenets or practices, not as a matter of framing but as a matter of content. Case studies 3 and 4 were not simply administrative concerns regarding Muslims slaughtering cattle without a license but appear to be conflicts generated by the clash of traditions that are held up as mutually exclusive. That is, to the degree that Muslims feel slaughter of cattle is a religious obligation (during Eid, for example) and to the degree that Buddhists feel slaughter of cattle is proscribed, followers of the two traditions can appear to be fundamentally at odds. 47 45 Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1994) especially Chapter 7. 46 Schissler, Walton, and Phyu Phyu Thi, “Threat and Virtuous Defence: Listening to Narratives of Religious Conflict in Six Myanmar Cities,” 7–8. 47 Cherry Thein, “Govt reaffirms rules on killing cows ahead of Muslim festival,” Myanmar Times, 22 September 2014; http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/11712-govt-reaffirms-rules-on-killing-cows-ahead-ofmuslim-festival.html 17/24