Third World Quarterly 2020, VOL. 41, NO. 1, 133–150 https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2019.1660631  Countering Buddhist radicalisation: emerging peace movements in Myanmar and Sri Lanka Camilla Orjuela School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden ABSTRACT Violence and hate speech endorsed by Buddhist monks against Muslim minorities in South and Southeast Asia have attracted global attention in recent years, and been the focus for a growing academic scholarship. This article turns the attention to peace activists, religious – including Buddhist – leaders and other civil society actors seeking to counter anti-Muslim agitation in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Drawing on theories about social movements and countermovements, it analyses the diverse counter-forces, their activities and the obstacles they face. Doing so, the article contributes to an understanding of peacebuilding in religiously framed conflicts, and of the conditions for peace movements in an age of radicalisation and online activism. Based on interviews with civil society representatives and religious leaders, complemented with secondary sources, the study finds that although the peace movements are weaker and largely reactive to and restrained by the radical Buddhist nationalist movements, they constitute important counter-voices. The article also argues that the struggle between hate speech and counter speech in social media constitutes an important part of the movement– countermovement dynamics. Finally, the article suggests that theories on opposing movements can usefully be developed to enhance our understanding of mobilisation in different arenas in conflict-affected societies. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 4 July 2018 Accepted 22 August 2019 KEYWORDS Civil society peacebuilding religion resistance and activism South Asia Southeast Asia Introduction The crowd of local villagers and activists from around the country who had gathered to hear a panel discussion about religious coexistence fell silent as the monk began to speak. It was the second day of a peace festival in Pyin Oo Lwin in central Myanmar, and the Buddhist priest spoke about the meaning of tolerance, linking it to patience and acceptance. His talk was followed by that of a Muslim preacher, who related Prophet Mohammed and the Koran’s teachings about peaceful coexistence. The ensuing vivid discussion, which also involved Christian and Hindu representatives, and the peace messages that the festival participants later wrote on a large board, demonstrated a commitment to inter-religious understanding. Two and a half thousand kilometres away, in a hotel conference room in Galle, southern Sri Lanka, participants in another peace event were deeply engaged in conversations about CONTACT Camilla Orjuela camilla.orjuela@gu.se School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.