M.MAS 7/22/15 don’t want to see our Buddhists suffer like that. That’s why I want to show people the horror of their religion. I want everyone to know.33 In this excerpt, the narrator utilizes the first strand of argument, which makes reference to international events. She is making a claim about Islam as a religion that promotes violence and then calling on a variety of examples to illustrate her point. She appears to be referencing ISIS, as many other narrators did. Given the time period in which we conducted research for this paper, references to ISIS were topical, but we also heard mention of a variety of other international events. In the following excerpt from an interview in Mawlamyine, for example, the narrator had just told us he was afraid to interact with Muslims: Q: In that case, why are you afraid to communicate with Muslims? A: They are very strong in racism and always live separately from us. Even if they come and communicate with us, their mind-sets are not honest. Q: Can you give me some examples? A: I can give many examples of worldwide incidents. For example, they attacked the World Trade Center in America and you can also see [examples] in Myanmar. They are the sources of these incidents. Nowadays, we are more and more afraid of them and also you can see the situation of ISIS. I don’t trust Islam in Myanmar because of this ISIS. For example, Islam [Muslims] from Indonesia are involved in ISIS so nobody can say that Islam [Muslims] in Myanmar are not involved or participating in the processes of ISIS. That is why we are afraid of them.34 Here, the narrator weaves together reference to events abroad and inside Myanmar to explain his generalized fear of Muslims. Importantly, this excerpt illustrates how international media accounts in Myanmar diverge from the way conflict is discussed on an everyday basis in Myanmar. International accounts position Muslims as primarily victims of violence whereas many narrators saw Muslims as perpetrators. This narrator in Mawlamyine did not go as far as U Zaw Aye Maung and say that the Buddhist Rakhine people have suffered genocide but he – and other narrators – did present recent instances of conflict as instigated by Muslims who acted as aggressors or who otherwise brought retaliatory violence on themselves. The second strand of argument we heard was reference to events within Myanmar or the narrator’s immediate local area. In many cases this entailed reference to riots, either in Rakhine State or in other places that have been the site of collective violence. Other common references were to incidents of sexual violence or forced conversion of Buddhist women and desecration or disrespect of religious objects such as Buddha statues. In the following excerpt from an interview in a teashop in Sittwe, the narrator invokes a variety of examples to illustrate her point, oscillating between references to incidents during large-scale riots and to more quotidian events. As she explained these things to us she grew increasingly animated, even jovial, looking at us and over us to draw in those bystanders not yet included in our conversation: For them, if Rakhine are bad to them, they just cut the Rakhine’s neck. This is the thing that they preach. We can also hear that… When they preach, they talk like that. They said, ‘Allah, don’t you see us. What are you doing? Just kill these Rakhine’… They will act according to whether the situation gives them the chance… At night, they steal people’s things… For them [those who live closer to the Muslim area], they cannot even leave their shoes out. They will be stolen… If 33 34 Woman, 38, Buddhist, Myanmar, Lashio, March 2015 Lashio MSPT 9. Man, 36, Buddhist, Chinese/Myanmar, Mawlamyine, March 2015 MLM MSPT 13. 10