M.MAS 7/22/15 Devotion, when understood to be synonymous with extremism, helps to establish the nature of a perceived Muslim threat: all devout Muslims are potentially dangerous. Component to this was the idea that Muslims seek to expand and overtake other religions, as a function of a colonizing imperative (or an unwillingness to assimilate) asserted to originate within Islamic teaching. Some narrators explained this as the meaning of Jihad or a requirement contained within Sharia. Both words are in common usage, though understanding of their meaning may vary and may not conform to common Muslim understandings of these concepts. A few narrators situated such claims historically, with references to countries such as Afghanistan or Indonesia, places that are understood to have once been Buddhist but which are now Muslim. For Myanmar, this specter of a ‘Muslim takeover’ was explained as potentially occurring through a variety of mechanisms that require vigilance on the part of Buddhists. This is primarily a demographic argument, about rapid Muslim population growth driven by large families, intermarriage and forced conversion of Buddhist women, illegal immigration from Bangladesh, and the use of violence or economic power. Justifying arguments In our interviews, people called upon an identifiable, persistent set of arguments to illustrate the idea that Islam is violent and Muslims present an existential or personal threat. These arguments can be loosely grouped into three interrelated strands: references to international events, events within Myanmar, and personal experiences. We use the term ‘argument’ here because, by asking narrators to choose their primary concerns and then explain them, the interview encounter obliged narrators to justify their choices. Different narrators approached this differently, with some investing clear energy into not only answering our questions but into persuading us to agree. In Lashio, for example, we interviewed a mother who works at the central office of the Shan State Ma Ba Tha. She spoke to us earnestly, sometimes seeming to be on the verge of tears, and with a high degree of certainty about the information she presented: In my opinion, for the first point, it is religion. They [Muslims] are swallowing our religion… I am so worried about it for our future generations, our grand children and so on. In our time, horrible things like this happen to our religion. For the future of our children, I am so worried that our religion will disappear. I have these worries and concerns. I don’t want this religion to disappear for our future generation. I want it to last forever.32 Given that this woman told us she had left her previous employment to come work for Ma Ba Tha because of her desire to protect Buddhism, it is not surprising that she stated her views strongly. She is also, not surprisingly, a particularly illustrative narrator who synthesized and repeated all three strands of arguments we heard others make in varying permutations: The things that happened took place not far from our work place – members of the other religion rape children like your daughter’s age, and we read about that in the news and also see it in real life… Their religion is terrorism. They lured people to convert to their religion by force; they don’t have freedom of belief in their religion. If a Burmese Buddhist got married to one of them, every opportunity would be lost. Even a drop of blood from them is very dangerous. The blood of terror. They have been taught this since they were children, so it’s very terrifying. We say, ‘don’t kill’… They say, ‘kill, if you kill you will be blessed’��� Now, in the news, we see about their Jihad in other countries, cutting off peoples’ heads. Horrible things, burning people alive… I 32 Woman, 38, Buddhist, Myanmar, Lashio, March 2015 Lashio MSPT 9. 9