24 Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward “forbidding interfaith marriages” was not the “traditional Buddhist way,” but also insisted that methods such as this are “acceptable if they help Buddhism” (Galache 2013). Another of the law’s defenders, the chairperson of a Buddhist religious network, argued that restrictions on intermarriage were necessary because “our Buddhist women are not intelligent enough to protect themselves” (Democratic Voice of Burma 2013). Additionally, as a result of the blurred line between 969 political rallies and political sermons, these events increasingly include elements that seem at odds with their religious content. One song is entitled “Song to Whip Up Religious Blood” and contains the lyrics “Buddhists should not stay calm any more.” A slogan found on the pamphlets of a Mon 969 network declared: “If necessary we will build a fence with our bones” (Marshall 2013a). When pushed by one of the authors in an interview about how he defends his rhetoric within Buddhist teachings, U Wirathu responded that “all of my sermons are consistent with the pitaka (teachings of the Buddha). I hold tight to the pitaka. The dhamma is very wide, but I hold tight to the pitaka. And I follow the path of the hpaya-laung (Maitreya, the future Buddha). The path for national harmony is the path of the hpaya-laung.”24 He went on to give an example of a Buddhist teaching that speaks of how a tree standing alone is vulnerable when the storm comes. “But when trees, even small young ones, stand together, they will not fall when the storm comes. We must stand together,” he explained. In this same interview, he also made clear: “But we do not advocate violence. In fact, we are clear in condemning violence against other groups. We have a policy that makes clear we are against violence.” Indeed, 969 pamphlets have listed codes of conduct that condemn the use of violence, while at the same time they defend the urgent need to protect the sasana and promote the “race and the country.”25 There is historical precedence for violating both the letter and the spirit of specific Buddhist ethical codes privileging nonviolence, when the violations are in defence of Buddhism. As noted above, Sri Lanka is another Theravadin-majority Buddhist country whose sangha has close relationships to Myanmar’s own—religiously, culturally, and psychologically. In Sri Lanka, monastics have in recent decades used a Buddhist “just war” rhetoric to defend the use of violence to protect the Buddhist community against non-Buddhist insurgency groups and