146 C. ORJUELA My name is prominent and famous. When I talked with Maulavis [Muslim religious scholars/ leaders] to settle the halal problem … after that in every social media a picture of me was published where they had put the Muslim cap on me (interview 18). There are many parallels between the offline and online interactions between the Buddhist nationalist movement and its countermovement. Social media has become a crucial arena for struggles around religion and national belonging – an arena where new young actors engage while traditional civil society actors struggle to keep up to date. Studying movement and countermovement dynamics in this arena is essential to understand contemporary peace work. Conclusions This article complements the growing scholarship on the recent upsurge of radical Buddhist nationalist movements and anti-Muslim agitation in South and Southeast Asia by offering an analysis of the civil society forces which strive to counter them. It shows how new nationalist movements and recent episodes of violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka have prompted the mobilisation of counterforces, consisting of a diverse set of actors. Religious leaders play an important role in the countermovement, particularly monks who evoke the Buddhist values of nonviolence and tolerance. Representatives from all faiths engage in initiatives promoting understanding between religious groups and involve themselves in mediation and prevention of hate speech and violence. Other activists focus on minority rights and protection, advocacy or legal assistance. Together, these actors can be conceived of as a peace movement which through its diverse activities strives towards the shared goal of inter-religious coexistence and violence prevention. This movement is, to a large extent, shaped by the stronger Buddhist nationalist movement. The study has taken inspiration from, and contributes to, the theoretical discussion about movement–countermovement dynamics. It confirms the importance of understanding movements not in isolation, but as formed by inter-movement interaction. In the cases under study, the Buddhist nationalist movement tends to set the agenda, while the opposing peace movement finds creative ways of challenging it, but also has to navigate attacks by it. The study provides support for the argument that social movement theory needs to liberate itself from a strict interpretation of movements and countermovements as formed in sequence, and of the first as change-oriented and the latter as reactionary. The recent upsurge of radical Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka can be understood as a response to societal change related to globalisation, democratisation and war-to-peace transition. Buddhist nationalists strive to preserve a status quo of Buddhist preeminence and devotion which is under threat. The peace movement, for its part, wants to preserve another status quo – a society characterised by peaceful coexistence between religious groups. Both have mobilised recently, but build on preexisting movements. The article further shows that interaction between opposing movements takes place – and needs to be studied – in different arenas. The two movements struggle for influence and promote their messages among the general public, within the Buddhist sangha, in the policy arena, in the judicial sphere and through the production of cultural expressions. In these different arenas, representatives of the movements both mimic and attack each other. An arena of particular importance is social media, where messages are amplified and