44 Hate Speech Ignited: Understanding Hate Speech in Myanmar CSOs from other ethnic minority backgrounds also mentioned that people have had to be more vigilant in recent years, as identity card renewals are fraught with errors, especially around ethnicity and religion.209 A Karen participant said that their new card listed them as Bamar in- stead of Karen.210 A Christian human rights defender related that even though they had listed Christian on the application form, the final card came back listing them as Buddhist.211 As these “errors” have occurred repeatedly, some wondered if the government offices were intentionally committing these errors to distort population data.212 One widespread narrative frequently used by ultranationalist groups has been that Muslim families have high birth rates relative to the rest of the population.213 The ultranationalist groups have presented their own statistics highlighting that the Buddhist population in the country has been decreasing relative to the Muslim population.214 Ultranationalist groups have long spread rumors that “if a Muslim man marries a Buddhist woman, he is rewarded because that means [Muslims] can extend their race.”215 The flip side of this narrative has been the expectation that Buddhist women should only marry Buddhist men, which means that “girls have to be careful even to hang out with a Muslim friend” for fear of being accused of having relationships with Muslim men.216 Interviewees also noted that ultranationalist groups have often presented distorted accounts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.217 All are home to predominantly Muslim populations, and they have been portrayed as nations that used to be Buddhist and examples of what Myanmar’s future may look like if Islam is permitted to spread.218 U Wirathu’s main narrative has been that, “if 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 FGD (December 2019);See, e.g., YGN-R3-01, 6-7. FGD (December 2019) FGD (December 2019) See, e.g., MS-R1-01, 2. See, e.g., MS-R1-01, 4; MS-R1-02, 3. 002-R4-04, 2. 002-R4-04, 3. See also Beech, “The Face of Buddhist terror.” 002-R3-01, 7; Ibid. YGN-R1-O1, 5-6; FGD (January 2019). Ibid.