'Hateful speeches fanning the conflict'

“When we knew the mob was coming to destroy our village, we decided to avoid a confrontation and moved everyone out,” said Kyaw Win, who lost his house to arsonists last Tuesday.

“They destroyed our houses, huts, the mosque, and even our fruit trees," he said after the attack that left one man dead in Oakkan township, about 100 kilometres north of Yangon.

The latest outbreak of sectarian violence was triggered by a Muslim woman bumping into a monk on his morning rounds, breaking his begging bowl, police said.

There are an estimated 2,000 Muslims living in Oakkan township.

“We have all lived together here since our grandparents' time,” said a villager from Chauktel, where houses were also burned. “But when the 969 campaign started up here a few months ago, we started to live in fear of our neighbours.”

The 969 campaign, launched in February by a controversial monk named Wirathu, encourages Buddhists to shun Muslim shops and undermine their economic dominance.

The number derives from the nine attributes of the Buddha, the six attributes of Dharma and nine attributes of the monkhood.

In a speech in February, Wirathu warned that if the Muslim population grows, “they will overwhelm us and take over our country and make it an evil Islamic nation”. He has been preaching anti-Muslim sermons since he became a monk in 2001. He was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years for inciting unrest but was released last year by presidential pardon.

There are an estimated 5-6 million Muslims in Myanmar, or nearly 5 per cent of the mainly Buddhist population.

“We found DVDs and pamphlets full of hate speeches labelled 969 being spread in the villages around us,” said Aung Than, 42, from Wunkite village in Oakkan town.

Wirathu denied any part. “The 969 movement was not involved in the Oakkan incident, nor with Meiktila,” Wirathu, 45, said. “We played no role. There is no unrest in areas where the 969 movement is strong.”

This was the third sectarian clash since the country emerged from decades of military dictatorship in November 2010. President Thein Sein has succeeded in pushing through political reforms, but he has failed to prevent religious hatred from erupting in the new era of greater liberties.

On March 20, an altercation over the price of a hairpin in a Muslim gold shop in Meiktila, 450km north of Yangon, spiralled into a riot that left 44 dead and at least 8,000 homeless, mostly Muslims.

Last year, fighting between Buddhists and Muslim-Rohingya communities, sparked by an alleged rape of a Buddhist woman by three Muslims, left over 200 dead and displaced 125,000.

Rakhine state, in the west, has an estimated 800,000 Muslims, most of whom are stateless Rohingyas. But observers fear the next powder keg could be Yangon.

“We are seriously concerned the unrest will occur in Yangon because nearly 1 million Muslims live here and most of the Muslim youths feel that they are being targeted, and will fight back,” said Wanna Shwe, head of Myanmar’s Islamic Religious Council in Yangon. He attributed the rising tension and growing violence in part on hate campaigns such as the 969 movement.

Kyaw Yin Hlaing, secretary of the government appointed commission set up to investigate the Rakhine crises, has called on the government to ban “the use of hate language against any religion”, and to ban “extremist teachings and activities”. 

“The riots that took place in the Rakhine had something to do without outside instigators, on both sides, prompting people to go after each other,” Kyaw Yin Hlaing said. “Some of the preachers from both sides were making hate speeches.” The rising sectarian tensions in reforming Myanmar, has made some Muslims nostalgic for the quieter days under the military.

 

Islamic leaders condemn call for ‘jihad’

 

Islamic clerics in Myanmar differ on incitement from foreign countries and terrorism within the country under the name of “jihad”. 

For Islamic clerics, “jihad” means doing good deeds, which they say translates to Muslim people adapting themselves to live in Myanmar peacefully. 

The clerics also condemned any act of terrorism that would hurt Myanmar or the well-being of her citizens. 

Aye Kyu, vice president of the Islam Religious Affairs Council Myanmar, said: “All Islamists have to value the country’s well-being since we are taking shelter here. We all will cooperate with the Myanmar people to protest against terrorists. We don’t want such kinds of insult in the name of ‘jihad’.”

Security has been tightened after the country received threats that it may be attacked by foreign terrorists.