In Myanmar, the flames of genocidal ethnic cleansing against Rohingya were directly fanned by a group of right-wing Buddhists that were part of an extremist group known as “969.” Positioning itself as a patriotic grassroots movement, 969’s most vocal cheerleader was an extremist Buddhist monk named Wirathu who had been previously jailed by the former military junta running Myanmar for anti-Muslim violence. Wirathu told his fellow Buddhists to boycott Muslim shops and shun interfaith marriages. He openly referred to mosques as “enemy bases” and—in sentences that were not carried out in full—was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for distributing anti-Muslim pamphlets inciting communal riots. Most notoriously, this 969 leader, for a period, even began referring to himself as the “Burmese bin Laden” and finally surrendered himself to Myanmar police in November 2020 after a year of evading arrest on sedition charges.

XREF: Connects to broader literature on religious nationalism and how ostensibly peaceful traditions can be weaponized in ethnic conflict. QUESTION: What institutional or state responses, if any, exist to address religious leaders inciting ethnic violence?

QUESTION: The 969 movement's role in the Rohingya genocide is worth investigating further — how did its rhetoric translate into state-sanctioned violence?

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 136