A monk in Burma, going by the name of Wirathu, has been stoking religious violence against Muslims in the region. He has been going about spreading his strong anti-Muslim opinions and teachings with the help of various kinds of social media and through his DVDs. He repeatedly warns the Buddhist people of the violence that Muslims have been waging against the Buddhist majority of Burma.
Muslims make up a total of 5% of the total population of Burma which numbers at around 75 million. Yet, all acts of violence over the past few years are to be attributed to the Muslims according to this monk, even though those acts have left 100 000 Muslims stranded and homeless in Burma last year, and 200 dead. Corresponding figures of how many Buddhists have died or turned out of their homes by Muslims is unavailable; perhaps, because there were none. In his sermons, Wirathu moves back and forth as if in a trance, and chants out his sermons calmly and peacefully. You would almost think he was offering prayers, and unless you translate the Burmese to English, there is almost no way to tell the explosive nature of his words.
He repeatedly calls Muslims savage and wild beasts, accusing them of being crude and untrustworthy, and accusing them of changing political sides, as it suits them. He accuses Muslims of having raped and bullied Buddhists ‘in all towns across Burma,’ but fails to provide any proof or references. Most of what he is spreading is hateful rumors that have no truth in them.
Wirathu was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim hatred but was released as part of a general amnesty in 2010. He had started this mission of spreading hatred in 2001 and he started with the preaching of anti-Muslim sentiment, and he asked the faithful to express their faith by boycotting all Muslim businesses. After his release in 2010, he has done nothing but spread more hatred. It seems that this man is majorly, if not solely, responsible for the Rakhine riot last June. Afterwards, in favor of a notorious decision by the Thein Sein government to ‘deport all Muslims to a third country,’ Wirathu led a rally of monks down the streets of Mandalay.
In all of his sermons, he is heard accusing Muslims of forcefully converting Burmese women, marrying them and killing them off when they fail to comply with the laws of Islam. There is no such report or data to support this statement.
Had Wirathu not been so popular among other monks in his monastery and a huge number of followers on Facebook and Twitter, it might have been easy to ignore him. However, not all monks across Burma agree with his teachings. Many have called him an extremist who does not follow the Buddha’s true principle which says all humans are equal.
Many have said that it is high time for the government to take strict actions against a man advocating extremism against his own fellow countrymen. As Burma is funded mainly by the EU, it has also been called upon to take sufficient action.
In an alarming sermon given by him last month, he has threatened that once the Muslims problem at home has been ‘eradicated,’ Burma will move on to other Muslim ‘targets.’
Ironically though, Wirathu calls himself “the Burmese Bin Laden.”
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