The monk dubbed Myanmar’s Osama

The monk dubbed Myanmar’s Osama

MANDALAY — Radical Buddhist nationalism is sweeping Myanmar and at the forefront of the movement is a group more commonly associated with peace and tolerance: Monks.

6 HOURS 57 MIN AGO

MANDALAY — Radical Buddhist nationalism is sweeping Myanmar and at the forefront of the movement is a group more commonly associated with peace and tolerance: Monks. The most prominent among them is controversial cleric U Wirathu, who gives passionate sermons from his Mandalay base, calling on Buddhists to stand up against the “Muslim threat”. “I believe Islam is a threat not just to Buddhism, but to the (Burmese) people and the country,” says the monk, whose boyish face and toothy grin belie the name his critics have given him: The Buddhist Osama bin Laden. Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.The 46-year-old has been blamed for inspiring sectarian violence, which began in the long-volatile western state of Rakhine bordering Myanmar’s mostly Muslim neighbour, Bangladesh, but has spread to areas unused to such tension.

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein will face demands to rein in anti-Muslim violence as he was due to arrive on an official visit to Britain yesterday. He has been invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to reward the gradual moves towards restoring democracy to Myanmar.

The former general, once a part of the military junta that ruled Myanmar for almost 50 years, has been criticised for allowing the ethnic attacks to continue. He will also be questioned over official tolerance of outspoken figures such as Wirathu, who are blamed by many for whipping up hatred against Muslims.

It is an accusation Wirathu denies, instead blaming all the religious violence on Myanmar’s Muslims, who make up 5 per cent of the population of 55 million.

He insists he does not believe in, and has not encouraged, Buddhist attacks such as the riots a year ago in Rakhine that left 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mainly Muslims, homeless. He has, however, previously compared Muslims to “mad dogs” and called them “troublemakers”.

“I don’t know how you tame a wild elephant in your country,” he told The Sunday Telegraph, when asked what exactly he meant when he said Buddhist Myanmar people should “stand up for themselves”, “but, here, the first thing you do is take away all their food and water. Then, when the elephant is starving and weak, you give him a little bit of water and teach him one word. Then, you give him a little bit of food and teach him some more. That’s how we tame the elephants here”.

This is his metaphor for the imposition of economic sanctions on Muslims, who are also known as Rohingya, an ethnic grouping in the north-west that has long been denied Myanmar citizenship.

Buddhists, he insists, should not shop in Muslim stores, nor sell land to Muslims. This principle is being promoted by a movement, which he started in conjunction with other monks from southern Myanmar, known as 969.

Poet and artist Soe Wei, who was a political prisoner of the military junta for two years, says that, like many Myanmar people, he finds it difficult to criticise a monk, though he does not share all of Wirathu’s opinions.

Pressed on whether he sees Wirathu as a figure of terror or a man of peace, Mr Soe Wei shakes his head, then smiles wryly. “I don’t see him as a man of peace. I’ve never seen anyone in authority really willing to have peace in Myanmar.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH