By providing political, social, religious, and historical context to
Myanmar’s current situation, this paper challenges the claim that the
recent violence between Buddhists and Muslims is inevitably rooted
in communalism. Although nationalist movements such as 969 and
MaBaTha express themselves in religious terms, they are not seeking
to defend a doctrinal stance as such. Instead, they refer more to notions of Burmese Buddhist national identity and traditional ideas about
the fragility of Buddhism and its teachings that have circulated within
Theravada Buddhist societies for centuries.