On July 1, 2014, riots flared for several days in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. Two people were killed (one Buddhist and one Muslim), scores injured, and many Muslim houses and businesses burned in unrest that was provoked by rumors of a Buddhist
woman raped by a Muslim man, which later turned out to be untrue(Shwe Aung 2014). This time, authorities acted more quickly to investigate and make arrests, although residents still expressed frustration that they did little to intervene during the actual violence (Bookbinder 2014). Although the riots were thought to be driven, in part,by the rumor being shared on U Wirathu’s Facebook page (Campbell 2014), monks also played prominent roles in trying to calm crowds and prevent violence in the midst of the rioting (Bookbinder 2014).