A Myanmar monk once dubbed the “Buddhist Bin Laden” for his extremist diatribes says he has been banned from using Facebook, as the site ramps up efforts to clamp down on hate speech. For years firebrand preacher Wirathu has used the social network as a platform to rail against the country’s embattled Muslims, comparing them … Read more
Yangon authorities on Friday sued three Muslim men for holding Ramadan prayers in the street, after the local school where they used to worship was shut down by a nationalist mob. Police brought the charges after around 50 Muslims gathered to pray on Wednesday on a road in Thaketa township, the site of one of … Read more
Myanmar’s ultra-nationalist Ma Ba Tha movement announced Sunday it was rebranding under a new name, days after Buddhist authorities banned the network which has been accused of stoking Islamophobia. The monk-led movement grew in strength under the country’s previous military-backed government, peddling a form of hardline Buddhist nationalism that intensified sectarian tensions with minority Muslims. … Read more
Hundreds of monks and supporters of Myanmar’s ultra-nationalist Ma Ba Tha movement gathered in a Yangon monastery Saturday, in a defiant meeting days after Buddhist authorities banned their network, which has been accused of stoking Islamophobia. The monk-led movement grew in strength under the country’s previous military-backed government, peddling a brand of Buddhist nationalism that … Read more
Barbet Schroeder spent months with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin at the height of his power, when corpses would wash up every morning on the shores of Lake Victoria and Kampala was rife with rumours that he was eating his opponents. But in his decades of documenting evil, the veteran Swiss filmmaker says he has never … Read more
Myanmar’s top Buddhist body has ordered hardline group Ma Ba Tha to remove all public displays, according to a document seen by AFP on Tuesday, a move aimed at curbing the movement’s influence amid rising Islamophobia. Myanmar is gripped by deepening religious tensions that have repeatedly spilled into violence, partially attributed to anti-Muslim rhetoric spread … Read more