Myanmar: Anti-Muslim nationalist group told to disband

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) – Myanmar’s highest Buddhist authority has banned a hardline nationalist monks-led group known for its anti-Islamic rhetoric, state media reported on Wednesday.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a statement of the government-sponsored State Sangha Committee that banned all activities under the name of the Organization to Protect Race and Religion (Ma Ba Tha).

The statement said the committee, better known as Ma Ha Na in its Myanmar acronym, ordered the monks leading Ma Ba Tha to disband the group by the middle of July or face punishment under Buddhist law.

The committee also warned it would refer any breach of the edict to the Ministry of Home Affairs for “immediate” prosecution.

The decisions – made at a special meeting of the 47-member Ma Ha Na on Tuesday -- comes amid growing tension between the government and the group’s leaders, following a tense confrontation between nationalists and Muslim residents in Yangon earlier this month, and the arrest and jailing of some nationalist leaders.

Ma Ba Tha was established shortly after communal violence broke out between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Rohingya Muslims in mid-2012.

Anti-Muslim tirades by the nationalist Ma Ba Tha have been blamed for a surge in sectarian hatred across the country, occasionally flaring into religious violence.

The group had pressured the previous government to enact four Race and Religious Laws discriminating against Muslims in the predominantly Buddhist country.