May 23, 2017 AFP
YANGON: Myanmar's
top Buddhist body has banned hardline group Ma Ba Tha, according to a document
sent out on Tuesday (May 23), a move aimed at curbing the movement's influence
amid rising Islamophobia.
Myanmar has been
gripped by deepening religious tensions that have repeatedly spilled into
violence, partially attributed to anti-Muslim rhetoric spread by nationalist
groups like Ma Ba Tha.
The Sangha Maha
Nayaka Committee, Myanmar's highest Buddhist authority, sent a letter to
government ministries on Tuesday
"People, either
as individuals or as a group, cannot take any actions under the name of Ma Ba
Tha," said the letter, which was seen by AFP and carried the signature of
several monks including senior figures from Ma Ba Tha.
"Ma Ba Tha
signboards across the country are to be taken down completely by July 15 at the
latest," the Sangha committee added, warning any infractions would be
punished under both Buddhist and civil law.
But Ottama, a Ma Ba
Tha monk in Yangon, said the group still planned to hold its annual meeting
this weekend despite the ban.
"The most
certain thing is that we will hold the Ma Ba Tha conference on the 27 and 28 of
this month," he told AFP.
The Sangha's
sanction comes just weeks after the same committee, which represents the upper
echelons of the clergy, banned the country's most notorious monk Wirathu from
preaching for a year.
Once dubbed
"the face of Buddhist terror," the Mandalay-based monk has led calls
for restrictions on the country's Muslim minority and frequently spews vitriol
online warning of an Islamic takeover.
Religious tensions
have soared since a group of Rohingya Muslims attacked police posts in the
north of Rakhine state last October, sparking a bloody military crackdown that
has drawn widespread international condemnation.
Since then
nationalists in Yangon have held protests, stopped Islamic religious ceremonies
and most recently forced two schools to shut their doors over accusations they
were illegally doubling as mosques.
Police have arrested
five people this month after a fight broke out in a Muslim neighbourhood of
Yangon when dozens of hardliners raided a house believed to be hiding
Rohingyas.