Ashin Wirathu - a Buddhist monk's fight against Islam

Islam | Ashin Wirathu - Buddhist Monk | Battle of Broken Hill 1915 | Muslim Brotherhood in Australia | Politics | Rational fear of Islam |

Anti-Muslim monk preaches hate: Ashin Wirathu, TRT World - Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, 8 September 2017, YouTube, duration: 1.50 minutes. 10 million views as of 27.12.25.

Abstract: Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu was involved with the Myanmar Buddhist nationalism 969 Movement from 2001 as it sought to remove the threat of Muslim infiltration in the country and the creation of an Islamic state with Sharia law, leading to pogroms against the dominant Buddhist faith and minority Christians. Despite being jailed between 2003-2012, Wirathu maintained a leadership role in the movement through the use of social media, and was involved in military action against the Muslim Rohingyans of northern Burma. This gave rise to worldwide outrage over atrocities and accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide. This resulting in a refugee crisis during 2017 in which 1 million Rohingyans were forced to flee to Bangladesh, a nearby poor country with a large population, over 90% of whom were Muslim.

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969 Movement flag.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. A Buddhist Monk
3. References

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1. Introduction

Myanmar (formerly Burma) is a south east Asian country that shares a western border with Bangladesh. The population is primarily Buddhist, with a relatively small Muslim population (officially 4.3%, but closer to 10% according to Muslim leaders) and a Christian population around 6.3%. Since the early 2000s there has been a great deal of political turmoil in the country, with an ongoing element of that turmoil being the status of the Muslim population and the perceived threat it posed to the local, largely Buddhist population. Surprisingly, a Buddhist monk - Ashin Wirathu - since 2001, led opposition to this perceived Muslim threat. To the local population the threat was very real, as nearby Bangladesh had the world's fourth largest Muslim population and Islamic terrorism was on the rise by then. Islamic insurgency had a history. For example, according to the following Google AI search, History of Islamic terrorism in Burma (27 December 2025):

Post-Independence Insurgency (1940s-1950s): Shortly after Myanmar gained independence in 1948, a rebellion began in northern Rakhine State, with militants known as "Mujahid" fighting for the rights of Muslims. This insurgency was largely suppressed by the government, with a ceasefire reached in 1954.

Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) (1970s-1980s): Following the 1962 military coup, which increased repression against minorities, new movements emerged. The RSO was formed in the early 1980s as a more radical faction aiming to fight for rights.

Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO) (1990s): Formed in 1998, this group was a loose alliance of earlier separatist groups, including the RSO.

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) (2012-Present): Formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin, this group emerged in 2012 following severe anti-Muslim riots.

In this post-2012 fight the Buddhist monks were joined by the Myanmar military and a large number of the general population. In opposition, as noted above, was the declared Muslim terrorist group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (2012-present), an affiliate of the infamous Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan). Whereas Muslim terrorism has been on the rise around the world since the early twentieth century, so-called terrorism or genocide against a Muslim population such as the Rohinyga has been rare, if not unique.

Historically, Europe and the Middle-east - at the time of the initial rise of Islam in the 7th century AD when it was largely Christian - had fought against Islamic aggression over the fourteen centuries since then. The most famous instance involved creation of militia led by Catholic priests and monks during the period known as the Crusades. Therefore, the idea of religious fighting back against the ideology of Muhammed was not new. As the Koran and other Islamic texts called for world domination through the imposition of Islamic states and Sharia law, this resulted in the substantial loss of Catholic majorities and democratic government across large sections of the Middle East and other former non-Islamic countries, as far east as Asia and west as Spain, Austria and the Balkans.

The Buddhist monks of Myanmar were not alone in their efforts during the 20th century to fight back against Muslim dominance, in the wake of large scale immigration and infiltration from countries such as nearby Bangladesh with a large Muslim population of over 90% of the total. Buddhists throughout Asia had, since the 13th century also faced Mongol hordes which had adopted Islam as their faith. The Islamic presence in Myanmar actually dated back to the 9th century AD, and the first Mongol invasion of the 13th century. It continued through to the time of the British Raj and India / Pakistan / Bangladesh, such that a large diaspora and refugee Muslim population settled in the northern part of the country during those years and at one stage was dominant in the capital Rangoon, Burma's largest city. By the 1960s "all Muslims were increasingly seen as foreign elements unwelcome in the country" (Yeger 1972).

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2. A peaceful monk / A nationalist fighter

Ashin Wirathu (b.1968) is a Theravada Buddhist monk and teacher. At the age of 14 he became a monk, and in 2001 was involved in the 969 Movement, a Buddhist nationalist organization opposed to what they saw / see as Islamic expansion in Myanmar. The numbers represented the following:

• 9 - the attributes of the Buddha
• 6 - the six special attributes of his Dharma (teachings)
• 9 - the nine special attributes of the Buddhist Sangha (community).

Wirathu was a prominent spokes person for 969 and, as a result, in 2003 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, though released by a new regime in 2012.

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References

Anti-Muslim monk preaches hate: Ashin Wirathu, TRT World - Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, 8 September 2017, YouTube, duration: 1.50 minutes. 

Facebook removes Myanmar monk's page for 'inflammatory posts' about Radical Islamists, Scroll.in, 27 February 2018.

How did Facebook destroy the people [Rohingyans] of a country [Myanmar]?, World Vista, 20 January 2025, YouTube, duration: minutes. Comment: Deals with the 2017 military and Buddhist attacks on the Rohingya Muslim people of Myanmar and the resultant refugee crisis. The is a Turkish post, translated into English.

Rohingya rebels wound six Myanmar soldiers, state media says, TRT World - Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, 7 January 2018, YouTube, duration: 2.33 minutes.

What is Rohingya crisis by Ashin Wirathu, Nation First, 14 September 2017, YouTube, duration: 3.10 minutes.

Wikipedia, 969 Movement, Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Ashin Wirathu, Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Islam in Myanmar (Borneo), Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Myanmar, Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Rohingya genocide, Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Taliban, Wikipedia, accessed 27 December 2025. 

Yegar, Moshe, The Muslims of Burma: a Study of a Minority Group, Schriftenreihe des Südasien-Instituts der Universität Heidelberg, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1972.

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Islam | Ashin Wirathu - Buddhist Monk | Battle of Broken Hill 1915 | Muslim Brotherhood in Australia | Politics | Rational fear of Islam |

Last updated: 27 December 2025

Michael Organ, Australia