Buddhist Nationalist Sermons in Myanmar

Anti-Muslim Moral Panic, Conspiracy Theories, and Socio-Cultural Legacies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3987004
AutoresNiklas Foxeus (0000-0002-1859-4789, Stockholm University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen53
Número3
Páginas423-449
Fecha de publicación2023-05-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Contemporary Asia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-2336 • E-ISSN: 1752-7554
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00472336.2022.2032801
OpenAlexW4225148529
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas35

In Myanmar, Buddhist nationalist movements created a pan-Burmese anti-Muslim moral panic in response to the political and economic liberalisation starting in 2011 and to riots between Buddhists and Muslims that erupted from 2012. Based mainly on Buddhist nationalist sermons and speeches, but also on interviews and fieldwork, the aim of this article is to examine the historical and cultural roots of the anti-Muslim moral panic and its political ramifications. This article argues that Buddhist nationalist sermons contributed to moral panic in three ways. First through aspects of monastic authority by which nationalist, anti-Muslim discourse was authorised. Second, an anti-Muslim conspiracy theory going back to the 1950s and an ingrained historical narrative feeding a sense of collective victimhood and vulnerability among the Buddhist majority created fear that provides justification of discrimination and violence. Third, is a perceived existential threat to Buddhism and Myanmar's sovereignty considered to be posed by groups of Muslims (local and international) that were interconnected in the nationalist imagination; a sense of threat that was reinforced by a globalised Islamophobia

Buddhism · Criminology · Islam · Moral panic · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Cambodian History and Society · Gender Studies · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Philosophy · Religious studies