Rohingya crisis: 'It's not genocide,' say Myanmar's hardline monks

By Katie Hunt, CNN

Updated 0005 GMT (0805 HKT) November 26, 2017

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN)The monks, clad in vermillion robes and flip flops, line up from old to young to receive a meal in their alms bowls -- rice, vegetables, cookies -- all donated by local villagers.

It's a potent act of religious devotion that takes place every day across countless communities in Myanmar, an overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

But powerful clerical voices here believe their faith -- and by extension, these traditions -- is in danger.

The main threat? Islam, says Thaw Parka, a monk who speaks for a hardline, monk-led Buddhist nationalist group known as Ma Ba Tha -- the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion.

Its role in sowing anti-Muslim sentiment is coming under scrutiny as a brutal crackdown unfolds in Rahkine State in western Myanmar, sending more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh.

"It is not like what the international community is saying. It is not genocide at all," the 46-year-old abbot told CNN in September from ZayTaWon DammarYone Monastery on the outskirts of Yangon, where he leads more than 100 monks.

'Wild accusations'

Myanmar's military also denies genocide, saying it is targeting Rohingya militants that launched deadly attacks on police posts on August 25. Rohingya refugees speak of indiscriminate killings, rape and torched villages -- charges the military also reject. The UN has described it as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

Thaw Parka describes these claims as "wild accusations" and believes Buddhists in the state are the main victims of the violence.

"Our ethnic people are starving. They abandoned their villages. It is impossible to make a living, (If) they remain in their village."

It's a view shared among many of the country's Buddhist majority, who have little sympathy for the Rohingya and have reacted defensively to the international outcry. Few use the term Rohingya, instead calling them "Bengali" -- a popular slur that compounds their reputation as illegal immigrants.

These attitudes confound the romantic image many in the West have of Buddhism as a tolerant faith whose adherents wouldn't hurt a fly. Monks, however, do have a long history of political activism in Asia that more recently has taken on an ultra-nationalist and extremist hue in places like Myanmar andSri Lanka.

Buddhism under siege?

It's difficult to see how Muslims, or any other religious group, could pose a threat to Myanmar's dominant religion.

Almost nine in every 10 people in this country of 51.5 million are Buddhist, compared to a Muslim population of just 1.2 million. This doesn't figure include the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims, who are stateless as Myanmar refuses to recognize them as citizens, and they are not officially included inMyanmar's 2014 census data.

Thaw Parka says that he and his group work in harmony with "educated Muslims who live among the indigenous people of Myanmar" and he only opposes Muslim extremists and terrorists that threaten Myanmar's sovereignty.

"We have many Muslims among our friends. We hang out. We work together. We do charity work together. There was no problem. But with some Muslims who are in contact with a form of extremist terrorist, it is very difficult for peaceful existence."

The monks say their fears for their faith are also fed by wider concerns about a resurgent radical Islam and the belief that Buddhism is under siege.

Ma Ba Tha, Buddhist extremists, protest the use of the word "Rohingya" as a Rakhine donation ship from Malaysia arrives on February 9, 2017 in Yangon, Myanmar.

One English-language pamphlet produced in 2015 by the group as a "must-know, must-read, must-keep booklet for every Myanmar citizen," says different religions are "devouring" the faith of Myanmar. It warns that if Buddhist leaders don't take care "Buddha's teaching will soon disappear" -- something the booklet says already happened centuries ago in nearby Mulism-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.

Richard Horsey, a political analyst and one of the authors of a new report on Buddhist Nationalism by the International Crisis Group, says these fears are also a reflection of what modernity could mean for the monkhood as Myanmar opens up to the world under the new government of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.