Ashin Wirathu (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Elham Asaad Buaras

Anti-Muslim Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, who was jailed by Aung San Suu Kyi’s toppled Government on charges of sedition, has been released by Myanmar’s junta on September 6.

53-year-old Wirathu, dubbed by Time magazine as the ‘Buddhist Bin Laden’ for his role in stirring up religious hatred in Myanmar, was released after all charges against him were dropped.

He was “receiving treatment at a military hospital” it added, without providing any details on why he had been hospitalised.
Known for his nationalist anti-Islam rhetoric, he has long opposed the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

In 2017, Myanmar’s highest Buddhist authority banned him from preaching for one year over his tirades. The monk’s notoriety landed him on the cover of Time magazine in 2013, labeled “The Face of Buddhist Terror.” Hannah Beech, author of the article summarises the controversy around Wirathu and his followers “It’s a faith famous for its pacifism and tolerance.

But in several of Asia’s nations, monks are inciting bigotry and violence – mostly against Muslims.” Some of Wirathu’s actions included lobbying for laws that made intermarriage between Buddhists and Muslims difficult and asking for Buddhists to boycott Muslim owned businesses.

Wirathu’s nationalistic movement and rhetoric are regarded as having incited the widespread and systematic persecution that would begin by Myanmar’s security forces in 2017.

After the ban expired, however, the pro-military preacher once again became a regular at nationalist rallies, where he accused the Government of corruption and fumed about its failed attempts to re-write the junta-scripted constitution.

He had been facing charges for attempting to bring “hatred or contempt” and of “exciting disaffection” towards the then-government of democracy leader Suu Kyi.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the February coup and a military crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 1,000 people, according to a local monitoring group.

The State Administration Council – as the junta calls itself – last month cancelled the result of November elections, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.

Coup Leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his power grab by claiming massive electoral fraud in the polls.Detained since the coup, Suu Kyi faces charges including flouting coronavirus restrictions and illegally importing walkie talkies – which could see her jailed for more than a decade.