The birth of Buddhist politics of religious freedom in Myanmar

Abstract

Abstract Given the long history of discrimination and violence against religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, international and transnational actors have engaged to address injustice and suffering. These ‘expert’ actors carry with them a particular understanding of religion and of religious freedom, often emphasizing the right to proselytize and to change one’s religion, or the right to freely associate in religious buildings. These actors engage in a Burmese landscape of domestic expert actors who might or might not share their concerns, creating a myriad of entanglements of ‘expert religion’ in the field of religious freedom, religious minority rights and interreligious relations. In the years 2013–2015 this diverse landscape came to be dominated by the Buddhist group MaBaTha and its campaign for four laws ‘to protect race and religion’ against the perceived ‘islamization’ of Myanmar. This article investigates ideas of religious freedom by looking at MaBaTha draft laws and the final 2015 legislation, considering how a ‘Buddhist politics of religious freedom’ became a tool to protect Buddhism from the perceived dangers posed by Islam.