Myanmar Army Honors Ashin Wirathu Who Spewed Hatred Against Muslims

Myanmar Army: On the occasion of its Independence Day, Myanmar junta has taken a big decision. Myanmar junta has decided to release 7,012 prisoners from jail on Wednesday. Along with this, the Myanmar junta honored radical Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu on the occasion of its Independence Day. He was once called the face of terror.

The revered monk was once reported to have promoted religious hatred against Muslims, for which he was dubbed the “face of Buddhist terror”. He is also known as Bin Laden of Burma. According to media reports, Ashin Wirathu has been honored with the title of “Thiri Payanchi” for the welfare of the Union of Myanmar and his excellent work.

Presented with the award by the country’s military ruler General Min Aung Hlaing, Wirathu was among hundreds of people who received honorary degrees and other forms of recognition on Wednesday to mark 75 years of independence from Britain.

How did Ashin Wirathu get recognition

Wirathu has long been known for his ultra-nationalist and anti-Islamic rhetoric. Especially in the year 2012, he got recognition on a large scale when violence broke out between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine province. Then he gave a provocative speech. Subsequently in 2013, Ashin Wirathu was featured on the cover page of Time magazine, under the title The Face of Buddhist Terror.

Benefits of being a military supporter

Born in 1968, Ashin Wirathu dropped out of school at the age of 14 and took up the life of a monk. People came to know Wirathu only when he joined the nationalist and anti-Muslim group ‘969’ in 2001. This organization is considered radical in Myanmar, but its supporters deny these allegations. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003, but was released in 2010 along with other political prisoners.

After this, Ashin Wirathu was jailed by the civilian government of Myanmar on charges of treason. However, when there was a coup in Myanmar, Ashin Wirathu was released in 2021. He is also a supporter of the army.

What is ‘969’?

Actually, these three numbers are considered to be the essence of Buddhist teachings. 9 means the special 9 qualities of Buddhist, 6 means the six deeds told by Buddhist like distance from sin, welfare work, truth, kindness etc. and the last number 9 means the nine characters of the Sangha established by Buddhist.

These prisoners will not get relief

This decision of Myanmar junta’s release on Independence Day does not apply to all prisoners. Prisoners who are serving jail terms for murder, rape, possession of explosives, corruption, drugs, weapons and other illegal reasons will not be released. However, such prisoners who are in jail for political reasons have not been informed whether they will be released or not.

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