Little peace in our Time over religious fight

The line of crimson-robed monks snaked in a line along a dusty road in downtown Yangon.

However, these devoted Myanmar Buddhists weren't queuing up last Sunday with their alms bowls, in time-honoured religious tradition.

Waving placards, they were chanting their ire at a Time magazine cover,which dared proclaim Ashin Wirathu, a senior monk who preaches an anti-Islam message, the ''face of Buddhist terror''.

In 2007, protesting monks were beaten bloody by police and arrested at the behest of the military junta.

Last week, they were in tune with the new government. The July edition of the magazine wasbanned by officials and Wirathu was defendedby the office of President Thein Sein.

From his monastery in the ancient royal city of Mandalay, the voice of the 969 movement preaches that Myanmar's Muslim minority (around 2 million in a population of 60 million) is threatening religious purity and even national security.

Violence has swept the country - with more than 200 dead and tens ofthousands forced from their homes - as senior monks preach hate and call for boycotts of Muslim businesses.

Wirathu's remark - ''You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog'' and his self-comparison to Osama bin Laden - were seized on by the Western media.

Journalists beat a path to his door, seeking more of his extremist views. And yet, his opinions are not fringe. In restaurants, shops and on shrines and taxis,small stickers featuring the three jewels of Buddhism proclaim support for the 969 movement. (Muslim businesses have theirown - less often visible - 786 talisman.)

A remarkable number of people expressanti-Muslim sentiment, although few condonethe violence.

It's usually expressed in a fear that ethnic conflict will derail the slow, fragileprogress towards democracy and give thejunta an excuse to re-impose military power.

In teashops conspiracy theories arewhispered, that elements of the military arefuelling the violence in order to kill off thetender shoots of democracy.

Many Buddhists even refuse to refer to Rohingya Muslims, instead calling them''Bengalis''.

Even though many Rohingya havelived in the Rakhine state for generations, theyare accused of crossing the border toundermine Buddhism and Islamise the country.

Educated, intelligent Buddhists believe Muslims are having more children to dilute the religious makeup of Myanmar.

Incredibly, journalists and minority politicians defended the censorship of Time, citing a need to promote stability as the nationmoves towards free elections, and crucialforeign direct investment.

For a people suppressed and brutalised forhalf a century, it's an understandable reaction.

Politicians, academics and the intelligentsia are nervously testing out the boundaries of their newly won freedoms. They are sensitive to any hint of disorder that might plunge Myanmar back into a reign of military terror and lead again to economic sanctions.

But, while the violence has received international media attention in the last year, resentment towards Muslims can be traced back as far as 1938.

Whether or not the hatred is being stirred by forces resistant to democratic change, Myanmar's people must face up to the deepreligious divisions and discrimination that canonly threaten their reforms.

Andrea Vance is participating in the East West Centre's Jefferson Fellowship with the support of theAsia New Zealand Foundation.