The Myanmar junta’s leader referred to a fiery monk as “Buddhist bin Laden.”
The junta praised the efforts of a fiery monk called “Buddhist bin Laden” for his role in inciting religious hatred in Myanmar as he got a national award on Tuesday.
According to the military’s communication team, Wirathu, who was given the nickname by Time Magazine in 2013 after fatal communal rioting, was given the title of “Thiri Pyanchi” on Tuesday.
The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, gave out the medal for “excellent work for the Union of Myanmar,” it was said.
As the junta gets ready to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Myanmar’s independence from Britain on Wednesday, Wirathu is one of hundreds of individuals getting medals and honorary titles.
The Rohingya Muslim minority is a target of Wirathu’s longstanding nationalist anti-Muslim discourse.
He was “The Face of Buddhist Terror” on the Time Magazine cover in 2013.
He had demanded limits on Muslim-Buddhist unions and a boycott of Muslim-owned businesses.
Rights organisations claimed that by inciting hatred towards the group, these actions helped lay the groundwork for the 2017 military crackdown that drove nearly 740,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh.
The government of Aung San Suu Kyi later imprisoned Wirathu on sedition-related grounds.
The junta declared in September 2021 that Wirathu had been freed after all accusations against him were dropped.
Suu Kyi, who is 77 years old, has been in jail since the military took power over two years ago.
The Nobel laureate could potentially spend the rest of her life in prison after a junta court’s findings on the final accusations against her were delivered last week. She has already served 33 years in prison.
