Pope Francis will preach peace in Myanmar, but his visit could backfire
Myanmar Yangon — A fiery brand of Buddhist nationalism is burning brighter than ever as Myanmar braces for its first ever papal visit, posing a challenge to the message of religious tolerance Pope Francis is expected to preach next week. A wing of extremist monks have been stirring Islamaphobia in Myanmar for years, earning a reputation as incubators of "Buddhist terror". But their cause has received new support since August, when the army launched a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya, expelling more than half a million from the country. Global outrage over the violence — which the UN and the US have called ethnic cleansing — has triggered an ultra-nationalistic reflex inside Myanmar, pushing the public towards firebrand monks who have long cast the Rohingya as ill-intentioned outsiders. "Our ideas have now won the vast majority of the population," said Ottama, a prominent monk in Buddhist nationalist circles. Speaking to AFP in a temple in Yangon, the saffron-robed monk repeat...
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