Myanmar’s hardline monks gather despite ban
YANGON: Hundreds of monks and supporters of Myanmar’s ultra-nationalist Ma Ba Tha movement gathered in a Yangon monastery Saturday, in a defiant meeting days after Buddhist authorities banned their network, which has been accused of stoking Islamophobia.
The monk-led movement grew in strength under the country’s previous military-backed government, peddling a brand of Buddhist nationalism that aggravated religious unrest mainly targeted at minority Muslims.
But after months of distancing itself from the radical group,…