By Abhishek Kumar

Ashin Wirathu, the radical Buddhist monk from Myanmar widely known for his anti-Muslim stance and vitriolic sermons, leapt to fame for the first time in the early 2000s with the nationalist 969 movement. Over the years, he has risen to become the face of communal hatred in Myanmar, which has seen an uptick in violence between Buddhists and Muslims, mainly immigrant Rohingyas, since 2012.

As Wirathu gathered thousands of followers on and off social media, Time Magazine in 2013 described him as “The Face of Buddhist Terror.” In the same year, The Guardian called him “Burma’s Bin Laden”. In 2019, he was charged with inciting ‘hate and contempt’ against the civilian government in Myanmar. After going into hiding initially, he surrendered in November 2020. In 2021, Myanmar’s military junta staged a coup, seized power in the country, and released Ashin Wirathu.

An X account with the same user name and handle @WirathuAshin with 23000+ followers regularly shares anti-Muslim tweets and incites its audience against the community. An investigation by Alt News has now revealed that this X account is being run by an Indian named Anurag Tiwari, who has links with the Right-wing propaganda website, OpIndia. The controversial Myanmar monk, Ashin Wirathu, has no connection with this X handle.

Below is a recent example of an inflammatory tweet by this handle, which received over 2,000 likes.

There are several other instances where the handle has shared hateful tweets against Muslims describing them as a threat to India. At times, the indigenous tribe of Kukis from northeast India have also come under attack:

Read Full Story https://www.altnews.in/wirathuashin-amplifying-hate-on-x-is-an-indian-user-not-the-radical-buddhist-monk-ashin-wirathu-from-myanmar/