Ashin Wirathu

Wirathu led a prayer and protest at the Mahamuni Buddha Temple in Mandalay on 23 February 2017, to condemn the Thai government's raid on the Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Bangkok.

Ayeyarwady Region's religious council, the region's Sangha Maha Nayaka, banned Wirathu from preaching in the region on 10 March 2017.

In January 2015, Wirathu publicly called United Nations envoy Yanghee Lee a "bitch" and a "whore" and invited her to "offer your arse to the kalars" (a derogatory term for Muslims).

In September 2014, Wirathu attended a "Great Sangha Conference" in Colombo organised by Bodu Bala Sena. Wirathu said that his 969 Movement would work with the Bodu Bala Sena.

Wirathu is mentioned on the cover story of Time magazine as "The Face of Buddhist Terror" on 1 July 2013. "You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog," Wirathu said, referring to Muslims. "If we are weak," he said, "our land will become Muslim." Referring to Muslim violence and domination in neighbouring nations and the example of the spread of Islam in Indonesia, Wirathu worries about a similar fate for Myanmar. Wirathu claims that his Muslim opponents labelled him the "Burmese Bin Laden" after the Time article incorrectly reported he described himself in this manner. He said he "abhorred violence" and "opposes terrorism". Wirathu has also expressed admiration for, and a desire to follow the example of, the English Defence League by "protecting the public."

On 21 July 2013, he was the apparent target of a bomb explosion, but he remained unscathed. Five people were slightly injured in the blast, including a novice monk. Wirathu claimed that the bombing was an attempt by Muslim extremists to silence his voice.

Wirathu led a rally of monks in Mandalay in September 2012 to promote President Thein Sein's controversial plan to send Burmese Rohingya Muslims to a third country. One month later, more violence broke out in Rakhine state. Wirathu claims the violence in Rakhine was the spark for the most recent violence in Myanmar's central city of Meiktila, where a dispute in a gold shop quickly spiralled into a looting-and-arson spree. More than 14 people were killed, after monasteries, shops and houses were burned down across the city. At least two people, including a Burmese Buddhist monk, Shin Thawbita, and a Muslim man were reportedly assaulted and tortured by mobs in Meikhtilar on 5 March.

Wirathu (Burmese: ဝီရသူ ; born 10 July 1968 in Kyaukse, Mandalay Division, Burma) is a Extremist Burmese Buddhist monk, and the leader of the saving Myanmar movement in Myanmar.

Wirathu was born in 1968 near Mandalay. He left school at the age 14 to become a monk. In 2001, he became involved in the 969 Movement. Two years later, in 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his sermons, but was released in 2012 along with many other political prisoners. Since the government reforms of 2011, he has been especially active on YouTube and other forms of social media. Facebook banned his page on the charge of spreading religious hatred towards other communities, after repeated warnings to not post religiously inflammatory content.