Bangkok: A radical monk who for years has fanned the flames of religious chauvinism in Myanmar has been banned from giving sermons for a year by the country's top Buddhist body.
The rare sanction against Wirathu, who has led calls for restrictions on Myanmar's Muslim minority, comes amid deepening religious tensions in the Buddhist-majority country.
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Myanmar monk gagged by authorities
Myanmar's most senior monks impose a sermon ban on Wirathu, a radical monk who for years has fanned the flames of religious chauvinism in Myanmar.
Myanmar's most senior monks, sitting on the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, said it imposed the ban because Wirathu "had delivered hate speech against religions to cause communal strife and hinder efforts to uphold the rule of law".
The council added Wirathu would face "action under the rule of law" for any breach of the order.
Footage of Wirathu with tape across his mouth was posted on social media.
So racist monk Wirathu, banned from preaching for a year, just slapped on some duct tape & staged a 'silent sermon' broadcast via FB live... pic.twitter.com/3TDhHsJ75v
— Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) March 11, 2017
Wirathu, who has only one name, made no public comment.
Dubbed "the face of Buddhist terror" by Time magazine in 2013, Wirathu is a member of the ultra-nationalist Patriotic Assocation of Burma (Ma Ba Tha) movement which advocates race and religious laws against Muslims, who comprise five per cent of Myanmar's population.
He is famed for making speeches aimed at stoking fears that Muslims would one day overrun the country.
Myanmar's government, led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has failed to silence Wirathu since taking office last year, despite his anti-Muslim rhetoric repeatedly spilling over into violence.
The government is under strong international pressure to explain widespread atrocities against the Muslim Rohingya community in western Rakhine state, which has forced 70,000 people to flee to Bangladesh border camps.
On some issues, such as the status of Rohingya, Wirathu has wide support among Burmese.
He openly thanked suspects in the brazen February assassination of respected lawyer, government adviser and Muslim Ko Ni, expressing sympathy for the suspects' families.
"At this time, I feel relief for the future of Buddhism in my country. If not, the destruction of Buddhism … would have gained a foothold here in five years," he posted on Facebook.
In 2015 Wirathu described Yanghee Lee, the United Nations' envoy in Myanmar who had criticised human rights abuses, as a "bitch" and a "whore".
Born in 1968, Wirathu left school at the age of 14 to become a monk.
In 2003 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison over his involvement in an extremist group but was released in 2010 along with political prisoners.
He spreads his sermons on YouTube and Facebook, where he has of tens thousands of followers, and presides over 2500 monks at his monastery in Mandalay.
When once asked if he was the "Burmese Bin Laden", he replied that he would not deny it.
Most monks have remained silent in the face of his rhetorical onslaughts.