ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Jennifer Dhanaraj examines how the Myanmar government’s denial of citizenship to the Rohingya community has legalized and moralized violence against this religious minority. She argues that this exclusion propagates the narrative that the Rohingya Muslims are in fact ‘the other’, and thus it signals to Buddhist extremist groups that any violence perpetrated against ‘the other’ will be justified as moral and legal. This violence is further normalized, she contends, through (1) the government’s refusal to acknowledge the military’s role in the ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims, and (2) through the government’s failure to take a stronger stand against violent Buddhist extremists.
