An unwelcome addendum to yesterday’s post is news from the Irrawaddy that a Mandalay literary event planned for last weekend (presumably to run in parallel to ILF 2014) was cancelled following protests from dozens of monks about the scheduled appearance of three Muslim speakers. A statement released on Tuesday by the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society group noted that four such events have now been called off this year. One cancellation took place in Yangon last week.

The wider context is well known. In the contemporary era, sporadic waves of violence against Muslims date from June 2012. Nationalist monk Wirathu’s 969 movement, preaching fear of Muslim incursion, a boycott of Muslim traders and a shunning of Muslim people, came to prominence around the same time. Only rarely have political leaders said anything to counter such chauvinism.

One of the success stories of the reform period is an extension of liberal freedom, still imperfect but nevertheless real. “We have to admit that we now enjoy more freedom,” said Min Ko Naing in an interview last August marking the 25th anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising. Already, though, that freedom is being curtailed by spreading Buddhist intolerance.