A pro-Buddhist the Association for Protection of Race and Religion-more commonly known with its Myanmar acronym Ma Ba Tha said it oppose to teaching on four major religions of the world to the students. The group said in a statement issued on 8 March after school textbooks, which include introduction to the four major religions including Islam, were introduced in a monastic school in Mandalay. The textbook were published by the Centre for Diversity and National Harmony (CDNH), an NGO working to promote religious harmony. The Ma Ba Tha statement said Buddhist did not need to live in harmony with the members of the minority religions in Myanmar, who the group said are the guests in the country. The statement was issued after a strong criticism on the textbooks on the social media. The Lawkaniti (social rules) textbooks were first intended to teach in the government schools, but after the Ministry of Education refused, they were introduced to monastics schools. The textbooks were taught at Phaung Taw Oo monastery in Mandalay, but it was stopped after a protest by ultra-nationalists. The Ma Ba Tha statement said Muslims were trying to influence into Myanmar society in any way they could and the government is allowing destroying Myanmar’s traditional culture under the pretext of promotion of human rights. It said Ma Ba Tha totally opposed to the idea of using the textbooks for teaching in the government schools as well as in monostatic schools. It said Buddhist need to be united in Myanmar to avoid a similar situation in Thailand where the members of minority religions increased their influence by taking advantage of the division among the supporters of yellow and red shirts movements. CDNH said in a social media post that its intention to introduce the textbooks was to raise awareness among the youths on the religions exists around them and to raise their level of knowledge. Reference: Online News of Ma Ba Tha (Tharki Thwe Journal , 27 March 2017)