“ISIS! Kill me first”: Myanmar Muslims respond to Suu Kyi death threat with viral photo

After reports of death threats targeted at Aung San Suu Kyi by people claiming to be from the Islamic State went public earlier this week, Muslims in Myanmar took to social media with a pretty strong message.

‘If you want to get to Suu Kyi, you’ll have to kill us first.’

The trend was started by Myat Min Oo, a student at the University of Medicine, whose selfie holding a poster saying “ISIS! Kill me instead of Killing Su” has been shared hundreds of times and inspired copycat posts since it went up on Thursday.  

Check out the hashtag #no_terrorism.

Myat Min Oo told Coconuts Yangon he had nursed an interest in politics since he was in high school during the Saffron Revolution of 2007. At that time, he said, his mother swore that she would even sacrifice her son if it could bring democracy to Myanmar.

“Myanmar politics depends on Aung San Suu Kyi and she is a peacemaker as well,” he said. “So I can sacrifice now as my mom has said.”

Suu Kyi was included on a hit-list of politicians alongside Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his deputy and attorney general, sent to a police station in Sembilan state, peninsular Malaysia, on Wednesday.

Malaysia is still investigating the authenticity of the letter, but Myanmar officials have boosted their leader’s security in the meantime.

The London-based Burmese Muslim Association released a statement condemning the threat.

It said that, though Myanmar Muslims have been victims of religiously-motivated violence in recent years, the population has continued to reject all forms of terrorism.

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