MANDALAY, Myanmar — The Buddhist monk arrived wrapped in saffron-colored robes with an entourage of muscular, younger monks who guarded him and hung on his every word at the sprawling monastery he runs and where his divisive, anti-Muslim teaching is gaining a strong following.

The monk, Ashin Wirathu, was unapologetic when asked about his role at the center of a rising tide of Buddhist extremism that has crested in a wave of anti-Muslim violence resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people and displacement of some 150,000 from their homes in recent months.

“Muslims are like the African carp. They breed quickly and they are very violent and they eat their own kind. Even though they are minorities here, we are suffering under the burden they bring us,” Wirathu, 48, said in a rare and wide-ranging interview with GlobalPost on Thursday.

“Because the Burmese people and the Buddhists are devoured every day, the national religion needs to be protected,” he said, announcing that he would push for a ban on interfaith marriage before the next parliamentary session and vowing to continue the so-called “969” campaign that calls for Buddhists to only do business with other Buddhists and exclude Muslims who have a strong tradition as merchants in Myanmar.

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Wirathu’s sermons play on the fear among some Buddhists in certain parts of Myanmar of a rising Muslim population that some feel is threatening the majority Buddhist religion and its traditions. Wirathu and others have spurred a movement known as “969,” which calls for Buddhists to band together to defend their faith and for Buddhists to do business only with other Buddhists. The numerology of the “969” movement refers to the virtues of the Buddha, the practices of the faith and the community. The distinctive “969” stickers are ubiquitous on shops, motorcycles and car windows.

Wirathu has also pushed a ban against interfaith marriage, claiming that the Buddhist majority is diluted by such marriages and reeling off one anecdote after another of forced conversions of Buddhist women to Islam. Many critics here and abroad say Wirathu’s sermons are racist rants against Muslims who he has likened to “mad dogs” and “cannibals” and, in perhaps a more charitable and consistent reference, as simply “troublemakers.”