Rohingya News Agency‏ ‏‎–(Irrawaddy):‎ Nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu said he will hold another large conference for ‎thousands of monks from across Burma next week. He said the monks would gather in Mandalay and ‎discuss his controversial proposal to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and Muslim men.‎

In June last year, U Wirathu organized a large gathering of monks in Rangoon, who came out in ‎support of his draft Law for the Protection of Race, Religion and Language.‎

This proposed law would require any Buddhist woman seeking to marry a Muslim man to first gain ‎permission from her parents and local government officials. Any Muslim man who marries a Buddhist ‎woman is required to convert to Buddhism. The monks said at the time that they would pressure ‎lawmakers into adopting the proposal.‎

On Thursday, U Wirathu told The Irrawaddy that he expected 5,000 monks to attend his Mandalay ‎conference on Jan. 15 and hold discussions on the perceived threats to Buddhism in Burma.‎

‎“Mainly our intention is to protect our race and religion. We will discuss issues of our race and ‎religion,” he said. “This meeting is very important for Buddhist people and the result from the meeting ‎will provide complete security for the country.”‎

U Wirathu said he would again lobby for the clergymen’s support for his controversial proposal. “We ‎found on the ground in almost every township that there are women who were forced to convert to ‎another religion. We need to have an interfaith marriage law to protect them,” he claimed.‎

U Wirathu hails from a monastery near Mandalay and is considered the leader of a large group of ‎monks belonging to the 969 movement. The group has organized a nationwide campaign calling on ‎Buddhists to shun shops owned by Burma’s Muslim minority.‎

The movement is accused of spreading hate speech and has been linked to growing inter-communal ‎tensions in Burma. In 2012 and 2013, outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence have left more than 200 ‎people dead and displaced about 150,000 people, most of them Muslim.‎

Last year, U Wirathu’s proposal sparked widespread criticism from different corners of Burmese ‎society, with some raising questions about the monks’ interference in politics and lawmaking.‎

The 969 movement has since been campaigning in support of the proposal among Burma’s largely ‎rural Buddhist majority, who deeply revere monks. U Wirathu now claims that 4 million people signed ‎a petition in support of the proposed law.‎

In November, the controversial monk also made headlines by suggesting that the hugely popular ‎opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is unfit for the presidency.‎

His remarks come at a time when Suu Kyi has been stepping up pressure on the ruling Union ‎Solidarity and Development Party and the military to amend the Constitution and remove a clause that ‎prevents her from becoming president.‎

On Thursday, U Wirathu repeated his claims about the National League for Democracy leader and ‎said that increasing security along Burma’s border with its Muslim-majority neighbor Bangladesh was ‎of more importance then discussions about Suu Kyi becoming president

‎“She should not be our national leader because we cannot rely on her to protect our national ‎interests,” he said, adding, “I am with the group who want to build a fence along the border.”‎