Executive Summary: "In mid-2012 incidents of communal violence began to occur in various locations across Myanmar. Communal violence had occurred previously in Rakhine State but had not transpired to this scale in other states and divisions across the country. Both inside and outside of Myanmar communal violence was framed as ?inter-religious? and dominant narratives emerged describing Buddhist groups attacking Muslim communities or as Buddhist as the victims of Muslim aggression. These narratives work to reinforce animosity between Buddhist and Muslim groups and fail to provide enough information to adequately understand the dynamics surrounding this violence. This publication elevates voices of communities from six locations that experienced communal violence and paints a broader and more informed picture of the situation. Using CPCS?s listening methodology, conversations were held in November 2014 with 220 community members from Meiktilla, Mandalay Region; Lashio, Shan State; Mandalay, Mandalay Region; Shwebo district, Sagaing Region; West Bago, Bago Region; and Sittwe, Rakhine State. Community members discussed their experiences and opinions in light of their experience of communal violence and their hopes and desires for peaceful co-existence in the future...The violence that occurred was not motivated by inter-religion animosity in communities. Although listeners did not ask what caused violence or why it happened, these points emerged as some of the most important subjects that communities wanted to discuss, and also as robust themes across all conversations in all locations. Community members differentiated between those who belong to religious groups and those who belong to extremist religious groups. They recognised that most community members had no affiliation with extremist religious groups and further reinforced feelings of harmonious inter-religious coexistence. Communities emphasised political, government or military involvement in the violence but had limited information about who or which institution, whether government, military or a particular political party, were involved. Communities felt strongly that the violence was instigated from outside of their communities, and was unrelated to feelings of religious animosity in the communities. This sentiment was based on witnessing strangers who were inciting violence by rallying mobs or spreading hate speech, as well as on the inability or unwillingness of security forces to manage the violence, or to address criminal activities using the legal system..."