In 2011, Myanmar started a transition from a military dictatorship that heavily censored media, including the Internet, to a more democratic government that supports free media. This transition has been accompanied by a rise of ultra-nationalist groups that use a variety of traditional and digital media to diffuse virulently anti-Muslim messages. Bouts of communal violence within the period 2012-2014 were the direct result of hate speech mobilization via new media. Drawing from primary research on online media as well as secondary sources, this paper explores the use of digital technologies in political messaging by pro-military government blogs that deployed anti-Muslim hate-speech during the transition period 2011-2015. It examines the intersection of religious, nationalist and political ideologies expressed in the form of extreme speech, and disseminated through online blogs and social media during the period leading to the 2015 election. Scapegoating religious minorities was a well-established tactic employed by the former military junta for political diversion, and the contemporary rise of religious nationalism that uses hate speech is the continuation of these entrenched political tactics, that are finding a new outlet and a wider participation through digital technologies. The (partial) anonymity and ease of dissemination of online messages allows political messages that use extreme language to be spread widely. Rather than being an online-only phenomenon, in Myanmar hate speech is a form of political ideology that has been deployed as a tool to sway voters, as shown in the 2015 elections, when the opposition party did not win in the areas where hate groups have had the strongest offline (and online) influence.