But the clashes in Meiktila are renewing concerns that religious strife will surface in other cities in Myanmar, which are typically multiethnic, a legacy of British colonial rule.
Reports of strife in the band surfaced on Wednesday after Ginger Spice, whose real name is Geri Halliwell, failed to appear with the group at the televised National Lottery drawing.
Those accusations surfaced again on Friday when Yadollah Javani, a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards official, was quoted as saying the attack "points to the involvement of terrorist groups under the auspices of the United States, Israel and some Western countries" seeking to foment sectarian strife.
The return of the fugitive had brought long-buried strife to the surface, however briefly, reminding Americans that the wounds of Vietnam remain unhealed.
The landlord-tenant strife has also brought to light problems of the sort that sometimes surface in older buildings.
The cultural strife and racist notions between the two groups in America cue the opening scene of Menace II Society will sometimes surface.
While it has maintained reconstruction and calm in recent years, fear lurks just below the surface that the strife could return.
Bantock takes his cue from Shelley's idealistic 1820 poem about a North African sorceress whose powers permit her intervention in "the strife which stirs the liquid surface of man's life".
Syria's Kurdish minority in the north-east, always susceptible to calls for dissent, has held back, but could join the fray if the protests spread.Fear of sectarian strife lurks under Syria's surface.
And while the staff on hand defend his record against Collins and other detractors, dejection and strife loom close to the surface.
A small, affluent, densely populated northern European country, economically timid, with the potential for ethnic strife simmering just under its quiet surface.
