Buddhist and Muslim Interaction in the Post-War of Sri Lanka (original) (raw)
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Journal of Politics and Law, 2016
Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country comprising four of the world’s major religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Buddhists are the predominant ethnic group, constituting 70.19% of the total population, while Muslims make up the second largest minority in the country. There are many records in the history to prove well the cordial relationship between Buddhists and Muslims in Sri Lanka. However, in the past couple of years, particularly during the aftermath of the civil war, tension may be observed in the relationship between these two religious groups. This is due to a campaign undertaken by a several Buddhist nationalist groups whose intensions are to create a division among these respective societies. These groups have been carrying protests against Muslim social, cultural and religious aspects, including issuing Halal certification, slaughtering of cattle, conducting prayer services, etc. Moreover, they have disseminated misinterpretations about Mu...
Post-war Tension between the Buddhists and the Muslims in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a multi religious, multi lingual and multi cultural environment, and the members of all communities lived in peace and harmony with good social integration with one another. Since the arrival of Arab-Muslims in Sri Lanka in the early period the Buddhists and the Muslims have been maintaining a cordial relationship between them for more than ten centuries. However, in recent past years, particularly aftermath of ethnic war (1983-2009) in Sri Lanka, considerably from 2011 to later part of 2014, the unsteadiness of the relationship-a kind of tension-between the above two communities has come to be observed. In the case of Sri Lanka, the Muslims are most privileged society in terms of religious rights comparing to other minorities. Because of this reason, a few Buddhist nationalist groups posed questions on socio-cultural practices of the Muslims such as religious beliefs and practices, dressing culture and social customs. In fact, these factors have been transformed into i...
Historical Relationship between the Buddhists and the Muslims in Sri Lanka
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2015
That Sri Lanka is a pluralistic nation is an undeniable fact. It is the home of many communities which have contributed to its being for a long time. It is this variety, this unity in diversity, which gives it strength and beauty. In this multi-ethnic social environment, members of all communities live in peace and harmony with in social integration one with another. Accordingly, since settling down in the island more than1200 years ago, the Muslims established very cordial ties with the Buddhist people in Sri Lanka. The relationship between them may be cited as a unique example of ethnic harmony in multi-religious societies. Evidently, this is a longstanding relationship formed over a very long period of time and developed and preserved with trust and good understanding between these two communities. As such, it has stood the test of time and has been able to withstand the numerous attempts made by various colonial powers and chauvinistic racist elements to destroy it. Given the above background, therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify historical relationship between the Buddhists and the Muslims in Sri Lanka in order to identify the changing nature of the relationship from the early Arab-Muslim settlements to the end of civil war in 2009.
A Study on Religious Interaction among the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims in Sri Lanka
International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 2015
In Sri Lanka, the religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Christianity are practicing, although it is a predominantly Buddhist country. However, since recent past years onward, it has been proliferated the various misinterpretations about the religions among the societies by a few nationalist groups in Sri Lanka. This effort poses a suspicious situation on the religious interaction among the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims, and the same situation could be observable even in Moneragala district as well. On the above backdrop, the main objective of this paper is to examine the religious interaction through measuring the religious understanding between the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims in Moneragala, one of the 25 administrative districts in Sri Lanka. There are followers of two major religions, Buddhism and Islam, forming two religious communities living side by side in a few traditional villages namely Bakinigahawela, Godigamuwa, Kanulwela and Medagama which are located in Moneragala district. This is an ethno-religious study of the religious interaction among the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims in said location, and the religious understanding has been selected as an indicator in order to measure the religious interaction among them. This was measured through a questionnaire survey on a total of one hundred respondents drawn from the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims in selected villages. The samples together with the above mentioned indicator proved that the negative religious interaction among the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims in Moneragala district, and also the lack of understanding of other religious teachings was the determinant factor to hinder their positive religious interaction.
Muslim-Buddhist Conflict in Contemporary Sri Lanka
2014
The end of the civil war in 2009 heralded hope that a new era of peace and inter-ethnic cooperation might be possible in post-war Sri Lanka. This hope now seems, at best, mere wishful thinking, as this article highlights an emerging conflict between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and Sri Lankan Muslims. Through detailed analysis of online social data, argued evidence is provided that Muslim Sri Lankans are now at the receiving end of Islamaphobic rhetoric, even violence, from Sinhala Buddhist nationalist organisations, driven by a belief that the Muslim community represent a threat to Buddhism. The article suggests that Sinhala nationalists have skilfully adopted new internet technologies which have proved effective in their anti-Muslim campaigns. It becomes necessary to conclude that these attacks on Muslim minorities are an extension of pre-existing oppression patterns faced by other minorities residing on the island, particularly Tamils. Indeed, the rhetoric behind these attacks bears a striking resemblance to the type of nationalist discourse found during the Sri Lankan civil war.
Historical Threads of Buddhist–Muslim Relations in Sri Lanka
2020
Understanding relations between Sri Lanka’s Buddhist and Muslim communities should not commence with simple concepts of ethnic groups and boundaries and an associated identity politics. This assumes a consistency across time for such communities depicted as collective individuals; that is, as communities imagined in modern terms as discrete and internally homogenous entities. By considering relations between communities over time, this chapter argues for much closer attention to the ways that ethnicity is more of an emergent property of practical action and the larger cultural values associated with that action. The chapter concludes that the biases in Sinhala Buddhist ideology informing its sense of Sri Lankan history need to be redressed so that greater accommodation of minorities can be achieved.
Post-War Conflict in Sri Lanka: Violence against Sri Lankan Muslims and Buddhist Hegemony
Following the end of the thirty years old civil war in Sri Lanka, there were expectations that the post‐war period would usher in peace, development and reconciliation. The last four years have witnessed several positive developments including resettlement of people and rehabilitation of infrastructure. Nonetheless there are range of problems and policy gaps that have hindered the transition from war to sustainable peace. A key post-war challenge is that of violence against religious sites and members of religious communities. More recently, from last year, there has been an unprecedented level of violent attacks, demonstrations and hate speech targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslim population. It noted a ‘sharp uptick’ in religiously-motivated violence and said the authorities are ‘passively and sometimes actively’ condoning extremist Buddhist groups, Mainly perpetrated by Buddhist-fascist fundamentalist groups, such as the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ or ‘Buddhist power force’ and the Hela Urmaya or Sinhala Heritage Party are the main groups behind these targeting of Muslims. The events have left the country’s second largest minority community - the Muslims feeling afraid and vulnerable which forcing a concerted campaign against them. In addition to attacks on places of religious worship there are calls to boycott Muslim shops and establishments, all of which is increasing tensions, particularly in areas where Muslims and Sinhalese live close to each other. These were virtually programmed by some prominent and influential personalities in governing circles, besides others who had a vested interest in seeing Sri Lanka imploding amid heightening ‘communal tensions.’ On this context, this study focuses on the recent incident of violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka. The primary objective of this study is to examine the motive for violence against Muslims as well as impact of the violence. The fundamental questions of this research are the following: why does post- war violence and hate propaganda arise against Muslim in Sri Lanka? In which ways the violence against minorities, particularly Muslims impact on reconciliation process? And why does Buddhist nationalist hegemony arise soon after civil war in Sri Lanka? This study is based on an interpretive approach. The data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. In addition to primary sources, qualitative interviews were conducted with selected specialist on this particular research area. I conclude that after end of war against LTTE by government of Sri Lanka, religious tension has been increased in the recent past and the government’s reluctance even to take firm action against to perpetrators which would be helpful in restoring the rule of law and security of Sri Lankan minorities has been a big hurdle in the post -conflict situation and government are perceived to serve only the Buddhist side and to marginalize those holding legitimate grievances.
Anti-Muslim campaign in Sri Lanka and responses of the Buddhists
2016
Sri Lanka is a country where multi ethnic, multi language, multi religious people live. Buddhist is the predominant religious group in Sri Lanka, while the Muslims formed second biggest religious group, next to Tamils. The Buddhist-Muslim relationship has been prevailing and everlastingly for centuries, sbut for a couple of years, a disturbing trend has wide spread, between them. This conflictual nature has come to appear aftermath of the anti-Muslim campaign by few Buddhist Nationalist Groups (BNGs) in Sri Lanka. The basic purpose of the anti-Muslim campaign in Sri Lanka is to propagate bad image of Islam and the Muslims of Sri Lanka, to create a negative perspective among Buddhist public about Islam and Muslims and to distort the good relationship of Buddhists and Muslims in Sri Lanka. In recent past years, few Buddhist Nationalist Groups, campaigned against Halal certification on consumer goods, Hijab of Muslim women, cattle slaughtering, worship places and prayer services in Sri...
Muslim Socio-culture and Majority-Minority Relations in recent Sri Lanka
Journal of Politics and Law, 2017
Sri Lanka is a nation in which multi-religious, multi-ethnic multi-language people live. Buddhists are the majority, while Muslims form the second minority group next to Tamils. Since historical times, the community relationship between Buddhists and Muslims has been prevailing. However, recently, a disturbing trend has been widely spreading among the Buddhists and Muslims. This situation has emerged during the aftermath of the anti-Muslim campaigns set by a number of Buddhist Nationalist Groups (BNGs), with their main goal being to propagate incorrect opinions about the Muslims to promote negative views about their socio-culture, and to distort the idea of a peaceful relationship between Buddhists and Muslims in the country. Accordingly, in the past several years, they have campaigned against halal certification on consumer goods, hijab and niqab of Muslim women, cattle slaughtering, places of worship and prayer services, among others. Moreover, they spread out the illusion that th...