ANTI-MUSLIM CAMPAIGN IN SRI LANKA AND RESPONSES OF THE BUDDHISTS

Abstract

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, but 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. This research attempts to analyze the point of views of few Buddhists, on recent campaigns, against the Muslims, undertaken by the BNGs, in recent past years, by conducting a semi structured interviews in 14 selected Buddhist majority districts of Sri Lanka. Based on the results, it is clearly affirmed that, the recent anti-Muslim campaign, by the BNGs, have created a suspicious nature Muslim stereotype among a group of Buddhists in the society, over a fact that a Buddhist-Muslim relationship in recent past years has damaged a lot. However, these campaigns have not changed the whole Buddhist’s mood and point of views, in terms of maintaining a good relationship with Muslims in Sri Lanka, without any break, as the majority know and respect Muslim citizens of Sri Lanka, because of the behavior and support of Muslims towards the Sri Lankan state, during the civil war (1984-2009) and pre-war time in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Sri Lankan Muslims; Islam; Anti-Muslim Campaign; Buddhism; Buddhist Nationalist Groups