Sri Lanka – FoRB in Full

A long road to recovery: Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings two years on

Posted on 01/04/202122/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Sri Lanka

On Easter Sunday 2019, suicide bombers launched a series of coordinated attacks on churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. Over 250 people were killed, and some 500 more were injured.

The attacks destabilised already tense ethno-religious relations in the country, with intolerance and violence towards Muslims particularly increasing in their wake.

Today, CSW remembers all those who lost their lives to these senseless killings. We stand with those who continue to mourn the loss of their friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and loved ones. We also remember those for whom the road to recovery in the two years since has been long and arduous, some of whose stories are shared below. Their names have been changed for security reasons.

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For Sri Lankan Muslims, the coronavirus isn’t the only thing they’re hoping to see the back of in 2021

Posted on 04/01/202122/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Sri Lanka

As the world enters a new year, and one in which many will be hoping to see the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka’s Muslim community will surely be hoping that promising vaccines are also enough to bring an end to a policy which has violated a core tenet of their Islamic faith.

Since 31 March 2020, Sri Lankan government guidance has required all victims of COVID-19 to be cremated. This practice goes against the tradition of the Muslim community and infringes on their right to manifest their religion or belief, as protected under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Under Islamic law, a deceased Muslim should be buried in an individual grave, and the dignity of the dead must be preserved at all times. Cremation is prohibited ‘because it is considered a violation of the dignity of the human body.’ In addition, as the burying of the dead is considered a collective obligation, known as Fard Kifaya, the entire Muslim community is guilty if they fail this communal duty.

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Sri Lanka’s Anti-Cattle Slaughter Law: Lessons from India

Posted on 07/12/202022/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, India, Sri Lanka

In September 2020, the Sri Lankan cabinet approved Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s proposal to ban domestic cattle slaughter. Cabinet spokesman and Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella announced that the decision would pass into law in ‘due course.’ The move may be considered a way of ‘thanking’ the country’s Buddhist majority, who have long lobbied for a beef ban, or to win support and maintain favour with the same group. Ultimately it is a politically motivated decision designed to appease the island’s majority population of Sinhalese Buddhists.

According to Mr Rambukwella, the current governments ban follows requests from ‘various quarters’ and was mostly put forward as a ‘good gesture’ toward the Buddhist community. Under the proposed ban, beef imports are still permitted, and would be sold at a concessionary price to those who consume it. In addition to this, a programme will be launched for ageing cattle which can no longer be used for agricultural purposes.

Rampant and rising Islamophobia

Others are less convinced. In 2017, scholars Mohammad Agus Yusoff and Athambawa Sarjoon, of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University of Peradeniya respectively, suggested that such campaigns are actually motivated by religious and ethnic concerns:

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Sri Lanka: One year on from the 2019 Easter Sunday Bombings

Posted on 24/04/202022/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Sri Lanka

On Easter Sunday 2019 a small relatively unknown Sri Lankan Islamist group, National Thowheed Jamath, conducted a series of bombings targeting churches and hotels across Sri Lanka and killing more than 250 people, predominantly Christians. The BBC reports that on 21 April, the anniversary of the attacks was marked by the ringing of church bells but no public events, the result of a government curfew imposed to address the spread of COVID-19, which has claimed seven lives on the island.

Amid a nationwide two-minute silence in honour of the dead and wounded, the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, said in his anniversary message that while the church had “spiritually forgiven” its attackers, it continued to call for justice.

Justice remains elusive, with investigations ongoing in a country in which the need to confront past crimes and pursue forgiveness, healing and national reconciliation is more complex as a result of the legacy of a 30-year civil war characterised by serious internal political strife.

There is also the challenge of populist leaders seeking to mobilise religion for their own ends, nurturing an exclusive vision of Sri Lanka as a homogenous Buddhist state.

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Abandoning human rights for identity politics in Sri Lanka

Posted on 10/02/202022/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Sri Lanka

During an address to senior Buddhists leaders at the Vibhajjavadi Dhamma Symposium and Maha Tripitaka Pooja on 4 January, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that the defence of the Buddhist order is central to ensuring unity and the protection of religious freedom of Sri Lankans who profess other faiths. Just one day prior, his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pledged his commitment before parliament to protect and nurture the Buddha Sasana as part of his government’s policy. In the Sri Lankan context this is often understood as the ‘physical bounds of the land consecrated by the Buddha.’

Buddhism is enshrined in the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Article 9 states: “The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana,” while assuring the freedom of thought, conscience and religion to everyone. Furthermore, with a 2003 Supreme Court ruling which affirms that only Buddhism should be protected by the state, Sri Lanka established in law that there is no constitutional guarantee that other religions will receive similar protection.

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