Independence Square Vigil: Speech by Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy
Photo courtesy AP / Manish Swarup via For people of my generation, as Sharika Thiranagama wrote in her recent article, news like the Easter Sunday blasts does not initiate a new fear, it…
Easter Sunday Terrorist Attacks
Refugee crisis in Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday bombings
Photo courtesy Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press via “Pakistanis a country where suicide bombings happen on a regular basis, mobs gather and kill minorities and people who think differently, houses and settlements are attacked,…
What now for the moderate Muslim: Reflections after the Easter Sunday terrorism
Image courtesy Quartz Many supposed Muslims are in custody for suspected links with terrorism. Many swords found, including in the suburban Slave Island mosque. Many explosives scattered everywhere. Women killing themselves, the…
The Niqab ban and the politics of distraction
As of last Monday, Sri Lanka is taking a seat at the table next to a list of 13 other countries from across the world who have passed legislation banning the niqab…
Easter Sunday Savagery: The Unanswered Questions
Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP via Al Jazeera Whilst the security operations continue, it is time for the committee set up by the president and indeed the rest of us, to consider the…
Was The Sri Lankan Law Adequate For Dealing With The Easter Bombers Before They Attacked?
The Prime Minister has gone on record with the international media saying that, even though Sri Lankan authorities were aware of Sri Lankan jihadists who had returned from Syria who might be…
Combatting the Cult of ISIS
It now seems clear that the attacks on Easter Sunday were carried out by local radicals, under the aegis of foreign fundamentalists. The problem is contained in that there is little support…
Easter Sunday Attacks: A personal reflection
After three successive days of numbness, fear, anxiety, trauma, devastating sadness and anger I pen these thoughts. I do not have any ‘rational’ explanation for the horror that we are experiencing. I…
Explaining Sri Lanka’s New Emergency Regulations on ‘Publication’
Sri Lanka’s president issued a new set of Emergency Regulations on 22 April 2019. This note explains the contents of Emergency Regulation 15, which concerns the ‘control of publications’, and certain other…
White Flags
A series of coordinated bomb explosions killed hundreds in Sri Lanka as they congregated for Easter Sunday mass, on April 21, 2019. Among the six main blast sites were three churches; St.…
Massacre of the Innocents: Whereto from here
Photo by JEWEL SAMAD / AFP/GETTY IMAGES via KCUR. “Unmindful are the walking dead The known way is an impasse.” Heraclitus (The Fragments) We have been here before. This blooded precipice is…
The Constitutional Implications of the Easter Sunday Terror Attack
Sri Lanka experienced its worst terrorist attack since the end of the war on 21 April 2019. The country is still reeling from the scale and lethality of the multiple explosions, and…
Easter Sunday Attacks: Key Updates
April 21, 2019 A series of coordinated bomb explosions killed hundreds in Sri Lanka as they congregated for Easter Sunday mass. As at 8.20 am on April 22, 2019, 290 were reported…
