Denying Justice While Dehumanizing a Community at Large
Thirty-one people died in the suicide attack on Zion evangelical church in Batticaloa on April 21, 2019, of which 14 were children. To date the church remains locked with a notice on…
Religion and faith
Eradicating the Barbaric Practice of Female Genital Mutilation
In a tribal region of Afghanistan, a sad 10 year old girl, heavily made up and veiled, sits silently at her wedding ceremony to a 70 year old man. In a rural…
Equality, Difference, Religion and Ethnicity in South Asia
There is a tension between “equality” and “difference” in modern South Asia. The tension defines South Asia when it comes to religious and ethnic issues. It is manifest at the individual, community…
The VIGED, the Vulnerable and the Wise: Thoughts on the Birth of Jesus for Our Times
At the outset In the 19th Century a French sociologist Emile Durkheim coined the acronym ‘anomie’ to describe the then growing absence of norms in society. Today, global trends of governance under…
Misguided Policies Damage A Valued Public Health System
Sri Lanka hit the lowest point in their COVID-19 response when a 20-day-old Muslim infant was cremated on December 9, 2020 against the wishes of his parents and against their religious faith. Islamic faith…
The Paradox of Tolerance
Systematic discrimination and human rights violations against minority communities in Sri Lanka are not new in the country’s political and social realm. The most recent of such violations have been brought to…
The Void in the Nation’s Heart
In early November 2019, a 45 year-old man in Northwest Sri Lanka sought divine assistance to find a wife. The intermediary was a former labourer who became a godman after his body…
Playing With Fire
As he watched his son’s body being placed in the crematorium, Mohammed Fahim stood outside the cemetery, weeping. “How could I watch my baby being burned,” demanded the Muslim man, whose faith…
Death in the Time of Corona: A Risky Business for Muslims
The question of the burial or cremation of COVID-19 victims took a bizarre turn to expose a government at odds with itself with Ministers and health authorities sending out mixed messages and…
What Will Be the Fate of Religious Minorities in Sri Lanka?
Article 9 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution 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.” The promise to establish…
The Past and the Present in the (Re)Constitution of the State
By Asanga Welikala and Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne The election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019 marked the beginning of a new era of a Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist ascendancy in Sri Lanka. The…
The Other Hejaaz
There’s an image of Hejaaz Hizbullah I return to over and over again. It’s an image of him holding a placard at a protest vigil against the October 2018 constitutional coup. The…
Scapegoating the Muslims: From Aluthgama to Post-Easter Sunday to COVID-19
Photo via To date in Sri Lanka 9 persons are said to have died of Covid-19 and out of these 4 are Muslims. At least 02 of these victims’ families believe their…
Ramzy Razeek: An extraordinary struggle for an ordinary life of service upended by an arrest
Image courtesy Ramzy Razik was arrested on April 9, 2020 at his home off Katugasota in Kandy by the CID. The next day, he was produced before the Colombo Magistrate where the…
Honouring the victims of 21 April 2019 through togetherness and unity
Photo by Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP via NPR Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks, in which eight IS terrorists senselessly murdered 269 Catholic and Christian worshippers and tourists, shattering our…