Last weekend featured a double header at the T20 Cricket World Cup featuring four South Asian nations. The evening match played under lights was between two countries with a difficult relationship, diplomatically…
The Sri Lankan Cabinet has agreed a ban on wearing burqas and other full face veils in public, which is almost certain to be approved by Parliament. This follows other measures targeting…
Ramadan for many of us Muslims is a month of peace and spirituality, a month of tolerance, speaking good words, sharing good thoughts and connecting with God and religion. There’s much I…
In Sri Lanka, both mainstream and social media often portray Muslims in a negative light. This portrayal draws from pre-existing prejudices towards Muslims. These prejudices relate to some of the majority’s perceptions…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
