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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Image via , by AFP. Last year, suffering and death struck with the arrival of Easter, to plunge us back into Good Friday. Thousands who lost loved ones and limbs were shattered…
The Easter Sunday attacks were brutal and unprecedented. It surfaced communal prejudices and certain phobias that Sri Lankan society lives with. There is a paradoxical narrative that may help us understand some…
Image courtesy Quartz India It is with heavy hearts that we have listened to and observed the debates on whether or not burials should be permitted for Muslims who succumb to COVID-19…
Image courtesy Quartz India The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been engaged with the government in a debate to allow persons who died after contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19) to be buried…
“Try again; fail again. Fail better. “- Samuel Beckett Last year at Easter, sudden acts of violence spread immense fear, injury and death, within a matter of moments. A small group of…
5th of March 2018 marked the beginning of a series of violent mob attacks against the Muslims in the central parts of the country, perpetrated by the ethno-nationalist Sinhala Buddhists. A personal…
Why is it so difficult for the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU) to acknowledge 18 as the minimum age of marriage? What is interesting is that the Qur’an does not specify a…
For three long decades, Muslim women have fought to reform the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). Justice Saleem Marsoof’s Committee issued two sets of recommendations early last year, the culmination of…
Batticaloa and Kattankudy are 318 and 317 kilometers away from Colombo, respectively. They are, however, just under 10 kilometers away from each other. The relationships and experience, that have been shaped by…
