"The ideological underpinning for this host and guest concept is provided by the Mahawamsa, the 6th-century chronicle written by a Buddhist monk. The Mahawamsa claims that the Buddha, on his deathbed, proclaimed Lanka the Buddhist Holy-Land: "In Lanka, O lord of gods, will my religion be established, therefore carefully protect"Lanka."
"It is from these ancient myths of a chosen people and a sinless war that the modern Sinhala-Buddhist supremacists fashion their version of 'the clash of civilisations.' In this rendition, pioneered by Anagarika Dharmapala (whose anti-minority diatribes played a role in the 1915 riots) 'Sinhala Buddhist' Lanka is forever threatened by 'Christian, Islamic and Hindu worlds'. Minorities are inherently suspect as they can be the agents of these inimical external forces. Since geographical displacement is not possible, the only solution is to confine minorities to their 'rightful' place politically. This should be done legislatively and peacefully, if possible, and violently, if necessary, the logic goes," Gunasekara concludes.
The Muslim connection or Muslimphobia
But the Christian community isn't alone in being targeted in Sri Lanka. The Muslim minority, too, is persecuted. In 2013, a Buddhist mob attacked a mosque in Colombo, injuring 12, according to Washington Post.
Amarnath Amarasingam, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, was quoted by Washington Post as saying that rumors of radicalization of Muslims and of extremist groups tied to outside funding have been used as an excuse by some in the majority to attack Muslims.
Not surprisingly, a top police official reportedly alerted security officials in an advisory 10 days ago about a threat to churches from a radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jama'ath. "But it was unclear what safeguards, if any, were taken, or if in the end the group played any role in the violence. And on Sunday, reflecting frictions within the government, the prime minister pointedly said he had not been informed," according to New York Times which published a picture of the advisory.
Sri Lankan Muslims: the new 'others'
Writing under the title Sri Lankan Muslims: the new others, Tisaranee Gunasekara digs into the history and politics of Muslimphobia in Sri Lanka.
"Lankan Muslims are not demanding a separate state. There's no armed Muslim militancy. The two communities have historically lived in peace, with a few exceptions such as the 1915 riots. The Muslim community sided with the Sinhala majority and the Lankan state during the long Eelam War, especially after the forced eviction of Muslims from the North by the LTTE. Nor are Muslims trying to convert Buddhists, a charge that is usually levelled against religious minorities," Gunasekara said adding:
"So where did the fear and the hate come from? Was it born naturally or engineered artificially? It is easy to blame power-hungry politicians for sowing racial/religious hatred, but the truth is more complicated. There seem to be enough ordinary Sinhala-Buddhists out there who are on the lookout for enemies. Facts don't interest them, slogans suffice. As a result there is always a ready-made audience for ethno-religious fear-mongering."
Gunasekara believes that the reason there is focus on Muslims which he calls new Tamils,
because the Tamils are too beaten down to amount to a serious threat?
Civilisational angst and the search for enemies
Gunasekara further elaborates:
"The first post-independence attempts at depicting Muslims as an existential threat to Sinhala-Buddhists began in the late 1990's. It's architect was Gangodawila Soma Thero, a Buddhist monk who was a hugely popular preacher. By this time, the riots of 1915 constituted a footnote in history rather than a living memory. If Muslimphobia existed in the collective psyche of the Sinhalese, it was too marginal to be a political factor.
"But Soma Thero succeeded in creating a wave of anti-Muslim hysteria, and rendering it acceptable to middle and upper echelons of Sinhala society. He convinced educated middle-class Sinhalese (many of them professionals) that Muslims were a greater threat to Sinhalese than even the LTTE. He preached about a Muslim plan to overtake Sinhalese demographically. Others joined in, especially the then secretary and current leader of the JHU (National Heritage Party then going by the name of Sinhala Urumaya) Champaka Ranawaka. Ranawaka who claimed that Muslims were trying to carve out a separate state in the Eastern Province called Nasiristan. That first round of anti-Muslim hysteria led to an outburst of anti-Muslim violence in the town of Mawanella in 2001.
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