Authorities in Sri Lanka need to sit up and take notice of a warning from the leading Muslim politician on the island. In recent months, both Muslim and Christian communities in Sri Lanka appear to be coming under a coordinated attack that has tacit government backing. In June alone, three Muslims were killed and 75 injured in the latest outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in two southern coastal towns.
The situation has deteriorated so much that the country’s Justice Minister, Rauf Hakeem — who also leads the island’s main Muslim party — has warned that the minority community could become radicalised by the violence perpetrated by Buddhist hardliners.
Hakeem has warned that elements may turn to foreign Islamist groups for support in fighting the Buddhist aggressors. Let us hope it does not come to that. It has been five years since the island ended three decades of bloody ethnic civil war. What is needed in Sri Lanka is tolerance and acceptance of cultural and religious differences. Offering tacit backing to Buddhist hardliners only breeds hatred and fosters festering intolerance.
