The Muslim Minority-Phobia in Context: A Critical Study on Majoritarian Ideology and the Structural Roots of Anti-Muslim Phenomenon in the Post-War Sri Lanka

Abstract

In post-war Sri Lanka waves of anti-Muslim riots and violence has become a common trend. This paper critically analyses how the century old Sinhala Buddhist majoritarian ideology contributes to the post-war anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka. This paper argues that post-war Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence is not just a matter of political gambling or electoral strategy of political parties. Instead, it resulted from the deep-rooted extreme Buddhist majoritarian ideology that tries to drive the state and the society towards an exclusive Buddhist state. The ideology creates a cultural legitimacy to criminalize the Muslims as “invaders” and “the other” within Sri Lanka. This cultural cover up has led to epidemic direct and structural violence across the island. Hence, this paper suggests that the conflict management process should diverted towards structural changes, which includes both the constitutional and educational aspects, into account, rather than depending solely on the civil society driven inter-community co-existence projects.