• Academics and activists discuss barriers and challenges in Sri Lanka

Religion is considered a pivotal part of Sri Lankan life with the majority of Sri Lankans identifying themselves as a follower of a religion. It has marked our daily life with rituals and celebrations such as the festive Christmas season and the colourful Thai Pongal season. However, sometimes religion, especially religious expression, can turn sour with tensions and turbulence.

Legal experts and academics gathered at an event organised by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) on 21 April to discuss the plight of religious minorities in the country.

The religious makeup

While Sri Lanka has a rich religious makeup, the overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans tend to practice Buddhism while living alongside Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, as well as other religious minorities and those who do not practice a religion.

“We must note that the overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhist which has led to Buddhism being protected under our constitution,” lawyer and researcher Gehan Gunatilleke said. “Yet, the constitution also protects the rights of other religions and the right to religious practice.”

Sri Lanka’s constitution guarantees the right of religious freedom and observances to all its citizens through Articles 10 and 14(1) (e) while also enshrining Theravada Buddhism as the religion of State.

“However, while the constitution highlights religious freedom and harmony, tensions have been brewing throughout history leading to incidents of religious hate and violence,” Gunatilleke said.

“Every group, especially minority religious groups, has experienced some sort of hatred, discrimination, or violent attack purely based on their faith,” he claimed. “This has been prevalent, especially with smaller religious denominations, where private practice of religion and religious festivals were disrupted.”

Disruptions of faith

Religion often has the power to bring people together as well as tear them apart. Incidents such as the anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama in 2014 portray the possible tensions that escalate whenever religion is turned to violence. 

“There is a prevailing stereotype that Muslims are terrorists,” Women’s Action Network co-founder and activist Shreen Saroor said. “This has led to several instances of discrimination and disruptions such as Muslim students not being permitted to attend classes or exams due to them growing their beards or wearing any sort of covering.”

Shreen stated that in several instances, controversial pieces of legislation such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) have been used to justify the detention of Muslims across the island. 

“Muslims have often been suspected for ordinary things such as pasting stickers and carrying a scarf,” Saroor claimed. “And many of them have been kept in detention unfairly.”

She seemed to be referring to a recent incident where a youth was taken into custody on 22 March in Colombo. While initial reports said the youth was arrested solely for pasting an anti-Israel sticker, the Police later said investigations had revealed the youth held extremist views and that there was a possibility he could be manipulated into engaging in terrorist activity.

Perhaps the most famous case of detention under the PTA was of human rights lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah, who was arrested following the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019.

Saroor closed by stating that attacks against religious minorities are often prevalent and have been widely accepted across the decades. 

“Very often, people of all religious minorities face violence and hatred on the basis of their religion by both government entities as well as through the Buddhist majority such as monks in the local area,” lawyer and policy researcher Ranitha Mayooran said. “While the Muslim population often face issues relating to wearing a headscarf and accusations of terrorism, many Hindu festivals are disrupted by the law enforcement authorities and the majority Buddhists while many Christian churches and private worship are shut down as unregistered entities.”

Academics claim that several Christian churches, especially those with a smaller congregation, are forced to shut down and are being ‘spied upon’ on the basis of being unregistered while several Buddhist private practices are allowed to continue uninterrupted.

“Many churches are being shut down and police officers even ask neighbours to take pictures and videos of their Christian neighbours to make sure they do not engage in unregistered worship,” NCEASL Religious Liberty Commission Head Mike Gabriel alleged. “There were instances where Buddhist religious leaders complained against churches saying that they were converting Buddhists and the Police had acted on the complaints.”

Gabriel said that the practice of requiring all religious institutions to be registered negatively affects churches as only a small number of Christian groups are able to get registered.

“The State is complicit or at least silent to this religious violence,” Gabriel claimed. “It is evident in the way the Police raid unregistered Christian churches and other private masses or sermons. The Inland Revenue Department has even suggested that tithes of unregistered churches be subject to taxes.”

A gendered divide

Religious minorities, like most minorities, can sometimes be used as a scapegoat by more powerful voices and be prone to harassment. This fate is a lot worse for women of religious minorities.

“Women are often seen as the weaker sex so a woman who does not follow the majority religion is often targeted,” Mayooran said, adding that attacks against Hindu women tend to happen in areas where Hindu culture interacts with or clashes with Buddhist temples or households.

Meanwhile, it was pointed out that the prevention of Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at educational institutions and exams negatively affects the academic and professional lives of these students.

“We are trying to make positive changes for a community of Muslim women,” Saroor said. “We have fought against child marriage and the restrictions on women becoming Quazi judges. However, as we continue this fight, it is disheartening to see Muslim girls suffer because of their headscarf.” 

The academics concluded that in a country where diversity is prevalent through faith and belief, perhaps acceptance is slow to come.