We do know that the attacks occur in parallel to a growing sense of isolation among Sri Lankan Muslims. While we know that ISIS inspired the Easter Day attackers, we don't know the exact political demands or grievances that compelled them to violence. But new communal tensions involving Sri Lankan Muslims and hard-line Sinhalese Buddhist groups portend serious consequences for the country's already fragile ethnic relations, as a key strategy of ISIS is to exploit and manipulate such divisions. Rightly, the United States prioritized its foreign assistance to support the integration of Tamils marginalized by the civil war into the economic and political mainstream. Outside of a small Department of Defense–administered program providing counterterrorism training for Sri Lankan defense and security officials since 2001, American investments in Sri Lankan stability have been dominated by a singular focus on the ethnic conflict between Sinhalese and Tamil citizens and the aftermath of a 27-year-long civil war between the two groups. war on terrorism, perhaps because American policymakers did not believe the country to have a serious Islamic radicalization problem. Sri Lanka remained largely an afterthought in the U.S. And while certain policies, such as the use of drones and the rendition program, proved limited in their long-term utility in fighting terrorism, the overall American effort to engage the international community on terrorism made everyone a lot smarter about real and potential threats. counterterrorism policies shaped important new global financial-tracking systems at the United Nations supported critical revisions to counterterrorism laws and judicial reforms in Pakistan and implemented de-radicalization initiatives across Europe that empowered governments to take a closer look at how terrorism could take root in countries.
But Sri Lanka didn't fall into that new theater of war, limiting the extent to which it could benefit and learn from American efforts to dismantle the public and private support networks for terrorism. This week, all nine of the country’s Muslim ministers and two Muslim provincial governors resigned under pressure from Athuraliye Rathana, a prominent Buddhist monk and presidential adviser, who accused them of having links to the Easter attack militants.Īfter the September 11 attacks, the United States created new policies and tools of warfare to fight Islamic fundamentalism around the world. Meanwhile, communal backlash against the Muslim community grows amid worsening political tensions. Today, ISIS stands ready to take advantage of growing fissures in Sri Lankan Muslim identity-and as the aftermath of the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka shows, neither the country's leaders nor the international community is prepared to do something about it. Throughout the country's history, this community, though religiously distinct, kept cordial relations with other faith groups and avoided the sectarianism plaguing South Asia's other Muslim communities-until now. Like other South Asian countries engaged in commerce with the Arab world, Sri Lanka over time became home to a small Muslim community tracing its ethnic and religious roots back to the Middle East. traveled by sea to present-day Sri Lanka seeking spices and goods to sell along the oceanic Silk Road. Security measures have been increased in the country after more than 250 people were killed in coordinated suicide bomb attacks at three churches and three tourist hotels on Easter Sunday that were claimed by the Islamic State group and carried out by a local radicalized Muslim group.Īrab traders in the seventh century A.D. Sri Lankan army soldiers patrol a muslim neighborhood during a cordon and search operation in Colombo, Sri Lanka.