Sri Lankan Muslims at a cross-roads - 1
By Izeth Hussain-May 9, 2014
My last two articles in The Island were under the title Making sense of the Bodu Bala Sena, focusing in both of them on the anti-Muslim campaign of the BBS. There is now a view, still at the incipient stage but which can soon gain wide currency, that the BBS is on the way out. The argument is that extremist movements such as the BBS have no staying power in Sri Lanka, and that the forces of Buddhist moderation are now working to bring about the quick demise of the BBS and related extremist groups. But I began the first of my last two articles by pointing out that the conventional wisdom for well over a year – shared by the President himself - had it that if the BBS were ignored it would evaporate after some time. It did not, and in recent times it showed a renewed virulence.
