Country: Sri Lanka

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Buddhist monks demonstrate in Rangoon in 2012 (photo: Getty Images/AFP/Ye Aung Thu)

Islamophobia in Asia

What drives Buddhist anti-Muslim feeling?

Islamophobia is rife in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, with Buddhist monks heading up the hate campaigns against Muslims. Yet the roots of the conflict run deep. A report by Rodion EbbighausenMore

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Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena waves to supporters as he leaves the election secretariat in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 9 January 2015 (photo: picture-alliance/AP/Eranga Jayawardena)

Interview with Basil Fernando on the election in Sri Lanka

Nurturing a spirit of reconciliation

Maithripala Sirisena was the surprise winner of last week's presidential election in Sri Lanka. He was swept to power on a platform of political reform and an end to corruption. Sirisena has promised to transfer many of the president's executive powers to parliament. Only days after his election, he took steps to increase press freedom. Roma Rajpal Weiss spoke to Basil Fernando, Sri Lankan activist and former director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, about the significance of Sirisena's victoryMore

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A boy salvages belongings from a burned-down building in Htan Kone village in Myanmar's northern Sagaing region on 25 August 2013 (photo: Reuters)

Anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka

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Surge of radical Buddhism in South Asia

Nationalist Buddhist monks in Myanmar and Sri Lanka are playing a key role in instigating hatred and provoking violence towards the Muslim minorities in both countries, claiming that such action is necessary in order to protect Buddhist race and culture. By Roma Rajpal WeißMore

The Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar: In the shadow of an iconRohingya Muslims in Myanmar: The spectre of ethnic violence reappears Islam in Sri Lanka: Peaceful prospects for the Moors

In brief

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Mandaean religious rites threatened by Tigris water pollution

Every Sunday in Iraq, along a strip of embankment on the Tigris River reserved for followers of the obscure and ancient Mandaean faith, worshippers bathe themselves in the waters to purify their souls. But unlike in ancient times, the storied river that runs through Baghdad is fouled by untreated sewage and dead carp. By Philip Issa