dc.description.abstract | This presentation covers the preliminary
results of a qualitative field study in Mawanella in the
aftermath of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings in
Sri Lanka. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry
into the Easter Sunday Attacks heard that there were
three critical networks, based in Kattankudy,
Colombo, and Mawanella that helped stage the Easter
Sunday attacks in 2019. The Muslim community in
Mawanella had not been suspected to breed
extremism and fundamentalism hitherto. Therefore,
it is important to find out the causes and roots of
indoctrination and subsequent radicalisation of some
Muslim youths in Mawanella, which has a relatively
better educated Muslim population. These
preliminary results reveal shrinking of space for
inter-communal interactions and social cohesion in
Mawanella over the past two decades. It also reveals
the indoctrination of Muslim youths over a long
period of time by orthodox and fundamentalist
sectarian groups such as the Jamaat-e-Islami. | en_US |