Mawanella in the Balance: Roots of Indoctrination of Muslim Youth: Preliminary Results of a Field Study

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.