International journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN:2313-626X

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 Volume 6, Issue 4 (April 2019), Pages: 53-58

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 Original Research Paper

 Title: Second minority in Sri Lanka: Genesis and current crisis

 Author(s): A. Rameez *

 Affiliation(s):

 Department of Sociology, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Oluvil, Sri Lanka

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 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7048-1872

 Digital Object Identifier: 

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2019.04.006

 Abstract:

The genesis of Muslims in Sri Lanka has hotly been contested in recent times with certain hardline elements question their existence, patriotism, and contribution toward the development of the country. Although much has been written about a tiny minority Muslims in Sri Lanka, their genesis with concrete evidence is still a contentious issue of academic discourses. As such, this article examines the genesis of Sri Lankan Muslims from a historical perspective with available evidence. As this is a descriptive essay, data for the essay were collected from existing literature relevant to the theme, journal articles, research reports, newspaper reports, website articles, and so on. The essay shows various dimensions of Sri Lankan Muslims such as their refugee situation, religious education, secular education, special laws and courts for Muslims, matrilineal social organization, food and eating habits of Muslims, Muslim self-identity struggle, English education, Islamic Tamil and various school of thoughts concerning Muslims in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the essay also highlights that Sri Lankan Muslims have recently come under tremendous pressure as they are faced with a number of challenges confronting them from various segments of politically motivated elements. Thus, it is highly recommended that the state and law enforcement agencies should treat all citizens of the country equally, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, and ensure that the country espouses pluralism and meritocracy as its ideals. 

 © 2019 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords: Minority Muslims, Hardline elements, Pluralism, Meritocracy

 Article History: Received 12 November 2018, Received in revised form 5 February 2019, Accepted 10 February 2019

 Acknowledgement:

No Acknowledgement

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Conflict of interest:  The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

 Citation:

  Rameez A (2019). Second minority in Sri Lanka: Genesis and current crisis. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 6(4): 53-58

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