Analysis: Sri Lanka’s bloody Easter puts spotlight on a new terror threat
By Ishaan Tharoor Ishaan Tharoor Reporter covering foreign affairs, geopolitics and history Email Bio Follow April 22 at 12:59 AM Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today’s WorldView newsletter.
For Sri Lanka’s Christian community and devotees around the world, the blasts on the holiest day of the year seemed an epochal disaster. In his Easter address, delivered from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis condemned the “horrendous” and “cruel act of violence.” An outpouring of condolences followed from other world leaders, too.
Years of conflict between state forces and the Tamil Tigers ended with the latter’s decisive defeat in 2009, but the decade that followed has seen bouts of communal violence and simmering ethnic and religious tensions, often stirred by elements within Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Amarnath Amarasingam, a Toronto-based expert on extremism and terrorism and a senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, agreed that the nature of the targets suggested the attacks were not an exclusively “local” affair.
The details remain murky, but Sri Lankan authorities have moved quickly to stem the spread of conspiracy theories and incendiary content. The government imposed a nighttime curfew and blocked access to social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which have been used in the past to circulate messaging that incited attacks against minority groups in the country.
.@POTUS and I are monitoring the horrific attacks on those celebrating Easter in Sri Lanka. Our hearts & prayers are with the victims & their families. This atrocity is an attack on Christianity & religious freedom everywhere. No one should ever be in fear in a house of worship.
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