Sri Lanka Religious Violence by Andre Malerba

Private Project

Sri Lanka Religious Violence

Copyright Andre Malerba 2024

Updated Oct 2018

Topics Buddhism, Discrimination, Documentary, Editorial, Faith, Fear, Freedom, Human Rights, Islam, Minority, Photography, Photojournalism, Racism, Religion, Violence

On March 7, 2018, a strike of Buddhist-Muslim violence hit the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka, and some of the villages in the surrounding area. There had been no prior history of such acts or discrimination, but on that fateful day a Buddhist mob of over three-hundred quickly grew with the help of social media and burned out the Masjidul Lafir Jummah Mosque and several other homes in Kandy, resulting in the death of one young man. Approximately twenty kilometers away, the furniture store of Jezeer Mohamed Hilmy was also burned down by a Buddhist mob, among them were people he counted as friends, neighbors and those he had lent money to. The store was everything to him and his family. His daughter Zainab, who had just finished her studies to become a lawyer, returned home to help look after her parents. Jezeer was at his home some distance from the store when the attack happened, but his extended family lives just a few hundred feet down the road and witnessed his store go up in flames. Their youngest daughter, Aaliyah, who was only eight years old at the time, asked her mother, "Are they going to come and burn us also?" Thankfully there have been no follow up attacks, but the family lives in fear of repercussions, having no idea why the attack happened all of a sudden. Now, their only course of action is to wait for government reimbursement so they can try to rebuild their lives.

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