Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: June 25, 2017 Edition

A resurgence of violations against Muslims and Christians in Sri Lanka justifiably has alarmed domestic and international observers. Religious violence in Sri Lanka is nothing new. There were similar concerns – particularly with respect to anti-Muslim incidents in 2014 – when the island nation’s previous president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, ruled. Ethnic Sinhalese – most of whom are Buddhist – are the overwhelming ethnic majority in Sri Lanka. Muslims make up about 10 percent of the population; Christians comprise approximately 8 percent of the population.

“There are undercurrents of anti-Muslim and anti-Christian sentiment amongst the larger Buddhist and Hindu populations,” notes Jehan Perera, executive director of the Colombo-based National Peace Council. “However, the recent violent attacks against Muslims is [sic] not by the larger community but appear to be deliberately planned and executed. This is why it is dangerous.”

During Rajapaksa’s tenure, there were widespread and well-founded concerns that anti-Muslim attacks had, to say the least, the tacit support of the state. And even though a new administration has come to power, there’s little indication that the government wants to challenge extremist Buddhist groups, or hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.

As has happened on previous occasions, Buddhist monks – particularly a hardline group known as the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), led by General Secretary Galagoda Atte Gnanasara – are fueling the flames of conflict.

In theory, there shouldn’t be anything particularly shocking about the U.S. State Department sanctioning Mohammed Yusuf Shah, alias Syed Salahuddin, as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

After all, Salahuddin loudly and proudly spearheads the United Jihad Council (UJC) umbrella, a conglomerate of 13 jihadist groups including Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Salahuddin’s own Hizbul Mujahideen, based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. JeM and LeT both are not only banned as terrorist organizations by the United States, but by Pakistan as well.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, a decisive turning point for the Allied effort in the Pacific theater of the Second World War. The U.S. Navy, led by Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance trounced the Imperial Japanese Navy after 3 days of battle, yielding the first major inflection point in the eastern war after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor some six months earlier.