Sri Lanka: Muslims and Christians are once more the focus of legal initiatives

As Barnabas Fund reported on 17 March 2021, the Sri Lankan government is reviving a draft law against "unethical conversions", aimed at Christians and Muslims. This comes at a time when Roman Catholic Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo has warned that the activities of unregulated churches and pastors risk upsetting the country"s religious harmony, as reported by UCA News on 15 February 2021. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "The draft anti-conversion law comes as no surprise to country observers. There have been long-standing claims against Christians and Muslims that they "˜proselytize" people by basically buying them off with money, a claim with little or no substantiation. At the same time, leading politicians in the new government come from a Buddhist supremacy standpoint and have a history of trying to implement such laws. Thus many observers believed it was only a matter of time before such a draft law would be proposed again. The Cardinal"s comments will be seen by many as confirmation of the need for such a law. His strong warning was provoked by the (social) media attention created by recent high-profile conversions and could be understood to be aimed at all evangelical churches." Thomas Muller adds: "A further government initiative is more directly targeted against Muslims: According to a report by Associated Press on 13 March 2021, a burqa ban will be imposed and a thousand madrassas closed."