Islam is the third largest religion in Sri Lanka, with about 9.7 percent of the total population following the religion. About 1.9 million Sri Lankans adhere to Islam as per the Sri Lanka census of 2012. The majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka are concentrated in the Eastern Province of the island. Other areas containing significant Muslim minorities include the Western, Northwestern, North Central, Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces. Muslims form a large segment of the urban population of Sri Lanka and are mostly concentrated in major cities and large towns in Sri Lanka, for example Colombo. Most Sri Lankan Muslims primarily speak Tamil language, though it is not uncommon for Sri Lankan Muslims to be fluent in Sinhalese. The Sri Lankan Malays speak the Sri Lanka Malay language in addition to Sinhalese and Tamil.
Zahira College is an Islamic school at Colombo in Maradana, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1892 as Al Madrasathul Zahira by one of renowned Islamic lawyer and educationalist, Muhammad Cassim Siddi Lebbe, with the active patronage of Ahmed Orabi Pasha of Egypt. The college also has one of the oldest mosques in the country on its campus.
The Marakkars are a South Asian Muslim community found in parts of the Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. The Marakkars speak Malayalam in Kerala and Tamil in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Moors are an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.3% of the country's total population. Most of them are native speakers of the Tamil language. The majority of Moors who aren’t native to the North and East also speak Sinhalese as a second language. They are predominantly followers of Islam. The Sri Lankan Muslim community is mostly divided between Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Moors, Sri Lankan Malays and Sri Lankan Bohras. These groups are differentiated by lineage, language, history, culture and traditions.
The expulsion of the Muslims from the Northern province was an act of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Tamil militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization in October 1990. Yogi, the LTTE's political spokesman, stated that this expulsion was carried out in retaliation for atrocities committed against Tamils in the Eastern Province by Muslims, who were seen by the LTTE as collaborators with the Sri Lankan Army. As a consequence, in October 1990, the LTTE forcibly expelled 72,000 strong Muslim population from the Northern Province.
Kattankudy is a township near the city of Batticaloa on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. The town is predominantly populated by Muslims.
The Palliyagodella massacre was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against the mostly Muslim population of the Palliyagodella village located on border region of the northern part of Sri Lanka that were controlled by the Tigers at the time. This was the largest massacre of Muslim civilians by the LTTE to date. Village eyewitnesses claim that some 285 men, women and children, around a third of the population, were killed by a 1,000 strong force of the Tamil Tigers; however, the Sri Lankan government states that the LTTE massacred 166 to 171. All but 40 of the victims of the Palliyathidal massacre were Muslim; the rest were Sinhalese.
Beruwala is a large town in Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council. The town covers a total area of approximately 15 km2 (5.8 sq mi) and is located on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, 60 km (37 mi) south of Colombo.
The Kattankudy Mosque Massacre was the killing of over 147 Muslim men and boys on 3 August, 1990. Around 30 armed Tamil militants raided two mosques in Kattankudy where over 300 people were prostrating in Isha prayers. The Sri Lankan government, survivors, and observers accuse the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of committing the crime. The LTTE denied involvement and never retracted the denial.
Deshamanya Marhoom Al Haj Mohammed Abdul Bakeer Markar was a Sri Lankan politician and civil servant. He was the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and Governor of the Southern Province.
Sri Lankan Malays are Sri Lankan citizens with full or partial ancestry from the Indonesian Archipelago, Malaysia, or Singapore. In addition, people from Brunei and the Philippines also consider themselves Malays. The term is a misnomer as it is used as a historical catch-all term for all native ethnic groups of the Malay Archipelago who reside in Sri Lanka; the term does not apply solely to the ethnic Malays. They number approximately 40,000 and make up 0.2% of the Sri Lankan population, making them the fourth largest of the five main ethnic groups in the country.
Bodu Bala Sena, also abbreviated as BBS is a far-right anti-liberalist, and ultranationalist Sinhalese Buddhist organization, and a break-away faction from the right-wing nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya party. The BBS generally opposes pluralist and democratic ideologies, and criticizes non-extremist Buddhist monks for not taking action against the rise of other religions within Sri Lanka.
The Grand Mosque of Colombo is a mosque located in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan anti-Muslim riots were a series of religious riots targeting Muslims that began in the town of Ampara located in Sri Lanka on 26 February 2018, spreading to the Kandy District from March 2 until its end on March 10, 2018.
National Thowheeth Jama'ath is a Sri Lankan Islamist jihadist militant group implicated in the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings. It is believed to have ties to the Islamic State (ISIL). President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena banned National Thowheed Jamath on 27 April 2019 and designated it as a terrorist organisation along with Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
The Sri Lankan anti-Muslim riots were a series of religiously motivated riots targeting Muslims in Sri Lanka. The riots originated as isolated incidents in the aftermath of the Easter bombings in the nation, beginning in Chilaw and subsequently spreading to much of the Northwestern Province.
Al Abrar Mosque, or Masjidul Abrar Jumma Mosque, is a mosque in Beruwala, Sri Lanka, which is claimed to be the first and the oldest mosque in the country.
The Meeran Jumma Mosque, commonly known as Galle Fort Mosque, is a mosque located within Galle Fort, Southern Province, Sri Lanka.
Meera Makam Mosque, also known as Meera Maccam Masjid or Meera Maqam Masjid, is one of the oldest and largest mosques in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located at the corner of Wariyapola Sri Sumangala Mawatha and Gamini Dissanayake Mawatha.
