Constructed anti-Christian enmity redirected prior anti-Tamil violence toward a new invented enemy.

Evidence

A telegenic and telefluent monk, Gangodawila Soma was partly responsible for the anti-Christian violence of 2003 and 2004. The monk, who harbored presidential ambitions, initially built a following by advising people on mundane matters but gradually took on controversial issues, including the ethnic conflict, supposedly pro-LTTE nongovernmental organizations, and unethical conversions. Gangodawila Soma repeatedly asserted that two types of terrorism confronted Sri Lanka: LTTE terrorism and missionary terrorism. In doing so, he resorted to chauvinistic rhetoric and made the missionaries look just as villainous as the LTTE. Not surprisingly, especially in the last year of his life, his fans began attacking Christian churches just as a previous generation had attacked Tamil homes and businesses. … When Gangodawila Soma passed away in December 2003 while in Russia, his followers and political opportunists claimed his death was part of a Christian conspiracy to undermine Buddhism. Although the autopsy proved the monk’s demise was due to a diabetic-related heart attack, they resorted to a poster campaign claiming he had been murdered. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 246

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the manufactured-enemy research theme: here Sinhalese chauvinist ideologues transfer the old constructed Tamil threat onto missionaries as a new external enemy to sustain solidarity and mobilize violence.
• QUESTION: This shows the manufactured enemy can be swapped when the old one (LTTE) fades — strong evidence that group solidarity is threat-driven rather than fixed to a primordial target.
• XREF: connects to: Electoral majoritarianism in 1956 gave rise to anti-Tamil violence and empowered extremists.; Anti-Christian violence endangers the language-based Sinhalese unity against Tamils. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 241; Christianity’s perceived enemies were increasingly linked and persecuted together — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1368 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Sinhalese nationalist violence against Christians is opportunistic rather than primordial #corroborates (0.90) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 245
• Christianity’s perceived enemies were increasingly linked and persecuted together #expands (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1368
• Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact #complicates (0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 78