Sinhalese racism toward Muslims exceeds rhetoric used against Tamil rebels

Evidence

Indeed, the civil war masks the extant racism among many Sinhalese Buddhists toward the island’s Muslims. The language radical Sinhalese Buddhists use to vilify Muslims can be so derogatory that it sometimes goes beyond the rhetoric used against the LTTE. Such uninhibited racism bodes ill for the island’s Muslims, and the fallout is likely to be ugly, especially after the civil war has ended. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 327

Categorization

• QUESTION: Directly relevant to the reader’s core question: if Tamil nationalists were the manufactured ‘threat other,’ why is even more extreme racism directed at Muslims during wartime? Does this suggest a second manufactured enemy or genuinely distinct (non-constructed) animus?
• XREF: Speaks to the reader’s literature on threat-hardened group solidarity: what happens when the principal identified enemy recedes — does hostility find a new target, here pre-existing anti-Muslim sentiment? — connects to: With the Tamil enemy removed, nationalists manufactured a Muslim threat to sustain group solidarity — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1369
• SEED: Potential angle: ‘secondary enemies’ — how protracted civil war against one out-group coexists with and masks worse animus toward a third group that never had armed capacity to threaten.

Broader Connections

• With the Tamil enemy removed, nationalists manufactured a Muslim threat to sustain group solidarity #corroborates (0.85) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1369