With the Tamil enemy removed, nationalists manufactured a Muslim threat to sustain group solidarity

Evidence

While there has long been an eddy of anti-Muslim sentiment among all communities, the extent of it among especially Sinhalese Buddhists was masked thanks to the civil war. Thus, while periodic clashes between Muslims and Buddhists took place, they were localized. But post-civil war triumphalism and the Islamophobia trending globally have allowed Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists to target Muslims more widely. The nationalists need to conjure up a threat against Sinhalese Buddhist society to stay relevant. The Muslims’ relative insularity and selfsegregation, their livelihoods rooted in business and trading, slight rise in population, and conspicuous piety that is now manifested through Arab attire like the burqa2 and thobe3 and the proliferation of mosques have especially allowed nationalists to portray Muslims as a challenge to Sinhalese Buddhist civilization and dominance. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1369

Categorization

• SEED: Directly answers the reader’s central question: after the LTTE threat was extirpated, Sinhalese nationalists did NOT let solidarity decay — they manufactured Muslims as the new enemy. Strong material for the external-enemy-sustains-solidarity essay.
• XREF: Connects to the sacred-values/resistance-to-compromise literature and to general scapegoat theory of group cohesion; ties to the volume’s theme of sacralization making political conflict intractable. — connects to: Groups reattached war-cultivated solidarity to new enemies after the old one vanished — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1324; Removing a named external threat intensifies rather than softens dominant-group nationalism. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1391; Domesticating the Muslim threat made it feel closer and more dangerous — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 236 (+7 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 3 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Groups reattached war-cultivated solidarity to new enemies after the old one vanished #expands (0.92) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1324
• When one manufactured enemy faded, nationalism simply found a new target form #corroborates (0.90) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1398
• Removing a named external threat intensifies rather than softens dominant-group nationalism. #corroborates (0.85) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1391
• Domesticating the Muslim threat made it feel closer and more dangerous #expands (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 236