Washington, DC: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States has urged the President Joe Biden and the Congress to probe the reports of discrimination and attacks against Muslims in Sri Lanka.
Responding to recent reports of Muslim minority communities being discriminated against and attacked by state and non-state actors in certain African countries and Sri Lanka, CAIR called on the Biden administration and Congress to investigate and respond to recent claims made by Amnesty International on Sri Lanka.
“State discrimination and violence against Muslim and minority faith communities should not just be condemned by our government but responded to in the form of punitive designations and sanctions – whether it is occurring in countries where Muslims are the majority or minority,” said CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw.
This week, Amnesty International issued the report “Sri Lanka: From burning houses to burning bodies: Anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in Sri Lanka.” The report documents incidents where Muslims have been targeted, attacked and discriminated against, by various state and non-state actors.
CAIR supported Amnesty International’s call on the Sri Lankan government to put an immediate stop to the increasing police, armed forces and communal violence – and discriminatory state policies – targeting the island’s Muslim minority.