Sri Lanka: Minister Admits 32 Muslims Have Joined Islamic State

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More than 30 Sri Lankan Muslims have joined the so-called Islamic State in Syria, said Sri Lanka’s justice minister who added that they came from well-educated families.

Speaking in parliament, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said that 32 young Muslims from “well-educated and elite” families had joined the extremist group.

“All these [Muslims] are not from ordinary families. These people are from the families which are considered as well-educated and elite,” Reuters reported Rajapakshe as saying.

Rajapakshe added that the authorities were aware of foreigners coming to Sri Lanka to spread what he described as Islamic extremism.

The justice minister’s statement has been condemned by Muslim organizations who say it is racist politicking.

Muslims make up 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people.

UCA News

The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.

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