By A. Jathindra
Since the onset of Israel’s war on Hamas, the first incident of Israeli tourists facing terrorist threats abroad occurred in Sri Lanka. The war began on October 7 after Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage. In October, Israel’s National Security Council urged Israelis to leave Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay area and other beaches in the island’s south and west immediately, citing terrorism threats in the eastern part of Sri Lanka. This announcement from the Israeli Defense Ministry followed a warning from the US embassy in Sri Lanka, which stated it had “received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations” in eastern Arugam Bay.
Eastern Arugam Bay, a hotspot for surfing around 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Colombo by road, is a popular destination for Israeli tourists. The Indian Intelligence Agency had given a tip-off on October 7 that foreigners could be targeted, the local media reported, citing the Acting Inspector General of Police.
The Sri Lankan government has now received intelligence reports of attempts to propagate extremist ideologies within the Muslim population in the Eastern Province. Most of such activities have been reported from the Kalmunai area, prompting SIS and military intelligence units to increase monitoring. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala has confirmed this, highlighting evidence of a breeding ground for Islamic extremism in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake informed Parliament that six arrests were made following intelligence reports about possible attacks on tourists in the Arugam Bay area.
The April 2019 Easter attacks highlighted Sri Lanka’s vulnerability to the transnational Islamic Jihadi network. Up to 280 people, including foreigners, were killed in a series of suicide attacks orchestrated by ISIS-Sri Lanka (ISIS-S), which had its roots in Kattankudy, a predominantly Muslim area in the Eastern Province. The Zion Church in Batticaloa, one of the Catholic churches targeted, was symbolically selected due to the association of “Zion” with the Land of Israel.
The Eastern Province of Sri Lanka is an area where Muslims live in large numbers. Due to natural population growth and the migration of the main community, Hindu Tamils, Muslims are now approaching near-majority status in the Eastern Province. In the strategically important area of Trincomalee, Muslims are currently the majority community.
Given this background, the view that the Eastern Province belongs to Muslims has been slowly taking root among the Muslim polity for a long time. What many fail to see is that support for Palestine has been the basis for the penetration of Western and anti-Israel ideologies among Muslims in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.
In October 2022, a local media outlet reported that India and Israel were planning to invest jointly in the development of the agriculture sector in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. This plan was immediately opposed by Muslims, who viewed Indian-Israeli involvement in Sri Lanka as a disaster. This opposition was based on the belief that Israel should not be allowed to enter a place that belongs to Muslims.
The opportunity to engage with religious organizations in Islamic countries has created an environment conducive to the spread of Islamic extremist ideas in East Sri Lanka. Whenever jihadists gain prominence internationally or Islamic attacks on the United States and Israel occur, there is a celebratory spirit among Muslim groups in the Eastern Province. For instance, during al-Qaeda’s peak, Osama bin Laden’s translated speeches were distributed in some local mosques. All South Asian-based Jihadi groups endorsed Osama bin Laden’s global jihad declaration and regarded al-Qaeda as the vanguard of jihadism. The activities of jihadists from Gaza to Kashmir are indirectly celebrated among Muslim groups in East Sri Lanka. This has fostered a continuing environment of anti-Western and anti-Indian sentiment among the younger Muslim generation. It is within this context that the ideology of ISIS was able to easily penetrate Kattankudy in the Eastern part of Sri Lanka.
Moulavi M.C. Zahran, considered the architect of the Easter attack, has long been involved in the spread of jihadism in Sri Lanka. In August 2009, local media reported that he was the Propaganda Secretary of the Kattankudy-based Thawheed group. This group follows the Wahabi school, named after Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahab (1703-1792), described as the first modern Islamic fundamentalist.
Against this backdrop, Kattankudy has become known as the island of Islamic life, a fertile ground for Wahhabi-Sufi confrontations in Sri Lanka. Wahhabi-influenced youth from Kattankudy began targeting Sufis, who practice a mystical form of Islam. Grenades were thrown, and swords were thrust, resulting in hundreds of Sufis being forced from their homes. A 2007 academic policy paper warned that violence by hardline Muslims against Sufis in Sri Lanka could eventually lead to armed movements in parts of the country.
Some analysts incorrectly attribute the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka to the failure of successive Sri Lankan governments to address the socio-cultural, political, and economic grievances of the affected communities. In reality, Muslims in Sri Lanka should not be viewed as a community oppressed by the majority Sinhalese. Instead, they should be recognized as a community that has economically thrived by capitalizing on the civil war. Muslim politicians have held powerful ministerial positions in every government, including the ministries of foreign affairs and justice. The roots of Islamic extremism in Sri Lanka should be understood within the context of the religious global bond among Muslims. There are groups that identify themselves as global Muslims rather than citizens of a single country. It is within this framework that their jihadist mentality should be examined.
The Sri Lankan government failed to anticipate the potential rise of globally inspired Islamic fundamentalist groups during the civil war. By allowing the formation of Muslim Home Guards to counter Tamil separatist militancy, the government inadvertently created an opportunity for these fundamentalist groups. This environment facilitated their easy establishment and organization in the region. Consequently, the notion that the Eastern Province was their territory gradually took hold among Muslim extremist groups. This progression vividly illustrates how Wahhabi preaching evolved into ISIS-Sri Lanka.
The Iran-aligned Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group’s recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea exemplify how Islamic terrorism can serve as a proxy tool in geopolitical competition. Amidst global geopolitical rivalries, the rise of Islamic fundamentalist groups in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, a region of strategic investment for India—particularly the Trincomalee district—poses significant security concerns. This development threatens not only Sri Lanka’s security but also India’s national security. India’s longstanding security challenges with Pakistan are intricately linked to the broader transnational threat of terrorism.
South Asia has already witnessed the emergence of new jihadist groups. According to sources, many of these militant groups in South Asia draw their guidelines from al-Qaeda’s ideology and tactics, despite many being Deobandis while al-Qaeda adheres to Takfiri-Salafism. Al-Qaeda popularized the notion of Ghazwa-e-Hind to capture the imagination and loyalty of South Asian jihadists.
National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) in Sri Lanka, founded by Zaharan, and the rapidly growing Tamil Nadu Thoweed Jamath in southern India both aim to foment militant Islamic fundamentalism. These groups have maintained a relationship for over a decade, as noted by MEMRI, a Washington-based think tank on the Middle East. In this context, the growth of Islamic extremism in Sri Lanka is intrinsically linked to South Asia’s security landscape.
*The writer is a Sri Lankan-based independent political analyst and head of a think tank, Centre for Strategic Studies -Trincomalee (CSST). This article was published at The Centre for Strategic Studies — Trincomalee.
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