Nov 17, 2019

Civil war defense chief wins Sri Lanka presidential election

Axios

Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a rally. Photo: Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the defense secretary during Sri Lanka's civil war, has won the island nation's presidential election, BBC News reports.

Why it matters: This is Sri Lanka's first election since the Easter Sunday terror attacks that left 277 dead earlier this year.

What to know: Axios world editor Dave Lawler writes that Rajapaksa is known for crushing the Tamil Tigers a decade ago as defense minister — and allegedly committing war crimes in the process. His brother, Mahinda, was president then and is expected to return as prime minister.

  • Many minorities fear the election of a president associated with Buddhist hardliners, particularly at a time of intense animosity toward Muslims in the wake of April’s attacks, Deutsche Welle reports.

Zoom out: The U.S. and China are competing for influence in South Asia, particularly in this "strategically located but heavily indebted Indian Ocean island nation," the FT's Amy Kazmin reports from Colombo.

  • Relations with the West suffered during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s strongman presidency (2005–2015), and he turned to China. He allegedly profited personally from Chinese-funded projects, the FT notes.
  • The current administration repaired relations with the U.S. and India, but it was riven with infighting and was unpopular.

Go deeper: Sri Lanka's Muslims face persecution in wake of terror attacks

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Rashaan Ayesh

India passes restrictive citizenship amendment targeting Muslim migrants

Protest against the Indian government's citizenship amendment bill. Photo: Arindam Dey/AFP/Getty Images

India passed a citizenship amendment on Wednesday that, for the first time, makes religion a criterion of acquiring Indian nationality, the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: Concerns continue to grow that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is turning the country into a Hindu nationalist state. The amended citizenship law creates a pathway to citizenship for Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Sikh migrants who fled from Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2015, but excludes Muslims entirely, Al Jazeera reports.

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Orion Rummler

Global gun violence targets worshippers of all faiths

The Al -Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand on Sept. 13. Photo: Tessa Burrows/Getty Images

Hundreds of clergy and worshippers of various faiths were killed at temples, synagogues, churches and mosques around the world this year, AP reports.

The big picture: The Christchurch mosque attacker killed 51 people and the event led to international calls to action against online extremism and terrorism fueled by white supremacist ideology. But other attacks gained sparse international attention, like a deadly Dec. 1 shooting at a Protestant church in the West African country Burkina Faso.

Go deeperArrowDec 14, 2019
Dave Lawler

India's citizenship bill continues Modi's Hindu nationalist offensive

Demonstrators and security personnel Dec. 12 in Guwahati. Photo: Biju Boro/AFP via Getty

India's parliament passed a bill this week that would link citizenship to religion for the first time in the country's history.

Why it matters: This is the latest in a series of steps by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that could "fuel the sentiment that Muslims are a kind of permanent underclass," says Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment. "The damage that could do to the social fabric is potentially enormous."

Go deeperArrowDec 13, 2019