John Clifford Holt is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College. Author of more than a dozen books and many articles and chapters focused on the religious cultures of South and Southeast Asia, he has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Peradeniya, was selected as University of Chicago Alumnus of the Year, and has received four NEH and three Fulbright fellowships, as well as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

• Introduction By John Clifford Holt 1. Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism and Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka: One Hundred Years of Conflict and Coexistence By M. A. Nuhman 2. Rethinking Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka By Dennis B. McGilvray 3. Refuge in the State: Buddhist Monks and Virtuous Governmentality By Jonathan A. Young 4. Configurations of Buddhist Nationalism in Modern Sri Lanka By Benjamin Schonthal 5. Gossip, Rumor and Propaganda in Anti-Muslim Campaigns of the Bodu Bala Sena By Kalinga Tudor Silva 6. Adjudicating Antiquity: The Politics of Historical Confrontation at Devanagala, Sri Lanka By Philip Friedrich 7. Stories in the Aftermath of Aluthgama By Farzana Haniffa 8. A Religious Syntax to Recent Communal Violence in Sri Lanka By John Clifford Holt Bibliography Notes about Contributors

"Islamophobia has triggered communal violence and poisoned social relations in several Theravada Buddhist countries in recent years. Exploring the case of Sri Lanka, the present collection offers scholarship at its best: informative and stimulating, engaging and sophisticated. It presents original field observations, hard-hitting facts on Buddhist extremist derivations and comprehensive analyses, as it introduces the reader to the stunning complexity of thelives of Sri Lanka's Muslim minorities. Yet this is not just an insightful and timely collection of fine essays. It promises to be immensely useful as a resource for studying ethno-religious instabilityand will be required reading for anyone who takes an interest in contemporary Buddhist-Muslim relations." --Jacques P. Leider, École française d'Extrême-Orient, Yangon

John Clifford Holt is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College. Author of more than a dozen books and many articles and chapters focused on the religious cultures of South and Southeast Asia, he has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Peradeniya, was selected as University of Chicago Alumnus of the Year, and has received four NEH and three Fulbright fellowships, as well as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

• Introduction By John Clifford Holt 1. Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism and Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka: One Hundred Years of Conflict and Coexistence By M. A. Nuhman 2. Rethinking Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka By Dennis B. McGilvray 3. Refuge in the State: Buddhist Monks and Virtuous Governmentality By Jonathan A. Young 4. Configurations of Buddhist Nationalism in Modern Sri Lanka By Benjamin Schonthal 5. Gossip, Rumor and Propaganda in Anti-Muslim Campaigns of the Bodu Bala Sena By Kalinga Tudor Silva 6. Adjudicating Antiquity: The Politics of Historical Confrontation at Devanagala, Sri Lanka By Philip Friedrich 7. Stories in the Aftermath of Aluthgama By Farzana Haniffa 8. A Religious Syntax to Recent Communal Violence in Sri Lanka By John Clifford Holt Bibliography Notes about Contributors

"Islamophobia has triggered communal violence and poisoned social relations in several Theravada Buddhist countries in recent years. Exploring the case of Sri Lanka, the present collection offers scholarship at its best: informative and stimulating, engaging and sophisticated. It presents original field observations, hard-hitting facts on Buddhist extremist derivations and comprehensive analyses, as it introduces the reader to the stunning complexity of thelives of Sri Lanka's Muslim minorities. Yet this is not just an insightful and timely collection of fine essays. It promises to be immensely useful as a resource for studying ethno-religious instabilityand will be required reading for anyone who takes an interest in contemporary Buddhist-Muslim relations." --Jacques P. Leider, École française d'Extrême-Orient, Yangon

John Clifford Holt is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College. Author of more than a dozen books and many articles and chapters focused on the religious cultures of South and Southeast Asia, he has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Peradeniya, was selected as University of Chicago Alumnus of the Year, and has received four NEH and three Fulbright fellowships, as well as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

• Introduction By John Clifford Holt 1. Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism and Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka: One Hundred Years of Conflict and Coexistence By M. A. Nuhman 2. Rethinking Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka By Dennis B. McGilvray 3. Refuge in the State: Buddhist Monks and Virtuous Governmentality By Jonathan A. Young 4. Configurations of Buddhist Nationalism in Modern Sri Lanka By Benjamin Schonthal 5. Gossip, Rumor and Propaganda in Anti-Muslim Campaigns of the Bodu Bala Sena By Kalinga Tudor Silva 6. Adjudicating Antiquity: The Politics of Historical Confrontation at Devanagala, Sri Lanka By Philip Friedrich 7. Stories in the Aftermath of Aluthgama By Farzana Haniffa 8. A Religious Syntax to Recent Communal Violence in Sri Lanka By John Clifford Holt Bibliography Notes about Contributors

"Islamophobia has triggered communal violence and poisoned social relations in several Theravada Buddhist countries in recent years. Exploring the case of Sri Lanka, the present collection offers scholarship at its best: informative and stimulating, engaging and sophisticated. It presents original field observations, hard-hitting facts on Buddhist extremist derivations and comprehensive analyses, as it introduces the reader to the stunning complexity of thelives of Sri Lanka's Muslim minorities. Yet this is not just an insightful and timely collection of fine essays. It promises to be immensely useful as a resource for studying ethno-religious instabilityand will be required reading for anyone who takes an interest in contemporary Buddhist-Muslim relations." --Jacques P. Leider, École française d'Extrême-Orient, Yangon