Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In modern times, Muslims in Sri Lanka have the Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Department, which was established in the 1980s to prevent the continual isolation of the Muslim community from the rest of Sri Lanka. Today, about 9.7% of Sri Lankans adhere to Islam; [2] mostly from the Moor and Malay ethnic communities on the island.
Islam is the second-largest religion in South Asia, with more than 650 million Muslims living there, forming about one-third of the region's population. Islam first spread along the coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, almost as soon as it started in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Arab traders brought it to South Asia.
The Ministry of Muslim Religious Affairs is a ministry in the Government of Sri Lanka that represents and protects the interests of the Sri Lankan Muslims and the minority religion of Islam. The ministry was created on 21 January 2015 under the Sirisena government .
It was established in 1924 and incorporated by Act No. 51 of 2000 of the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. ACJU has established 25 districts and 163 divisional branches, and enrolled over 9000 theologians, most of whom are holders of doctorates, special degrees, master's degree or 1st degrees.
[28] [29] Islam is the dominant religion in half of the South Asian countries (Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Afghanistan). It is the second largest religion in India and third largest in Sri Lanka and Nepal. On the Indian subcontinent, Islam first appeared in the southwestern tip of the peninsula, in today's Kerala state.
Kechimalai Mosque, Beruwala. One of the oldest mosques in Sri Lanka. It is believed to be the site where the first Arabs landed in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese called the Muslims in India and Sri Lanka Mouros, after the Muslim Moors known to them in Iberia. [16] The word Moors did not exist in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Portuguese ...
This belongs to Sri Lanka's internal affairs. China believes that the Sri Lankan government and its people are capable of handling the current situation, and upholding Sri Lanka's social stability and ethnic solidarity. We also hope that Sri Lanka will take concrete measures to protect the security of Chinese citizens in Sri Lanka". [109]
Islam was spread to Sri Lanka by contacts with the merchant ships operated by the Moor traders between Serendib (Old Persian / Arabic name for Sri Lanka), and various ports in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. As per scholars, Sri Lankan Moors are descendant of the Marakkar, Mappilas, Memons and Pathans of South India. [14]