Tamils and Muslims in Manaar, a town in the north of Sri Lanka, rallied on September 5 in solidarity with the Rohingya people of Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been forced to flee Myanmar in recent weeks due to military attacks.
Many Tamils and Muslims see similarities between the situations in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In both countries, Buddhism is the dominant religion and Buddhist monks have helped incite hatred against religious and ethnic minorities.
In Sri Lanka, Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism has provided ideological support for the government’s oppression of the Tamil people, resulting in a decades-long war. Recently, there has been a rise in attacks on Muslims.
In Myanmar, Buddhist monks have provided ideological support for the government's war on the Rohingya.