Kattankudy in Eastern Sri Lanka: A Mullah-Merchant Urban Complex Caught between Islamist Factionalism and Ethno-Nationalisms

In the changing economy of Sri Lanka and in its environment of political conflict, the situation of Muslims in the country, who are not a party to the ethno-nationalistic war, is worsening by the day. The politics of Muslims in the Eastern Province is a story of conflict within a conflict. In this province, Kattankudy, which has the largest Muslim settlement in the region, is one hundred percent Muslim and religiously conservative. These Muslims are also economically enterprising. However, an internally divisive Islamist factionalism and an externally constricting ethno-economic nationalism are converging to cripple the very survival of this urban community. The government appears to have become a dishonest broker in the middle, playing a double game to marginalise the Muslim community in order to appease a splinter Tamil group