• Over 1,500 students from diverse religious backgrounds attended an iftar event in Colombo.
• Less than 10% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are Muslims, with the majority being Sinhalese Buddhists.
• The event was held in the Battaramulla area, where Buddhism is predominantly practiced.

On Sunday, a Sri Lanka Muslim organization hosted an iftar in Colombo, inviting over 1,500 students from diverse religious backgrounds to promote interfaith understanding and dialogue.

Less than 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are Muslims, with the majority being predominantly Sinhalese Buddhists.

The students and their parents convened in the Sri Lankan capital for the event.

“Sri Lanka being a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country, we want to share our thoughts and benefits of iftar,” Siddi Farook, chairman of the event’s co-organizer, the Sri Lanka Muslim Civil Society, told the News.

“We aim to build bridges between communities.”

Following the 2019 Easter attacks in Colombo that killed at least 250 people, the SLMCS formed and has partnered with Soup Kitchen Sri Lanka for the Break Fast at Sunset events over the last three years. These events aim to promote a better understanding among the country’s diverse communities.

“The whole point is that we introduce how we as Muslims break our fasts, and how we do things in unity, and to make sure that people realize and understand what Muslim faith is all (about) to just show the beauty of Islam through simple things like iftar,” Zareena Akbarally, who is part of Soup Kitchen Sri Lanka, told the News.

This year, organizers held the iftar in the Battaramulla area, where residents predominantly practice Buddhism.

“We brought it to this area for the particular aim … to show them again what the process of iftar is, and introduce them and bring them and invite them to be a part of our culture … and our faith,” Akbarally said.

Buddhist monk Galkande Dhammananda Thero, chairman of the Walpola Rahula Institute, stated that the event presented a “great opportunity” for mutual understanding.

“It’s a great thing to understand each other, how each one practices their religion and to appreciate the valuable message that they are sharing. I’m really happy to see this,” Thero told the News.

“It is to understand each other, coming closer than only we can understand the value of the practice.”

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