ABSTRACT
In Sri Lanka, food consumption practices are a flash issue that can lead to great conflict and animosity. An alarming number of Sinhala Buddhists who maintain nationalistic sentiments have banded together to oppose Islam. Their view is that Islamic halal practices are immoral and un-Buddhist and, furthermore, represent a threat to the purity of Buddhism on the island. The main source of this islamophobia comes from the cow protection and halal abolitionism movements. Both Bodu Bala Sena and Sinhala Ravaya are engaged in activities to try and prevent the slaughter of cattle and the production of halal food. One way of distinguishing between the cow protection movement and the halal abolitionism movement is that the halal abolitionism can be defined as a type of cow protectionism. Halal abolitionism is a distinctly anti-Muslim species of the cow protection movement.
