A Sri Lankan Catholic cardinal appealed to the country’s Muslims on April 21 to reject extremism and join Catholics in determining the truth behind Easter Sunday suicide bombings in 2019 that killed 269 people.
Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith made the appeal during a commemoration of the second anniversary of the attacks.
Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders joined the commemoration at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, where the first bomb exploded during its Easter service. They offered prayers and observed a two-minute silence to remember the dead.
Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have been blamed for the six near-simultaneous blasts at two Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church and three tourist hotels.
Ranjith said players in global geopolitics and their local agents find religious extremism a useful instrument in achieving their goals.