Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday Massacre Lessons for the International Community

With political leaders compromising national security for personal gain, Islamic State exploited security gap and loopholes and staged a catastrophic terrorist attack in Sri Lanka Radical Islam is an enduring global challenge that presents a national and international security threat. Instigation by hate preachers, inadequate government and societal attention, and religious and reciprocal radicalization have allowed this threat to manifest into terrorist violence. Extremist ideologies have infiltrated religious, educational, and digital spaces and thus, terrorism’ s shadow continues to shroud the safety and stability of countries and communities worldwide today.

Rohan Gunaratna is Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore. He was founder of Singapore’ s International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.