Perspectives on violent extremism– de radicalization and integration

 Shantikumar Hettiarachchi

Published on Sep 27, 2015

Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi (PhD in majority-minority ethnic and religious conflict, Melbourne College of Divinity, University of Melbourne): Visiting Lecturer at Universities of Colombo and Kelaniya, Director, In Reach (Gte) (Ltd) and Consultant in Religion, Conflict and Social cohesion with his unique specialism in World Religions and their action and inaction in the public space. Worked extensively with community groups and social movements in Sri Lanka and studied them at depth both at community and post graduate levels. His primary research interests are in the Diaspora communities – their settlement processes, religious affiliations, political mobilisation, identity politics in social and cultural adjustments in the UK, Europe and Australia. Writings dwell on radicalization of religious faith; land, history and notions of chosen-ness as political tools to define identity. His most recent involvement has been in the rehabilitation, de-radicalisation and the community reintegration processes of ex-combatants in Sri Lanka’s post conflict period. A political critic of South Asian regional political arrangements and democratic processes and published over 25 articles on their thematic concerns. His publications include Turkish Muslims and Islamic Turkey: perspectives for a new European Islamic Identity? (Continuum, 2012) and is the author of the book ‘Faithing the Native Soil’ (CSR, Colombo, 2012) indicates his grasp of Sri Lanka’s religious landscape and it socio-political contestations in its post-colonial dynamics and the post war developments on an island-nation of South Asia.

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