Sri Lanka Charges Muslim Convert With Insulting Buddhism By Publishing Books

On Friday, the British-based Islamic Human Rights Commission reported on the upcoming trial in Sri Lanka of Sarah Malanie Perera, a Sri Lankan national who lives in Bahrain. While she was vacationing in Sri Lanka in March, she was detained by the Ministry of Defense under special emergency laws and charged with offending Buddhism. She was released on bail in April, but banned from traveling. Charges against her stem from two books she wrote describing her 1999 conversion from Buddhism to Islam. Authorities claim that writing the book in the Sinhalese language creates the insult. The trial was supposed to have begun on Saturday.