1 Hate Crimes Against Religious Minorities: A Case Study of Aluthgama Muslims in Sri Lanka Dr. Mohamed Shareef ASEES Faculty of Graduate Studies University of Colombo ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to explore the hate crimes against the religious minorities in Sri Lanka. A special focus will be given to the Aluthgama violence that took place in June 2014. It has been a year and month since the Muslims were attacked by the Sinhala hardliners in Aluthgama. The violence has caused 3 deaths and 88 injured. It is also reported that many houses (over 100) and business properties were looted and burnt during the violence. It is estimated that the violence in Aluthgama has caused around Rs. 600 million losses to the Muslim community. Sri Lanka is a multi ethnic country where Sinhalese (74%), Tamils (16%) and Muslims (10%) live with peace and harmony over thousand years. However, in the past few years some Sinhala extremist began their hate campaign against the religious minorities: Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Aluthgama was one of the biggest violence against the Muslim minorities in the recent years. It has created some fear among the Muslims and widened the gap and trust between the Sinhala majority and Muslim minorities. This research will employ the pluralism theory and utilize both primary and secondary data in order to explore the hate crimes in Aluthgama. One of the key findings of this article is that although the domestic government is responsible to protect its people due to some issues the Sri Lankan government failed to do so in Aluthgama area. Key words: Hate crimes, Religious minorities, Violence, Aluthgama 1. INTRODUCTION Hate crime is the violence of intolerance and prejudice, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives, arson, weapons, destruction, physical violence, and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims, leaving them vulnerable to more attacks and