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Thousands of Sri Lankans have attended a rally launching a campaign calling for the boycott of Halal meat.
The campaign, led by Buddhist fundamentalists of the Bodu Bala Sena, calls for all stores to clear Halal products from their shelves by April.
"More than 90 percent of the population are Buddhists, Hindus and Christian and therefore there is no justification to force them to eat halal products," Buddhist monk Kirama Wimala Jothi said in a statement.
The monk also called on the government to outlaw Muslims from issuing Halal certificates.
Nationalist speeches made by monks were enthusiastically received by the vast crowds.
Bodu Bala Sena’s general secretary Venerable Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara, told the crowds that "only monks can save” the Sinhalese race, reported the BBC.
"Our country is a Sinhalese one and we are its unofficial police," he said.
Another member of the group said that some foreign countries were "funding Christian fundamentalists as well as Muslim fundamentalists" in Sri Lanka.
Rauff Hakeem, justice minister and leader of the SLMC, the largest Muslim party in Sri Lanka, bizzarely claimed last month that anti-Muslim incidents on the island could be due to an "international conspiracy".
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