MILITANT BUDDHISM may sound like a contradiction in terms, especially while Islamic holy war is hogging the headlines. Nevertheless, in one of its periodic flare-ups in Sri Lanka, extremist Buddhist nationalism is threatening both the physical safety and the legal rights of that nation’s Christian minority.

For purposes of comparison, consider: Sri Lanka is witnessing attacks on Christians at a rate far higher than the much noted wave of anti-Semitic violence in France. While church burnings and assaults on pastors and congregations have been mounting since the late 1990s, they apparently reached a crescendo early this year.