Muslims make up less than 10% of the population and have generally good relations with the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo.
It says that most of the Buddhist majority in the country are peace-loving and fair-minded, and that it is vital not to hurt their feelings or insult other faiths.
By an accident of colonial history, they were separated from Malaysia, with which they share language and religion, and ended up part of Thailand, with its Thai-speaking, Buddhist majority.
The island state has witnessed a violent insurgency for 25 years by the Tamil Tigers, a largely Hindu minority amid a mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.
Indeed, in Jaffna, TNA leaflets claimed that to vote for the ruling coalition would be to subject the peninsula to rule by Sri Lanka's mainly-Buddhist Sinhala majority.
The rebels in mostly Muslim southern provinces are fighting for greater autonomy from Buddhist-majority Thailand and carry out almost daily gun and bomb attacks against civilians and security forces.
Most of the residents are Muslims, unlike the majority Buddhist population in Thailand.
Mr Rajapaksa's military campaign is hugely popular among the Sinhalese Buddhist who make up the majority population.
War there has been waged between the Sri Lankan government, tending to represent the interests of Sri Lanka's majority, and predominately Buddhist, Sinhalese ethnic group, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who claim to represent the mostly Hindu Tamil minority.
Most of Sri Lanka's majority ethnic Sinhalese are Theravada Buddhist.
The Buddhist-backed New Komeito's 24 upper-house seats would give Mr Obuchi the majority he needs.
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