Buddhist Fundamentalism in Sri Lanka

This isn't particularly new, but since the civil war is still going on in Sri Lanka it's still relevant. In A Review of Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka a quote from the book is given:

In their reading of Buddhism, Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalists identify Buddhist Sinhalas as the people who have been charged by the Buddha himself to maintain and protect Buddhism. In addition, they identify the island of Sri Lanka as dhammadipa, the island (dipa) of the dhamma, the Buddhist teachings. The identity between the Sinhala people and the dhamma, based on a reading of the fifth century Sri Lankan "mythohistory," the Mahavamsa, has contributed to the notion that Sri Lanka, destined to be the island of the dhamma, should be dominated by Buddhists (p. 2).

It's important to note here that the Mahavamsa is not part of the Pali Canon and is not considered a canonical text. In any case, this shows that people can turn any religion toward a sort of "right wing" ideology based on identity if they try hard enough.

So far, from my reading though, it seems like it's hard to do this using the Pali Canon itself.

The reviewer does point out that the author concludes that since the 1980s the struggles in Sri Lanka have more to do with ethnic identity rather than religious identity indicated by a disassociation between Sinhala and Tamil Catholics.