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2014 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 20 11:05:55 | ලක්මාල් සුරියගොඩ

ජාතික බල සේනාවේ වටරැක විජිත හිමියන්ගේ  නඩුවකට පෙනී සීටීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නීතීඥ මෛත්‍රී ගුණරත්න මහතාට බැණ වැදුනේයැයි කියන බොදුබල සේනාවේ මහලේකම් ගලගොඩඅත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමියනට එරෙහිව කොම්පඤ්ඤවීදිය පොලිසිය අද  පැමිණිල්ලක් ගොනු කළේය.

නොවැම්බර පළමු වැනි දා ඒ හිමියනට එරෙහිව චෝදනා ගොනු කරන්නැයි කොළඹ කොටුව මහේස්ත්‍රාත් තිලිණ ගමගේ මහතා පොලිසියට නියෝග කළේය.

ඥානසාර හිමි පෙර ඇප මත මුදා හැරිණි.

http://www.lankadeepa.lk/index.php/articles/270185

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014 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 20 10:31:20 | පාරුක් තාජුඞීන්

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීතීඥ සංගමයේ සභාපති නීතීඥ උපුල් ජයසූරිය මහතා ලුහු බැඳ ගිය බව කියන පිරිස තවම හඳුනාගෙන නැතැයි ද, වීඩියෝ දර්ශන ඔස්සේ සැකකරුවන් හඳුනා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරන්නේයැයි ද කොළඹ අපරාධ කොට්ඨාසය අද කොළඹ ප්‍රධාන මහේස්ත්‍රාත් ගිහාන් පිලපිටිය මහතාට දැන්වීය.

පැමිණිල්ල ජනවාරි 15 වැනි දා නැවත කැඳවීමට නියමිතය.

http://www.lankadeepa.lk/index.php/articles/270172

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Australia lifts parliament ban on face coverings

Critics of the rule said women wearing niqabs or burkas were not an additional security threat

The Australian government has reversed a decision which would have restricted access to parliament in Canberra for women wearing full-face Islamic veils.

Earlier this month, parliament said anyone visiting the building with their face covered would have to sit in a separate area of the public gallery.

The move was widely seen as being aimed at Muslim women in burkas or niqabs, prompting discrimination accusations.

Officials said visitors would now have to show their face briefly to security.

"Once this process has taken place, visitors are free to move about the public spaces of the building, including all chamber galleries, with facial coverings in place," the Department of Parliamentary Services said in a statement.

The plans would have affected Muslim women wearing niqabs, full-length garments where only the eyes are visible, and burkas, where no part of the face can be seen.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The policy reversal apparently came after Tony Abbott suggested "common sense should prevail". The fact that everyone who enters Parliament House has to pass through a body scanner anyway might be one element of common sense he was referring to.”

Jon DonnisonBBC News, Sydney

• Read more from Jon

Stephen Parry, president of the Senate, said the initial ruling had been made because of rumours that a group of people were planning to attend prime minister's questions on 2 October wearing veils and stage a protest in the public gallery.

He said the measure was intended to be temporary and, as it had come on the last day of the parliamentary session, had never been enforced.

'Segregation'

Prime Minister Tony Abbott - who has previously described burkas as a "confronting" item of clothing which he wished people would not wear - had asked Speaker Bronwyn Bishop to "rethink that decision".

The rule came as Australia tightened parliamentary security because of fears of a terror attack

The rule had come amid growing concern about the threat of terror attacks in Australia and the involvement of Australian jihadists in the Islamic State (IS) militant group fighting in Iraq and Syria.

Australia has joined the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq, and domestically, police have conducted anti-terror raids in recent weeks.

But critics said that as everyone entering parliament was subject to security checks there was no reason for people with faces covered to be considered a specific threat.

Opposition Labor frontbencher and former immigration minister Tony Burke welcomed the reversal, saying the decision had been taking without proper security advice and for no good reason.

"In 2014 for two weeks, the official policy of the Australian parliament was to practice segregation and we need to ensure this does not happen again," he said in a statement.

There are about half a million Muslims in Australia, making up just over 2% of the population.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-29684846

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The University of Sydney has suspended a professor and government education adviser for sending racist emails.

Prof Barry Spurr referred to Aboriginal people as "human rubbish tips" and used racist terms to refer to Muslims and Asians in Australia.

The poetry professor said the emails were part of a "whimsical" game, but students are demanding his dismissal.

In a recent review of the curriculum, Prof Spurr had advised that schools teach less Aboriginal literature.

The emails were obtained by Australian magazine New Matilda, which said they had been sent to about a dozen people, including officials and academics at the university between September 2012 and late 2014.

In them Prof Spurr refers to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott an "Abo-lover" - an offensive term for Aborigines - and to Nelson Mandela as a "darky".

The magazine said he also referred to the "modern Brit" as "the scum of the earth".

'Mocking repartee'

Prof Spurr does not deny sending the emails but told New Matilda that they were part of a "whimsical linguistic game".

They were not a reflection of his views nor the recipients', but were "repartee, mocking, in fact, that very kind of extreme language", the magazine quoted him as saying.

He said he had always treated all his students with "equity and dignity".

The University of Sydney has said that racist, sexist or offensive language is not tolerated

Education Minister Christopher Pyne said in a statement the emails were a matter for Prof Spurr but called them "repugnant".

He said the government had not made the decision to appoint Prof Spurr as a consultant for the review of the national English curriculum. He was brought on as a specialist advisor by the heads of the review, he said.

One of Prof Spurr's contributions to the review had been to advise the government to focus less on teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature. Instead he advocated a stronger emphasis on Western writing.

Prof Spurr wrote that "the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on literature in English in Australia has been minimal and is vastly outweighed by the impact of global literature in English, and especially that from Britain, on our literary culture".

Michelle Rowland, the opposition spokesperson on multiculturalism, said Mr Pyne could not just distance himself from the comments.

"The buck must surely stop with someone, and it must stop with the minister," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The University of Sydney said in a statement: "Racist, sexist or offensive language is not tolerated at the University of Sydney."

The university has suspended Prof Spurr but the the BBC's Jon Donnison in Sydney said students there are calling for him to be sacked.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-29655458

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16 ඔක්තෝබර් 2014 අවසාන වරට යාවත්කාලීන කළේ 18:15 GMT

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12 October 2014 Last updated at 14:35

Rebuilding Gaza: Donors pledge millions at Cairo summit

The war in Gaza destroyed an estimated 18,000 homes and more than 100 schools

International donors are pledging hundreds of millions of dollars to help rebuild Gaza at a conference in Cairo.

The US has committed $212m (£132m) in aid while Qatar has promised $1bn (£622m). The UK will give $32m (£20m).

The Palestinian Authority is appealing for a total $4bn (£2.5bn) to rebuild Gaza after the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas.

At least 100,000 Gazans lost their homes in the war and much of the territory's infrastructure was damaged.

Earlier the Palestinian and Egyptian presidents called on Israel to commit to a long-term peace initiative.

Mahmoud Abbas and Abdul Fattah al-Sisi urged Israel to give up land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and accept a fair solution for Palestinian refugees in exchange for full recognition.

The seven-week Gaza conflict, which ended in a truce on 26 August, killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, the UN says, along with 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel.

Cycle of conflict

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that with winter approaching, the thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes needed urgent help.

"The people of Gaza do need our help desperately, not tomorrow, not next week, but they need it now" he said at the conference.

He added that anything other than a long-term commitment to peace would be a "band-aid fix".

The Palestinian Authority says it needs $4bn for reconstruction efforts in Gaza

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and envoys from dozens of countries are attending the Cairo conference, which is hosted by Egypt's President Sisi.

At the opening of the conference, President Sisi urged "the Israelis, both the people and the government" to put an end to the conflict.

"We should turn this moment into a real starting point to achieve a peace that secures stability and flourishing and renders the dream of coexistence a reality," he said.

Mr Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, said it was "time for truth and justice to prevail".

Correspondents say some neighbourhoods in Gaza resembled earthquake zones following intense bombardment from Israel during the war. The Israeli air strikes had sought to halt rocket-fire from Gaza.

Contentious issue

The two sides have fought three wars in six years.

Israel was not invited to the conference but Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said any rebuilding efforts would need his government's consent.

"You can't reconstruct Gaza without Israeli participation and without Israeli co-operation," he told news website Ynet ahead of the meeting on Sunday.

"In any case, we will try to be positive about the civil infrastructure and the rehabilitation of civilians."

Rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel during the recent conflict. The two sides have fought three wars in six years

Rebuilding depends on Israel allowing in enough construction materials, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo reports.

This is a contentious issue because Hamas has used cement to build tunnels into Israeli territory in the past, our correspondent adds.

Hour of need

Announcing the UK's $32m donation in Cairo, International Development Minister Desmond Swayne said the international community could not continue to pick up the pieces of the conflict indefinitely.

"It is critical that reconstruction efforts now form part of a process of meaningful political change," he said.

"The UK will continue to stand alongside the people of Gaza in their hour of need, but this must be the last time that we see Gaza being rebuilt."

The Gaza Strip, sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, has been a recurring flashpoint in the Israel-Palestinian conflict for years.

Israel occupied Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war and pulled its troops and settlers out in 2005. Israel considered this the end of the occupation, but it still exercises control over most of Gaza's borders, waters and airspace. Egypt controls Gaza's southern border.

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1 October 2014 Last updated at 08:58 BST

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October 9, 2014, 9:55 pm

M.M. Zuhair PC, in reply to the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) which had sought explanations with regard to four verses in the Holy Quran,dealing with warfare or jihad at a recent meeting it held in Colombo said " Explanations have been sought about Verses 2:193, 2:216, 5:33 and 9:5.The first of the above verses commences with Verse 2:190, "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you". This is a crystal clear exposition of the right of self-defense, recognized by all civilized nations. This verse debars believers in Allah’s message from initiating warfare or jihad. This is made clearer by the second part of Verse 2:190, "But do not transgress limits, for Allah loveth not transgressors".

All other verses in the Quran relating to conflicts or warfare, including the above listed verses co-exist with this verse, according to well established principles of interpretation, which can be explained in a class but not in a media release, because of space constraints.

One of the best known commentators of the Holy Quran, Yusuf Ali explains Verse 2:190 as follows; ‘War is permissible in self-defence and under well- defined limits’.

Verse 2:191 refers to persecution as worse than slaughter and the reference to slay the enemy comes in two situations or conditions, namely (1) where the believers are being persecuted by the enemy and/or (2) where the enemy has driven out the believers from their homes. Verse 2:192 enjoins the believers to cease, if those fighting them cease to fight. Verse 2:193 makes it clear that fighting is permitted ‘until there is no more persecution’ and the believer is able to practice the religion and furthermore enjoins against continued hostility, except to those who continue oppression. It, would be clear that jihad or warfare is clearly defensive and the circumstances and limitations are well defined.

The following verses make this matter easier to understand:

1. Verse 2:216 states that fighting is prescribed though one may dislike it. This verse co-exists with 2:190 referred to earlier which prohibits the believers from initiating conflicts or beginning hostilities and verse 2:192 which enjoins believers to cease if those fighting them cease to fight. Verse 2:216 cannot be followed by transgressing the circumstances and limitations laid down in verses 2:190 or 2:192 or 2:193.

2. In verse 5:33 the punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and commit mischief through the land has been provided. These are considered, according to Yusuf Ali as treasonable offences. Four alternative punishments have been prescribed, namely, execution, crucifixion, maiming or exile. Verse 5:34 provides the exemption from punishment for those who repent before surrender because Allah is forgiving and merciful. A feature that had been overlooked is that in almost every instance where the Quran prescribes punishments, the Quran has commended forgiving and exercising mercy repeating that Allah is forgiving and merciful. These are supported by the ‘Sunnah’ or ‘Sayings and Practices’ of Prophet Muhummed (OWBP).

3. The Quran in verse 9:1 provides for treaties with non-believers and mandates the believers in verse 9:4 to honour the treaties, unless breached by the non-believers. These verses underline co-existence between the Muslims and non-Muslims and not confrontations or conflicts. Verse 9:5 refers to the mode of fighting while the circumstances and limits of fighting are specified in Verses 2:190, 2:191 and 2:192 referred to earlier.

4. Verse 9:5 co-exists with the said quoted verses. Verse 9:5 provides further that that if the non-believer repents, believers are required not to bar their way, for Allah is forgiving and most merciful. Furthermore 9:6 requires the believers to grant asylum to the non-believers, if they seek asylum lest they may hear the truth and mandates further to provide the non-believer a secure or safe place of asylum.

5. Verse 60:8 encourages believers to "deal kindly and justly" even with those who fight you because Allah loves those who are just and in verse 60:8 Allah says that it may well be that Allah will establish friendship with those whom believers now hold as enemies.

In conclusion, it must be said that the prohibition against beginning conflicts or commencing hostilities runs like a golden thread in all war-fares or jihad throughout Islamic history, though abused by some in later years who misused the Islamic banner. Warfare or jihad in Islam is essentially defensive and never in the offensive. These are rules applicable for all times. Several provisions in the Quran convincingly confirm the position that forcible conversion for instance is against the fundamental principles laid therein. Verses 2:256, 2:272, 3:20, 4:143, 5:48, 10:99 and 18:29 are a few examples." -   mm_zuhair @yahoo.com

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=111811