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Rising attacks against Muslims by Buddhist supremacist groups raise questions about community’s safety. Last updated: 21 Jun 2014 08:36

Ameen Izzadeen Ameen Izzadeen is the deputy editor of the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka and International Editor of the Wijeya Newspaper Group, Sri Lanka. He also writes a weekly column for the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka. RSS

Although President Rajapaksa pledged action, the affected people are not convinced and want BBS banned [AFP]

Never again 1983! Sri Lankans had so resolved after the horrors of the July 1983 - the darkest and the bloodiest month in the island nation's post-independence history, the month that plunged this country into a 26-year separatist war, the month that brought an international shame on the South Asian country. Even when Buddhism's holiest shrine in Sri Lanka - the Temple of the Tooth, the Buddhist equivalent of Muslim Mecca - was bombed by the separatist terrorists, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1998, the Sinhalese, who account for 74 percent of the country's population, restrained themselves despite widespread anger. Their patience in the face of the provocation was a shining example of what Buddhism had taught. They thwarted the terrorists' plan to trigger a Sinhala-Buddhist backlash against the country's Tamils who make up 12 percent of the population, and thereby winning the world's support in the fight against the LTTE's armed rebellion for a separate state. The Sinhala Buddhist magnanimity was also evident when they celebrated the war victory in May 2009. No Tamil was harmed by the jubilant Sinhala people. Against this backdrop, the anti-Muslim mob violence this week in three coastal towns in the country's southwest appears to be an attempt to tarnish Buddhism's image as a philosophy of non-violence. Ironically, a Buddhist extremist group called Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) - meaning the army of the Buddhist power - led by ethno-fascist monks is in the forefront of the violence. Inside Story - Who is behind Sri Lanka's religious violence? The very name of the group runs counter to the four sublime states the Buddha wanted his followers to manifest: Love or loving-kindness (metta in Pali), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha). My Buddhist friends who watched the video clip containing the speech the BBS's de facto chief Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara made hours before the mob attack on Muslims in Aluthgama, Dharga town and Beruwala were livid. They said: How could he call himself a Buddhist monk? They could not understand why the police did not arrest him on a charge of spreading hate speech that drugged thousands of his followers to go on a rampage and attack Muslim houses, businesses and mosques in areas not far from the place where the first Muslim Arab traders landed in the eighth century AD. My Tamil friends were equally upset. They said they could understand the Muslim anger, fear and pain as this week's riots rekindled their memories of July 1983. One of them said she had felt for the first time in her life the pain of fear and being alienated when mobs came hunting for Tamils. Another related his story of how his Colombo house was burnt to ashes and how he and his family ran to a nearby Hindu temple to save their lives and lived there with little or no food among thousands of other Tamils for several days. Role of social media The stories we heard this week about the anti-Muslim riots were no different. The violence, which broke out on June 15 following a confrontation between a Buddhist monk and Muslim youths over an accident, has left a sense of fear among the Muslim community. Unlike the Tamils, many Muslims, who form 10 percent of the population, live among the Sinhalese and are scattered across the island nation. With the mainstream media downplaying the latest incident in an apparent bid to prevent the news from sparking further violence in other areas, the social media played a key role in disseminating news with videos, photographs and texts. Unlike the 1983 anti-Tamil riots, the social media made a big difference this time around giving us the news as it happened and let Sri Lankan leaders know that the world was watching. The hate speech of the BBS monk Gnanasara, who is being described as Sri Lanka's Ashin Wirathu - the monk who calls himself "Burma's bin Laden" - was circulated widely on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. We saw the mob charging and attacking houses and burning shops. We heard the cries of trapped Muslims inside mosques and the screams of two little girls who lost their father in the violence. As to who started the riots and who provoked whom, accounts vary and are vague. As Monday dawned, the three coastal towns were still under siege, with the Muslims accusing the police of enforcing the curfew only in their areas and taking little or no action against the mobs. An eerie calm has prevailed in the capital, Colombo, and its suburbs - home to a large number of middle class Muslims. The news about the attack on a pharmacy in Dehiwala on the outskirts of Colombo was making rounds on social media on Monday. Many Muslim parents did not send their daughters to school, while other Muslim girls were advised to remove their hijabs and long Panjabi trousers and hide them in their school bags at the slightest sign of any trouble. This indicates that Muslims' identity has become a liability in post-civil war Sri Lanka.   As Muslims in the beleaguered towns still languish in agony and live in mosques and schools, there is little or no assurance that there would be no more anti-Muslim violence. Although, President Mahinda Rajapaksa soon after returning from Bolivia on June 18 rushed to the violence-hit areas and pledged action against the troublemakers, the affected people are not convinced. Stripped of their dignity and wealth, the Muslims want action against the perpetrators. They want the BBS banned and its leaders arrested. They ask if the president could get rid of the LTTE, why he is finding itdifficult to deal with the BBS. The frequency of attacks on minorities by members of hardline Buddhist groups - the BBS and its front groups - has been growing each passing day. Police inaction in bringing the perpetrators to justice has emboldened them to carry out more attacks not only on Muslims, but also on Christian places of worship. A member of a group calling itself "the Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena" told me in an interview last year that the situation was taking a dangerous turn because the BBS was planting seeds of hatred even in tender minds - children who attend Sunday schools conducted by the group's followers or sympathisers. Many critics connect the police inaction with the BBS' alleged links with Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of President Rajapaksa. But he has denied any such links. As a chilling warning to the Muslims that it was not over yet, a Buddhist monk, Wataraka Vijitha Thera - who has earned the wrath of the BBS for working for amity among Sri Lanka's different ethnic groups - was found lying unconscious on Thursday in a shrub in Panadura, a town 35km from Aluthgama. His hands and feet were tied. He told police that he was abducted and attacked by some monks. The alleged police inaction and the government's failure to crack down on hate speech as well as this week's violence, point to the breakdown of the rule of law, questioning the president's claim that "there are no minorities in this country. All are equal". In the aftermath of the latest violence, the Muslims want to say it loud: "We are Muslims, we are Sri Lankans." The anti-Muslim violence has set back Sri Lanka's march towards that haven of freedom, into which all citizens want their country move. That was what many Sri Lankans dreamt of when the separatist war ended in May 2009. But it will remain a dream if the likes of Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara enjoy freedom to spread hate speech. Ameen Izzadeen is the deputy editor of the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka and International Editor of the Wijeya Newspaper Group, Sri Lanka. He also writes a weekly column for the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/06/muslim-identity-liability-sri-l-201462075937574567.html

Source: Al Jazeera

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June 20, 2014, 9:14 pm

By Izeth Hussain

It is evident that after the anti-Muslim action in Alutgama and Beruwela on June 15 and the days following, the Sri Lankan Muslim problem has entered a new phase. There is no need for me to recapitulate the well-known details pointing to the government’s complicity in the anti-Muslim action. Indeed it is more than complicity, and what happened should be properly regarded as a governmental anti-Muslim racist pogrom. What happened is not novel because it is the kind of thing that has been going on for the last couple of years or so. What is novel are the sustained and meticulously planned attacks on Muslim business establishments. This fits into the racist paradigm to which I have referred in earlier articles. According to this paradigm the Sinhalese, more particularly the Sinhalese Buddhists, should be at the apex of a hierarchical structure, a programme that required the kicking down of the Tamils. It is now the turn of the Muslims to be kicked down.

Admittedly, what I have written above could be a simplification of the prevailing situation, because I have not taken into account what might be called the existential fears of the Sinhalese people, fears that go well beyond the supporters of the BBS. That is true, but it is not germane to my present purpose, which is to point the finger directly at the government as playing the crucial role in a racist anti-Muslim project. My point is that those existential fears are themselves the product of anti-Muslim racist propaganda. It should have been recognised as the duty of the government to counter that propaganda. Of course it did nothing of the sort because – just like our earlier governments – it has in effect acknowledged as its only duty in the ethnic field as that of establishing and maintaining the supremacy of the Lion Race.

What should the Muslims do to safeguard their legitimate interests, to live in peace and dignity with their Sinhalese compatriots, as the majority of the Sinhalese themselves would wish? First of all we must recognise that their present options are far wider than they would have been in 1983. The government seems to be proceeding in its anti-Muslim project on the assumption that it can degrade the Muslims to second or third class status – the Tamils being already reduced to second class status – by stages, avoiding the provocation of a July ’83 holocaust. The government today gives permission to the BBS to hold a rally in Aluthgama – a decision deplored by no less than the BBS President himself – and the police look on while the racist mob torches Muslim business premises. Tomorrow and the day after the process can be replicated in Colombo and elsewhere until all major Muslim business is taken over by the Lion Race. But the international community has reacted in a way that would have been unimaginable in 1983, and so has the civil society in Sri Lanka – I need not go into details. These reactions seem to signify that the peoples of the world are making themselves heard, that the wretched of the earth are arising. It could be that the racist neo-Fascists in Sri Lanka and elsewhere are not going to have an easy time.

One development in the civil society, still at an inchoate stage, could hold out much hope for the future. There seems to be a growing realisation that society is something like a seamless web in which what happens in one part impacts on the others. It means that what is done to the minorities today could be done to the majority tomorrow. In July ’83 the Sinhalese power elite and its henchmen sank into the reptilian and the bestial. The holocaust against the defenseless Tamils was organised meticulously in a cold-blooded way – hence my term "reptilian" – by and with the knowledge of the top racists of the Jay Gang. Thereafter the racist mobs were given the licence to sink into bestiality. The JVP, which was utterly racist at that time, enjoyed it all thoroughly. But towards the end of that same decade the JVP were ruthlessly butchering their fellow Sinhalese and were ruthlessly butchered in return. In several areas of Sri Lanka the youths were subjected to indiscriminate butchery on a horrifying scale. The paradise isle was drenched in blood and the greater part of it was transformed into a cemetery. An atrophy of the moral sensibility was shown by the Sinhalese power elite towards the Tamil minority in July ’83, and thereafter the Sinhalese majority itself paid a terrible price for that. Today the Muslim minority is being systematically denied the rule of law, and the Sinhalese majority is being denied it sporadically. Tomorrow–as the Bar Association of Sri Lanka seems to understand quite well–the Sinhalese majority will also be denied it systematically. It does seem that society is a seamless web.

What specifically should the Sri Lankan Muslims do to safeguard their legitimate interests? I used to be against our Muslims internationalising their internal ethnic problem but today unlike in 1983, internationalisation is impossible to avoid. The Organisation of Islamic Countries comprising 57 member states – the largest international organization outside the UN – has made its statement on the recent anti-Muslim action, and the UN has spoken through the voice of Navy Pillay. The leader of the SLMC, Rauf Hakeem, has urged the Government to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues to take action on the present situation in Sri Lanka. Every Muslim political Party and every Muslim politician should back Hakeem’s highly commendable move.

Internally, the Muslims should focus on two areas, the ongoing national struggle to make the Government respect the rule of law, and secondly the issues that have been bedeviling Muslim-Sinhalese relations for decades. I believe that it is crucially important to make Muslim action in these two areas part of a national struggle to bring about a better Sri Lanka. The campaign to make the government respect the rule of law is already under way, and the Muslims should support that campaign in every way possible. As for the issues bedeviling Muslim-Sinhalese relations, individual Muslims such as myself can write articles on them – and that certainly is necessary – but their usefulness will be limited as individual Muslims may not be seen as having much of a representative capacity. What really is required is a group consisting mainly of Muslims and Sinhalese to put together papers on those issues in a readable form, aimed mainly at opinion-makers and decision-makers. That could be followed by translations into the vernaculars to reach a wider audience.

The project that I have in mind will take some time to mature. In the meanwhile I propose writing some articles on some of those issues, focusing initially – if I can get sufficient data on them – on those that seem to be seen as posing an existential threat to the Sinhalese. One is the spread of Wahabism, or what might more appropriately be called "political Islam". The second is the supposed demographic threat according to which the Muslims are multiplying so fast that before long Sri Lanka will become a predominantly Muslim country. The third is the alleged economically privileged position of the Muslims. All three issues, I believe, are nonsensical, but I believe also that it will be irresponsible and stupid to dismiss them as unworthy of serious consideration because they are nonsensical. The point is that the nonsensical could have behind it irrational fears, but those irrational fears could be very real, and besides irrational fears could carry a high incendiary potential. The government will not address those irrational fears because they accord nicely with its own anti-Muslim project. It is up to the civil society to address them.   -     This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=105430

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June 20, 2014, 9:44 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that proscription of extremist organisations isn’t a problem, but such action does not guarantee that there won’t be further religious strife.

The President said so in response to leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) and Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, MP, (Vanni District) at last Thursday’s UPFA party leaders’ meeting at Temple Trees.

Among those present at the party leaders’ meeting were Ministers, Basil Rajapaksa, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Dinesh Gunawardena, Rauff Hakeem, Wimal Weerawansa, Champika Ranawaka, Dallas Alahapperuma, Susil Premjayantha, Dew Gunasekera, Tissa Vitharana and Prabha Ganeshan.

Minister Weerawansa participated in a Cabinet meeting after having skipped five in a bid to pressure the government to accept the NFF’s 12-point plan to change the direction of the ruling coalition.

Referring to a statement made by National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa, MP, at the weekly cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Minister Bathiudeen urged the president to proscribe all extremist groups regardless of their ethnicity. Minister Bathiudeen said that extremist organisations should be banned as all agreed to the need for drastic action.

Minister Weerawansa told the Cabinet that Sinhala and Muslim extremists were responsible for the Alutgama violence. The NFF leader said that the problem could be solved only if both parties took remedial measures in the wake of the latest bout of violence.

President Rajapaksa pointed out that extremist actions couldn’t be tackled by arresting those violating laws.

The president alleged that there had been some serious violations of the Constitution by some members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Although they could be arrested, such activities couldn’t be stopped, the president said, adding that those undermining the constitution would seek political gains in case the government arrested them.

When the cabinet took up Alutgama issue, SLMC leader Hakeem directly accused the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) of carrying out last Sunday’s attack. The president pointed out that there were several other matters which contributed to this situation and all parties should act responsibly to defuse the crisis.

Minister Bathiudeen who had been at logger heads with the BBS leadership for some time alleged that members of the BBS weren’t behaving like monks. Their actions were an embarrassment to the Buddhist clergy, the minister said. The president stressed the need to settle the issue, while recalling the circumstances under which a certain Muslim religious leader made a disparaging remark about Lord Buddha. Such a statement could hurt feelings, the president said.

Minister Bathiudeen said that Muslim religious leader had been punished by the judiciary and the sect he belonged to too advised him against such talk.

The president said that the government wasn’t responsible for Alutgama mayhem promoting Minister Hakeem to say the Muslims held the police accountable for the situation.

Amidst fiery words Minister Weerawansa proposed a religious conference to iron out differences.

However, Minister Bathiudeen asserted that trouble erupted because the BBS launched a demonstration in Alutgama.

Responding to Bathiudeen, JHU heavyweight Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said that they heard of an attack on a Buddhist monk. Speculation was rife that the monk was in a critical condition and that he could even die. "Therefore, I visited the monk and realized that there was no basis for this claim."

Minister Hakeem blamed the police for failing to take remedial action though posters appeared three days before last Sunday’s protest urging people to join the campaign.

Minister Ranawaka reacted angrily when Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara alleged that the JHU was shielding the BBS.

Minister Bathiudeen reiterated that the BBS demonstration caused mayhem.

Minister Weerawansa pointed out that trouble started after missiles were thrown from nearby mosque at BBS members as they were leaving after the meeting.

The president said that action would be taken against all those responsible for violence irrespective of ethnicity.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=105450

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The police have beefed up security in Alutgama, Beruwala as well as Colombo and its suburbs following recent violent upheavals there even though the situation has been brought under control and peace restored. Here a traffic constable assists a little boy proceeding for Friday’s prayers to the Jumma mosque at Maradana, cross the road. Pic by Kamal Bogoda http://www.island.lk/

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Video by - Ramesh Niroshan

http://www.gossiplankanews.com/2014/06/no-limit-fire-at-panadura.html#more

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ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිම් ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් හා ඔවුන්ගේ ආර්තාකය විනාශ කිරීමේ සංවිධානාත්මක වැඩපිලිවෙලක් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ යයි ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග‍්‍රසය ජාත්‍යන්තරයට පැමිණිලි කර ඇත.

ඇමතිවරයා විසින් මෙම පැමිණිල්ල ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත්තේ මුස්ලිම් රටවල් රැසක කොළඹ පිහිටි තානාපති කාර්යාල හරහායි.

පසුගියදා අලූත්ගම හා බේරුවල ඇති වූ සිද්ධිවලින් පසුව ඇමතිවරයා අදාල තානාපතිවරුන් සමඟ විශේෂ සාකච්චා පවත්වා ඇතැයිද වාර්තා වෙයි.

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පසුගිය දිනවලදී අලූත්ගම හා බේරුවල ප‍්‍රදේශවල ඇති වූ ගැටුම් නිසා සිදු වූ දේපළ හා ජීවිත හානි සම්බන්ධයෙන් නීතිමය පියවර ගැනීමට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග‍්‍රසය තීරණය කර ඇත.

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග‍්‍රසයේ නායක අමාත්‍ය රාවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා පවසන්නේ ඒ අනුව එම හානිය පිළිබඳව නීතිපතිවරයාට පැමිණිලි කර ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සමක් ගොනු කරන බවයි.

සිදු වූ ගැටුම් වලදී ප‍්‍රදේශයේ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට බරපතළ හානියක් සිදු වූ අතර ඔවුන්ගේ දේපළ විනාශයක් සිදු වී ඇති බවට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට කරුණු ගොනු කරන බවද කී ඇමතිවරයා මේ වන විට ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගනිමින් සිටින බවද කීවේය.

 

http://lankacnews.com/sinhala/news/117776/

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තමන් රට ජාතිය ආගම ගැන කතා කරන්නේ කිසිදාක දේශපාලනයට පිවිසීමේ අරමුණින් නොවන බව බොදු බල සේනා මහ ලේකම් පූජ්‍ය ගලබොඩඅත්තේ ඥාණසාර හිමියෝ පවසති.

මේ සියල්ල සිදු කරන්නේ විශාල අනතුරක් මධ්‍යයේ බවත්  බොදු බල සේනා හා තමන්ගේ ෆේස්බුක් ගිණුම් අවහිර කිරීම ගැන දැඩිව වේදනාවට පත්ව සිටින බවත් කියති.

තම සංවිධානය පසුපස ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා සිටින්නේ යයි නැගෙන චෝදනා ප‍්‍රතික්‍ෂෙප කරන උන් වහන්සේ මුස්ලිම් දේහපාලන නායකයන් විවෘත සංවාදයකට පැමිණ ප‍්‍රශ්න නිරාකරණය කර ගැනීමට ඉදිරිපත් විය යුතු යයිද සඳහන් කරති.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/sri_lanka/2014/06/140621_lanka_nolimit_fire.shtml

පානදුර නගරයේ පිහිටි ‘නෝලිමිට්’(Nolimit) වෙළෙඳ සැල අද,සෙනසුරාදා උදෑසන ගිනිබත් වූ බවක් වාර්තා වෙයි.

මුස්ලිම් ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් සතු ‘නෝලිමිට්’(Nolimit) වෙළෙඳ ව්‍යාපාරයේ විශාලතම වෙළෙඳ සැල වූයේ ගිනිබත් පානදුර ශාඛාවයි.

සබැඳි යොමු

• මුස්ලිම් හිංසනයට එරෙහිව රට පුරා හර්තාල්
• බේරුවල අවතැන් වුවෝ උද්ඝෝෂණයක
• මඩකලපුවේ මුස්ලිම් හර්තාලයක්

වැඩි තොරතුරු සඳහා තවත් යොමු

සබැඳි තේමා

ගින්නට නියත හේතුවක් තවමත් නිගමනය කොට නැති අතර ඇතැම් වාර්තාවන්ට අනුව එය පෙට්රල් බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාරයක් වන අතර තවත් වාර්තාවකින් පැවසෙන්නේ ගින්නට හේතුව විදුලිය කාන්දු වීමක් වන බවයි.

අධිකරණ ඇමති රවුෆ් හකීම් එම ස්ථානයේ සංචාරයක නිරත වූ බවත් වාර්තා වෙයි.

නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරයකුගේ නායකත්වයෙන් පරීක්ෂණයක් ආරම්භ කොට ඇති බවයි,පොලිස් මූලස්ථානය පවසන්නේ.

ඉහත කී අනතුර මගින් කිසිවකු තුවාල ලැබ නැති බවත් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කොට ඇත.

‘නෝලිමිට්’ වෙළෙඳ ව්‍යාපාරය පසුගිය කාලයෙහි බොදු බල සේනා සංවිධානය සහ වෙනත් දැඩි මතධාරී සංවිධානවල දෝෂ දර්ශනයට ලක් විය.