By Hilmy Ahamed –
Hilmy Ahamed
President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as leaders of the common opposition promised a land that would see rule of law, democracy, good governance and justice. The majority of Sri Lankans elected them against all odds, hoping that they would make this country a place where all communities could live in peace and harmony with each other in a tranquil environment.
The preceding four years of the hate campaign on the minorities by Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero and other extremist Buddhist groups saw the exit of probably the most charismatic and popular Sri Lankan political leader since independence, President Mahinda Rajapaksa. His crime was that he natured and let the wounds of racism fester amongst the Sri Lankan society. This made the minority-deciding voters to vote against his tyranny.
The war victory in 2009 and the results of the Presidential election of 2010 gave him the illusion that he could win any election only with the support of majority Buddhist votes, hence his tryst with the extremists. His attitude alienated the minority voters, who in-fact, had begun to move towards supporting the Rajapaksa administration, after the end of the war and the expected stability in the country. He failed to realize that a large number, from the minority communities had voted for him in 2010 in appreciation and gratitude for bringing peace to the country. He had the opportunity to go beyond Southern extremism and offer magnanimous concessions to the Tamil population and build a nation, where all communities could have lived as one. His arrogance, pride and prejudice made him lose that opportunity for reconciliation. It also cost him, his attempt of a third term Presidency.
Gnanasara |Picture courtesy Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka Facebook page
The rejection of President Rajapaksa and the causes for his defeat would be very clear if one looks at the voting pattern of the minority communities, especially the Muslim and Christian population that came under unprecedented attacks due to the protection given by the Rajapaksa administration to these extremists in saffron robes. Their form of hate and violence goes against the teachings of lord Buddha and is rejected by the majority of the peace-loving Buddhists of this country. It would appropriate to remind ourselves of quote from one of the most respected Theravada Buddhist leaders of our times, the Dalai Lama X1V “Whether you believe in God or not does not matter so much, whether you believe in Buddha or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life. And a good life does not mean just good food, good clothes, good shelter. These are not sufficient. A good motivation is what is needed: compassion, without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their rights and human dignity.”
The country was made to believe by these extremists that former Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa provided protection to these racist elements; hence the law enforcement authorities would not take any action. This misconception provided the space for these extremists to propagate hate with impunity.
A few days after the election of the new government, the Police media spokesman, SSP Ajith Rohana declared that the Police would take stern action against anyone creating hate and religious violence. To this day, his words have not been translated in to action.
Soon after this announcement, the Bodu Bala Sena and Ven. Gnansara were back in action, threatening the Muslim community almost on a daily basis through their press conferences and other media tamasha’s. No action has been taken against the Bodu Bala Sena’s threat to march and destroy Dafar Jailani, a place of religious significance and importance to Muslims. The media continues to provide wide exposure to this threat. Dafar Jailani is Sufi Shrine of the Muslims that dates back to over a thousand years and is well documented in history.
Dafar Jailani or the Kurugala caves is situated about 60 km from Ratnapura, with its nearest town being Balangoda. Darfar Jalani is an ancient Sufi shrine, sacred to Muslims and historical evidence point to a greatly revered Islamic saint; Sheikh Muhiyadeen Abdul Qadir meditated and lived in the rock caves, over a thousand years ago.
The Bodu Bala Sena now wants to march to this ancient place of historical significance to Muslims, destroy its artifacts, monuments and wipe out all historical evidence. Tensions have erupted between the Muslims and Buddhist over counter claims to this shrine and its tranquility has been destroyed. The extremist Buddhists claim that the site has archeological value to them and the rock cave is an ancient Buddhist monastic site. They continue to demand the removal of all Islamic inscriptions that dates back to over a thousand years. This has led to the escalation of tensions between the Muslims and Buddhist in the region.
The Muslims, had remained calm against all provocations during the regime of the Rajapaksa Presidency because they feared the hidden hand of Gotabaya Rajapaksa behind the BBS and Gnanasara Thero. With the newfound freedom and peace, their tolerance levels would be put to test as the Muslims feel that they would have recourse to justice under an independent judiciary and police. This may provoke them to defend their shrine if the BBS attempts to destroy it as claimed. This could lead to major violence.
The promise of good governance, rule of law and justice would be put to the biggest test on how the administration responds to this latest threat by the Bodu Bala Sena to destroy Dafar Jailani at Kurugala.
The President and the Prime Minister must take immediate action to halt this hate campaign that threatens the Muslims. Failure to nip the re-emergence of this extremist threat would be disastrous to the ethnic and social harmony that was promised under their leadership, for which the minorities overwhelmingly voted
shanika Devaraja / February 25, 2015
This is only a pipe dream the Muslims entertain. No government in Sri Lanka will be fair by the minorities. The Tamil community has learned this bitter lesson many years ago.
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AR007 / February 25, 2015
Does this writer mean Muslim hatred of the so-called non-believers.
This is the teaching they beleve in,straight from the book!
[Edited out]
“O you who believe! Take not My enemies and your enemies as (protecting) friends, showing affection towards them, while they have disbelieved in what has come to you of the truth, and have driven out the Messenger (PBUH) & yourselves because you believe in Allah, your Lord! If you have come forth to strive in My cause and to seek My good pleasure, you show friendship to them in secret, while I am All-Aware of what you conceal and what you reveal. And whosoever of you (Muslims) does that, then indeed he has gone astray from the straight path.”
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Roy / February 25, 2015
Please get Rupavahini to show this clip.
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Roy / February 26, 2015
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The Messenger / February 25, 2015
Even after the end of the war, the previous regime and their henchmen were living and surviving on tribal racism, religious fanaticism and promoting hate speech. They not only made use of the media to promote communalism but also created organisations like BBS and fully implemented their agenda, which resulted in a large number of people starting to believe them and supporting them. Honest and moderate politicians like Ranil Wickramasinghe become the worst victims.
Today, we have the most honest and moderate politicians (Maithree and Ranil) leading the country. But still the people supporting Mahinda Rajapakse wants to promote Racist Tribalism, Religious Fanaticism and bring Mahinda Rajapakse forward. The Nugegoda rally was full of hate speech and arousing the masses with communalism using a lot of false and misleading information.
The Maithree – Ranil government should put a full stop to this nonsense by bring in new legislation to prosecute those who try to disrupt the peace and harmony in the country by inciting the masses on racial/religious communalism and hate speech.
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Arul Prakasam / February 25, 2015
Hilmy, I admire your writing and respect your views very much, but you seem to have a sift corner for that murderous Goatabaya. You always portray him to be not part of Mahiders gang of fascists. You are sadly mistaken
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Sensible / February 25, 2015
Timely article. The government must act to protect Buddhism from these ‘so called Buddhists’ who appear not to understand what Lord Buddha taught. There is absolutely no Buddhism but pure racism in their actions. (By the way, Dalai Lama is not a Theravada Buddhist but a Mahayana but it is of little consequence.)
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MMR / February 25, 2015
What about Rauf Hakeem’s racism.eastern CM must be a muslim (nit even tamil speaking cm)
BBS should be controlled no doubt.but Muslim also should talk about Hakeem’s racism
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sittingnut / February 25, 2015
so this writer wants to restrict free speech if government thinks there is a possibility of some evil as a result
this is a recipe for repression
governments can always find evil in opposition speech .
is this writer an idiot, or a proponent of repression.
.
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upali wijewardene / February 26, 2015
I agree with the writer. If you say free speech is to say what you want and get away, you are sadly mistaken. IF SOMEONE WALKS UP TO YOUR HOUSE ASND SAY HE WANTS TO F… YOUR WIFE, IS THAT FREE SPPECH???We must learn to speak with responsibility and anything less tantamount to abuse of that freedom
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Roy / February 27, 2015
Why don’t you scan your nut standing.
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Ansar / February 25, 2015
The unfortunate thing in our country is still we have a sizeable (5.2 Million) racists out there in our midst, who are hell bent on causing disharmony between the majority and minority communities. They are being blinded by the Mahawamsa philosophy and want to exert their hegemony on minorities. Till that mind set is reversed and co habitation is accommodated, we will be in this vicious cycle again and again. The BALU SENAS and PONNASARA will continue to play havoc, unless stringent measures are adopted to address the issue.
MARA paid the price for his foolishness in festering these racist groups and hope saner counsel will prevail, this time around. Otherwise, it will be ABASARANAI to us all, as a Nation regardless of our faiths and beliefs.
The sad part is, even learned idiots like DAYA THE D….. also fail to realize this bitter truth.
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TinPotJihadi / February 25, 2015
ISIS, BOKO HARAM are great examples of what will come.
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paul / February 25, 2015
I will take Rs. 50 bet with anyone that Mr Sirisena will break his promise. I always that knew he was not being truthful with this promise.
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paul / February 25, 2015
We agree Hilmy. To be a Buddhist, one must lead a good life, just like ISIS, occasionally beheading a few non-believers.
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Native Vedda / February 25, 2015
paul
“To be a Buddhist, one must lead a good life,”
First stop being a Sinhala/Buddhist if you want to be Buddhist or follower of BUddha’s teaching.
“just like ISIS, occasionally beheading a few non-believers.”
No, however regular anti minority riot is more than sufficient to qualify you as a Sinhala/Buddhists, occasionally setting fire to library will further strengthen your right to be a Sinhala/Buddhist .
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ela kolla / February 25, 2015
hilmy is a racist by born and writing crap history about kuragala….kuragala is a buddhist sacred place and muslims have invaded the place by building a make-shift shouting hut..
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mike / February 25, 2015
Elu Kolla rides again and again with his usual crap! Give him a break, folks.
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ela kolla / February 26, 2015
buru mike, did you forget your pill?
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whywhy / February 25, 2015
Buddhist historic places are in Nepal and India but they
are not considered sacred because it’s not in the
teachings of Buddha.Buddha never left India.You don’t
have any religion,just leave the rocks and trees alone.
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ela kolla / February 26, 2015
whyhui, who the heck are you to talk about buddhism? mind your own business and carry on[Edited out]
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whywhy / February 26, 2015
eli kolla
Anyone can talk the truth but liars.I respect
philosophers and those who really respect them
and not fakes.You better ask the question from
your self. Once again, just leave Buddha , the
rocks and trees alone and mind your other
businesses.
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ela kolla / February 27, 2015
whyhui, keep your crap to yourself and mind you own business in cattle slaughtering
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whywhy / February 27, 2015
eli kolla
So that you can mind your business of eating what’s
slaughtered by us ? Get out of the rocks and trees
and also leave that philosopher on his own.If you
feel isolated,there’s good news ! Join the
slaughterer’s club, life is vibrant !
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Native Vedda / February 28, 2015
ela kolla
” mind you own business in cattle slaughtering”
And you love eating mutton kotthu with beef curry and parota with roasted beef. BTW you are a Sinhala/Buddhist then alright you can drink, eat beef/mutton, gamble, and party.
Has your elderly mother remitted your pocket money for this month from Medieval Middle East Kingdom?
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punchinilame / February 26, 2015
On your basis get BBS to make the first move – and don`t be surprised
if “Ven” Gnanasara gets “locked up” as things now stand.
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Nishantha De Silva / February 25, 2015
appa sira should take stern measures to keep these muslim extremists in jail…
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Burning Issue / February 26, 2015
Nishantha De Silva,
Ok once you have dealt with the Tamils and Muslims, what is next? Obviously, the Christian Abrahamic religion is foreign to the Buddhist land; what are you going to do? I know that, your ancestors converted to catabolism for a few scraps. But they have duly converted back to Buddhism because that is where the bred is! So it is time to attack the non-Buddhists! You see Dayan was born a De Silva but he was smart to call himself Jayatelleke and authentic Sinhala Buddhist name; you are loosing out on this!
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Nishantha De Silva / February 27, 2015
burning issue you are, indeed. you don’t exist in CT if NGO stops taking care of your daily expenses….pathetic loser
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dil / February 25, 2015
hilly [Edited out] is accusing and threatening sinhalese buddhists. sinhalse should march to kuragala and [Edited out]
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Snowden Edward Asange / February 25, 2015
Hilmy Ahamed, how come none has taken ANY action with regard to Gandassara? He was untouchable in the previous regime but we have a YAHA PALANAYA, This BBS( need to be dismantled) thug threatened ALMOST everyone who said anything against him. He worked for MR at the last elections and now is trying to align with the present President. He has even said that he may contest the next elections. What is stopping you lot from taking ANY ACTION against this robed thug? The video of the ” Aluthgamata Aba Saranai” is more than enough evidence to put him on the dock and send him to jail for inciting communities that resulted in the murder of 5 people, torching and destroying of MANY shops, houses property and the robbery of jewelry and cash from the victims.
Further evidence also could be gathered, when he went to Wilpattu ( with police escort, why was he provided Police escort when he was not a Parliamentarian?), he THREATENED to torch all those houses( check teh video available on Youtube)… what right he had? was he a parliamentarian or a thug who was reared by GOATa for his personal gains…
These questions beg answers, you, Azath Salley, Faizer Musthafa, Sumitiran of TNA, and a few others have to see that JUSTICE IS DONE, the victims compensated and the thugs who incited and those who took part are sentenced to jail terms.. Also find them guilty and make it a point that those with criminal record CAN NEVER IN THEIR LIFE contest ANY Govt office….
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Sylvia Haik / February 26, 2015
The regular Buddhists must have the mechanism to disrobe this terrorist because the establishment reveres the “Saffron Robe” no matter the crook that adorns it. Then Gandasara Thera, as an ordinary man could face the full wrath of the law. Incitement to religious hatred is against the law and every time Gandasara opens his mouth he is violating that law and unless someone takes up the cudgel and reins him in, he’ll remain under the impression that he is still invincible.
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kali / February 25, 2015
Hilmy Ahamed
Stopping Hate: President Sirisena, Deliver On Your Promise
The President and the Prime Minister must take immediate action to halt this hate campaign that threatens the Muslims. Failure to nip the re-emergence of this extremist threat would be disastrous to the ethnic and social harmony that was promised under their leadership, for which the minorities overwhelmingly voted
*** You are living in a dream World. Sri Lanka is a RACIST Country and that is obvious from the support enjoyed by MR. The Majority of the Majority are sworn enemies of the Minority and that will never change. It hasn’t changed for over 2500 years and why would it change now.
This extremist threat is deeply embedded in the Society.
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Tamil from the north / February 26, 2015
@Kali, Sri Lanka is not a racist country. But I have to agree, it has a lot of racists living in it or are from it. Even in this article we have many like Nishantha De Silva, Sach, dil, ela Kolla……..etc. I have lots of Sinhalese friends in Canada and they are sincere decent people who want the best for this country and they aren’t like these hoodlums I mentioned above. These are buggers who have nothing to lose. They are just like the Tamil racists who want to see every Sinhalese killed. Anyway Kali, give as good as you get. At least here we can shut these racists up. They would never open their mouth and let out one of their brain farts in a foreign country since they will get slapped until they pee in their pants.
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dil / February 26, 2015
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ela kolla / February 26, 2015
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Nishantha De Silva / February 26, 2015
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Raja / February 25, 2015
Gnanasara thero is one individual amongst 15 million Buddhists and isolated incidents like this could take place in every nation in the world. Also, we still do not know why this person visited USA and Norway, before he started his campaign against extremist Muslims, which resulted in alienating the Muslims from the government and pushing them closer to the UNP and TNA.
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Sanjaya / February 25, 2015
Haven’t we all learn the lessons from our resent past?
Knowing that the nature of the other religions naturally provide good ground for the BBS type groups in Sri Lanka (everyone) enjoys that wobbly situation but not the peace loving people.
The Sinhalese Hard-line Buddhist might convince the Native Vedda tribe to wear National costume and go to temples according to their norms but not the others in immediate future.
There are no religious places in this planet earth. Religions are from a man written out dated scripts. Religion is used for social control. The man, which is a evolved monkey is divided because of these myths and continuously childhood brainwashing. Religions are the biggest virus to the society. Religious leaders are just businessmen wearing costumes.
These religious are giving a hard time for everybody.
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Thiru Nadaraja / February 26, 2015
He may be one in 15 million, but the law has to take its course. Hate mongering is against the constitution of Sri Lanka and he gets away because he is in the saffron robe. This is what the Mahina Rajapaksa government did and tolerated and the new government promised that they will not allow this form of racism. If the Buddhist have evidence that muslims are lying about Kurugala, they can do what is necessary through the legal system and not let buddhist thugs take the law in to their own hands. I am Tamil from Balangoda and I am 55 years old. Even my grandfather used to talk about the muslim mosque in the v=cave. Many people come every year and they have a big festival. It is only about 20 years ago that local Buddhist started trouble in that area. Earlier, even the Buddhist supported it because the festival brought a lot of business to the area. Muslims, Sinhalaese and Tamils all enjoyed the festival like Adams peak.
The Tamils in the area also face many problems by some buddhist priests. Today Buddhist priests are not like the olden day priests who spoke calmly and had the respect of all people, but today most of them are like thugs, drinking and doing all the vices. So, the Mahanayakes will have to seriously reform the religion. If Muslims are doing anything against the Buddhist, they should go to courts and sort this out. Not be like a street thug.
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Sanjaya / February 26, 2015
Religion is a business, That apply to all the religions. As they say if MyThree Buddha comes to earth from Thawthisaa heaven and try to tighten the bolts of these saffron robed thugs they will crucifix him in the name of Gawthma Buddha. If Jesus comes and speak about Pope and Co and it’s imperialist mafia support never mind the priest did with young children they will send him to jail prison. If Mohamed see the KSA beheading s and the women in “Stockholm Syndrome” and try to tighten the bolts the mullahs will burn him in style. So this cave shit is just for the business.
Abrahamic religions like Christianity / Islam are all a by product of Torahs which is the religion of Jews. And Buddhism is a by product of Hinduism. There are more greater off-rooted way of living in Hinduism which are neglected. Lets see the Hindus who worship from cow to snake and eat only vegetables. Gandassraa and his cooperation will not like that views. Not like but support. All what I see is ignorant monkeys who try to promote their own views with twisted lies.
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Sylvia Haik / March 3, 2015
This terrorist Gnanasara Thera’s campaign was not against extremist Muslims, but against all Muslims, and racially motivated and has nothing to do with foreign visits. Fortunately, racists of this calibre is a minority in Sri Lanka, otherwise Mahinda Rajapakse and Gotabhaya Rajapakse would have had their day in January. They were foolishly convinced by the likes of Gnanasara Thera that racism was a winner.
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Jihadist / February 25, 2015
Time for Muslims in the country to stand up against this Gnanasara bigot and thwart his efforts to dismantle evidence of Muslim habitation and their being very much a part of the country’s history. As for the Muslims, we are equally value these ancient lands, artifacts and archaeological findings which support the notion there were Muslim inhabitants who arrived centuries ago and settled down and thrived in these areas.
ISIS type militancy is the best answer to these goons. They are pushing and pushing the Muslims against the wall, and if the government does not do anything to book these rascals and bring them to face justice, then it will be time that the Muslims will seek the means to take up arms and fight for justice. Dam the consequences.
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Haramanis / February 25, 2015
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Amila / February 25, 2015
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nike / February 26, 2015
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maali karunaratne / February 26, 2015
I am interested to find out as to what are the laws in place for against hate campaign. I remember Azaad Salley was taken in for hate speech. Lawyers in this column please tell us what are the laws that are available to prosecute hate campaigners whatever religion we belong to. Do we need new legislation for this? Should Yaha Palanaya pass this law.
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sriyani Man / February 25, 2015
There is a saying in Sinhala “[Edited out].”???
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ClinicalPatho / February 25, 2015
Can we not have a real international Archaelogical investigations to verify the claims about this mosque? Records do not show a Muslim presence in Sri lanka until about the 5th century right? So how can one claim such ancient history? Look at how Muslims destroyed buddhism in Afghanistan and all across Central Asia and in Pakistan too. Ancient proof of carbon dated fossils and archaelogical artifacts prove this no? so why not do the same to see which came first?
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hussain / February 25, 2015
ClinicalPatho, the brightest thought. Great if the government can undertake this so that the Muslims could establish their rightful claim to Jailany
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Jim softy / February 26, 2015
Islam is only 1400 years old.
Sri lanka muslims since the fifth century.
How come ?
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salmajunaideen / February 26, 2015
You are correct but what is being said is that Arabs were here in the 5th century and even before but they were not Muslims. We must make a distinction between Arab and Muslims But Arabs living here had heard about Prophet after he started preaching Islam and converted to Islam.
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fazeel Hussain / February 27, 2015
Dear Brother/Sister Jim Softy
The Arab traders were in this country long before Islam. So, they are the same people who brought Islam here to our country as soon as Islam was taking its root in Arabia. You should know, the arab traders were given Sinhala women as wives. They did not engage in prostitution as normal sailors do, They married Sinhala women and settled here. Some, had families here whom they visited every few months on their trading travels
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Roy / February 25, 2015
No, racism cannot be prevented, but we can still try. I do not think racism can ever be prevented, however we should all treat each other equally, whatever faith you may believe in. We Srilankan should learn from the past, 83 riots and the previous ones, but We Srilankan did not learn from that and genocides have happened since then. This proves that racism can never be stopped. Although this does not mean people should not stop trying to prevent.
Hilmy, I respect your views and hope My3 and RW will bring in some tough laws with regards hatred and racism and put all the perpetrators behind bars before it’s too late.
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upali Wijewardene / February 25, 2015
Roy, no one thought that we would get rid of the dictator Rajapaksa, but the people sent him home. So don’t lose hope, because together, we can do it.
It indeed is tragic that Hilmy as a muslim has to write this. Where are the moderate Buddhist voices. We didn’t speak out on belay of the Tamils and now they are speaking to the world about our racism. Finance Minster will tell you, if the arabs kick out the Sri Lankan workers, we wouldn’t even have drinking water, so let us not be stupid and alienate another community and pay the economic price of a boycott for our labour
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dcn / February 25, 2015
Minorities Tamils and Muslims voted overhelmingly in favour of President Sirisena with a great expectation the hatred against Minorites would be eliminated but nothing seems to have changed though 45 days have passed. Again another disappointment.
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Good Governance / February 25, 2015
Before one talks of good governance there should be governance and for that purpose there should be amity among communities. Mistrust, doubts, apprehensions of one community as a whole towards others sways a country from governance, the very basic the President and PM combine should take steps to stop this evil. However, this is a difficult task and one must not expect the moon from President Sirisena and Premier Wickramasinghe. If Hilmy or any other expects swift action on all matters then we must remember that Rome was not built in a day.
I as a non-Muslim, once had to share a hotel room with a colleague of mine, who is a Muslim and it was in the month of Ramadan. From the uneasiness I guessed my friend needed to perform certain rites in privacy. So I asked him whether it would make things easy if I were to be in the hotel lobby cum balcony for about half an hour so that he could perform his rites. He was relieved and happy. That is how on my part I preserve the amity. That day, I bought him a packet of Dates of very high quality as a gift. He always respected me as a considerate person.
I was able to extend some courtesy because I had some knowledge of their customs. Therefore, in my humble opinion while leaving the implementation of the law to deal with extremists to the enforcers of the law, subject to the watchful eye of the citizens, we must extend warmth and kindness amongst ourselves. While I was an official, dealing with problems involving the public, I always gave a cup of tea and was helpful especially to those who came from far, say from Jaffna. Even though very unfortunately that I did not know one word of Tamil, I was able to make the Tamil speaking only clients satisfied and their job done, making use of intermediaries to translate. Today I am a satisfied retired public servant because I gave satisfaction to many across the board.
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Ramachandran / February 26, 2015
Hilmy, why dont you talk about wahabis attack on sufis? you will find Gnanasara is an angle in comparison to wahab influenced extremists who are funded by Saudi Arabia over the past 30 years.
Muslim invasion is everywhere in Sri Lanka. Ancient archaeological sites have been bulldorsed to the ground ruthlessly and built Muslim settlements on them.
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Hilmy Ahamed / February 27, 2015
Ramachandran, I thank you for your comment which I feel is unfair. We are Sri Lankans practicing the Islamic faith. We cannot he held responsible for any crime committed by people who may or may not be associated with Islam. This is almost like how Sri Lankans started calling every Tamil in this country as Tigers and alienating an entire community. Please look around and see whether any Muslim has asked form of separatism or supported any external separatist movements. Sri Lankan Muslims have always stood by the unitary state of our country.
People made a huge fuss about Rauf Hakeem and the SLMC asking for a separate administrative district in the East for the Muslims as justice was not being served under Tamil administrations. What they faked to understand was that the same prevails for the SINHALESE in Vauniya district where they have a separate AGA to look in to the Sinhala population. So, why can’t the Muslims have what the Sinhalese have in a district where the Sinhalese are a minority. So, we need to use the same yardstick on everyone
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Jim softy / February 26, 2015
Islam is naturally extremist and will not allow other religions to exist. See all over the world how muslims are treating christians, hindus and buddhists. See how ISIS is treating coptic Christians as well as other muslimns groups.
So, Hilmy is asking the govt to make way for Islamization of Sri lanka.
Under such conditions, a leader like Mahinda Rajapakse is the best.
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BBS Rep / February 26, 2015
Hilmy,
All citizens must be protected by uniform laws as per the constitution. Issues of one’s religion, race, caste or gender is of no relevance. It is the duty of the Sri Lankan government to protect every individual. No one, not even thugs dressed in saffron robes have a right to harass, intimidate and kill or main another citizen.
If the government is inactive in combating crime or it is politically advantageous to turn a blind eye when a particular kind of crime is committed by a particular group of people, one day such inaction is going to lead to the creation of forces that will be almost impossible to control, like the LTTE.
The government must act decisively and the police forces enforce the law of the land without bias or fear. If they don’t one day it is inevitable the country will be divided on racial lines.
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arooz mohamed / February 26, 2015
Hilmy Ahamed’s mild threat that Muslims will be forced to take the law in to their own hands to defend their shrine does not auger well for the rule of law that has been promised by the Maithri Ranil government. We need to see an independent police and judiciary that would do its job under all situations. Failure of this will seen gnansara’s and asath sallys taking their verbal and physical threats to reality. People in this country should move away from this kind of racism and start a new life under the new government. Failure will see much violence and another communal tension which will go international.
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Ansar / February 26, 2015
Jim Nutty,
You are damn right in equating ISIS and all Muslim Extremist groups with MARA THE MASS MURDERER AND RACIST.
Ya hand over the country to this barbarian equivalent or far worse than the terrorist, so that you idiots can be ruled over like donkeys.
Nutty, look at the wider picture of 2 Billion Muslims living world wide and come to your judgement of Islam rather than comparing Islam with a less than even 1% of 2 Billion Muslims.
But, you will understand that only if you have the brain in your head and not if you are sitting on it.
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salmajunaideen / February 26, 2015
Gota Abhaya never denied his association with BBS, For instance BBS said that it is BBS who wanted the army sent to Rathupaswela and Gota never denied it. Gota did support them.
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TinPotJihadi / February 26, 2015
Sadly there is a form of islam that unlike any other mono-theistic faith system thinks others do not matter and do not exist. Look at how the Taleban destroyed ancient statues. Sure real Buddhists are rare and Buddha did not endorse idol worshipping. But those ARE historical archaeological masterpieces. Wherever Islam came after Buddhism they destroyed everything. In India too the Moghuls destroyed almost all Hindu places of worship but did end up building grand buildings and palaces for their rulers. So why not understand the fears at a time ISIS and BokoHaram are plaguing the world with their backward Salafists violent savage ideology? Why is it wrong to be afraid of this? Look at what they did to historical artifacts in Syria.
http://news.yahoo.com/video-shows-militants-smashing-ancient-iraq-artifacts-113258680.html
So this will be the fate of any nation the Islamists take over if they are allowed to rule over anyone. It is far worse than Catholic Crusaders. It is frightening how people are making threats here of violence.
Why not just allow science and archaeologist and Anthropologists validate the claims? Islam came to SL much later than Buddhism. Again, this is NOT an endorsement of false Buddhistic values but these are cultural issues and heritage issues. Muslims on this forum will insult Buddhism and ridicule people. What does that do if you are blind to the savagery that fellow Muslims are committing in the 21st century ? stopping girls from freedom? stopping girls from getting an education? stopping girls from driving cars? preventing women from voting all in the name of their faith? so how come they have a moral right to ridicule Buddhist lay practices such as worshipping in front of a Statue? they have those rights and so do muslims.
The facts can be determined as to which place of worship came first using science.
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sach / February 27, 2015
“The media continues to provide wide exposure to this threat. Dafar Jailani is Sufi Shrine of the Muslims that dates back to over a thousand years and is well documented in history.
Dafar Jailani or the Kurugala caves is situated about 60 km from Ratnapura, with its nearest town being Balangoda. Darfar Jalani is an ancient Sufi shrine, sacred to Muslims and historical evidence point to a greatly revered Islamic saint; Sheikh Muhiyadeen Abdul Qadir meditated and lived in the rock caves, over a thousand years ago.”
Can this person give any proper archaeological proof to this? A thousand years ago is a pretty big claim.
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Ram / February 27, 2015
There was a comment above demanding that the BBS should be banned. That has disappeared along with the following response
” This BBS( need to be dismantled) “
Quite, alongside the TNA and the SLMC.
Mr Editor, over to you.
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Ram / February 27, 2015
There was a comment above demanding that the BBS should be banned. Whatever happened to the comment and the response which was,
” This BBS( need to be dismantled) “
Quite, alongside the TNA and the SLMC.
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