By Latheef Farook –

Latheef Farook

The failure of President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and their intelligence agents to prevent the Easter Sunday carnage, despite early warnings from numerous sources, brought United States led European and Israeli war mongers’ Islamophobia to Sri Lanka.

This avoidable tragedy brought the island, faced with political and economic crisis, to a virtual halt.

No one knows where the country is heading towards and what is happening. The senseless carnage has also caused immense sufferings to innocent and beleaguered Muslims community which has nothing to do with these attacks

Every Muslim man, woman and even children, were treated with suspicion, hatred and bitterness almost everywhere.  So called search  operations using emergency regulations have become nightmare for innocent Muslim families who remain frightened. Not only hospital security but even shops and super markets force Muslim women to remove traditional shawls.

Today Muslims remain deeply wounded and hurt. However to help ensure the security of the country they fully cooperate with security officers in their search operations.

The community as a whole resist security forces entering Mosques and houses with their boots taking dogs. Mosques usually comprise of large prayer halls with one or two rooms. Thus there is no need for forces to enter with boots and take dogs inside.

To Muslims worldwide there is nothing more sacred than the holy Quran which was revealed to the entire human being through Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Muslims always read the Quran with ablution. Thus simply tearing and throwing copies of Holy Quran and anything and everything written in Arabic is unwanted provocations which the forces should avoid.

Many point out that this is the price innocent Muslims are paying only because they are Muslims and for the crime of handful of murderers. They accuse the government of punishing the community for its own failure to prevent it.

Here is an example of persecution of Muslims as stated in the facebook  on Wednesday 8 May;

On an intervention by Western Province Governor Azath Salley 10 Muslim female teachers were transferred to various schools in his province, when they were prohibited from entering the school since they were wearing the traditional Hijab on Tuesday.

Parents of Puwakpitiya Tamil Maha Vidyalaya closed the school gate to prevent the Muslim school teachers who were going to school on Tuesday morning. The members of the School Development Society who were at the gate told the teachers that they will be allowed inside the school premises only if they wear saris. They have alleged that those who are wearing the hijab are supporters of the IS terrorists, who detonated six bombs on the day of the Easter.

Listening to the grievances of the teachers, the governor summoned the officials from the ministry of education for an urgent meeting in the presence of the aggrieved teachers in the afternoon same day .

The meeting was attended by Provincial Director of Education P. Srilal Nonis, Secretary of Provincial Education S.J. Wijebandu and Principal of Puwakpiitya Tamil Maha Vidyalaya P. Manoharan.

Lamenting about the situation, the governor instructed the ministry of education to transfer these 10 female teachers to other schools in his province.They were posted to schools in Kalutara And Colombo districts since the teachers said that they cannot go to the school , where they were refused admission and humiliated in public in the morning !

Western Province Governor Azath Sallay with the Muslim teachers who were prevented from entering their schools demanding them to wear sarees with Education Ministry officials

Meanwhile the Easter Sunday carnage also brought in the United States- European and Israeli war mongers’ Islamophobia to the island in full force tearing apart communities causing political chaos and economic collapse.

This was expected in view of the government’s hobnobbing with US-European- Israeli war mongers who are not interested in the welfare of Sri Lanka but hell bent on implementing their own evil agenda to destabilise the island. This was especially so in the context of the rivalry between China and the US led western countries.

According to reports senior officials deliberately withheld intelligence about possible attacks, says leader of parliament Lakshman Kiriella. Rift between Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister under scrutiny, with questions over how the government handled a warning of an attack. There was an international network without which these attacks could not have happened, he added. 

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told reporters that authorities had been warned two weeks ago that an attack was imminent. On April 9, the chief of national intelligence wrote a letter providing names of the members of the terrorist organization.

Former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, as early as November 2016 informed Parliament of 32 Sri Lankan Muslims joining ISIL in Syria.

The All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU), has claimed that it was the first to reveal the presence of terrorists in Sri Lanka way back in 2014.”It provided Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando with all details about chief bomber Zahran and urged to arrest him.

Despite all these information President Maithripala Sirisena refused to act and went on pilgrimage to Tirupathi from where he went with his family on a three day holiday to Singapore while Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was holidaying in Bentota. 

Refusing to act promptly facilitated the perpetrators to commit this crime which brought unprecedented disaster for the country and the entire Muslim community as the racist media continued to portray this as a crime committed by the Muslim community.

Perhaps the forces behind the carnage wanted to put the Christians against Muslims forcing United States, European and Israeli war mongers   to reiterate their anti-Muslim campaign. Thus, as it had happened, the carnage was exploited to portray Islam and the Muslim community as promoters of violence and terrorism

However this conspiracy miserably failed as Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the Muslim community woke up to the situation and saved the two communities.

Cardinal Malcolm Ramjet urged Christians not to attack Muslims. Muslim community representative’s appeal helped a great dealt to calm the situation. Meanwhile the Muslim community, in full page advertisements in the local papers, distanced itself from the Easter Sunday barbarity 

In their statement leaders and members of civil society, Islamic and Muslim Associations and Movements, stated that;

“We express our deepest sympathies and sorrow and condemn in the strongest terms the incidents, which are against all human and Islamic norms. This is grounded in the Noble Laws of Islam, which forbid all forms of violence and aggression. Our hearts are profoundly troubled as we contend with the aftermath of this horrific act of violence and terror. We call upon the authorities to immediately apprehend the true perpetrators of these crimes, as well as those who aid and abet them through incitement, financing or other support. They must be brought to justice in a court of law and punished appropriately”.

It is also important to note that US, European, Israeli and Indian intelligence remain very active here thanks to the facilities provided by Maithri-Ranil government. Many suspect that they are all in close contacts and coordination with Sinhala racist elements. That suits all those who have their own agenda against Muslim community. 

Thus the suspicion that these forces may have used handful of Muslim lunatics to commit this crime to blame the entire community and strengthen the global anti-Muslim campaign associating violence with Islam and projecting Muslims as terrorists.

The island’s mainstream media descended to the lowest ebb with their shameful distorted coverage provoking people against Muslims by associating violence with Islam. No media outlet raised any question about the involvement of forces behind these attacks. Thus the mainstream local media became integral part   of US-European and Israeli war machine against Muslims countries and Muslims. 

However even in this darkest of dark hour there is one positive development as several Buddhist monks came on the television and reiterated that Muslims are integral part of the island’s population and made tremendous contribution throughout their more than 1000 year long history. They said in one voice that Muslim community should not be associated with the crimes of handful of Muslim mercenaries.

Meanwhile New York Times had this to state in an article titled ”Muslims in Sri Lanka Now fear for Their Own Safety in the Wake of Attacks;

“We came here to witness a country in mourning, and to see what is being done to prevent that sadness from leading to more violence, specifically a backlash against Muslims. Sri Lanka has a long history of ethnic tension — nearly three decades of civil war ended in 2009.  More recently, Buddhist Sinhalese nationalists have attacked Muslims and Christians, both minorities in the country. But there’s no history of violence between those two minorities, and now there’s a growing concern that Sunday’s bombings could create a new rift between them. 

 More violence would only give them what they want.

Now the question is whether the truth will ever be known to the public or will be buried?