Justifying the deliberate distortion of facts concerning the anti-Muslim riots that erupted in Southern Sri Lanka during a statement by the Sri Lankan delegation before the 27th UNHRC sessions recently, External Affairs Minister Professor G. L. Peiris has explained the dangers of ‘internationalising’ the Aluthgama incident at a meeting with the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL).
A press release issued by the MCSL on the discussion between External Affairs Minister and Ministry officials and MCSL officials on July 7 on the statement made at the UNHRC regarding the Aluthgama incident, states that Prof. Peiris while explaining the government version of the incidents that expired in Aluthgama had stated that vested interests are attempting ‘to blow it out of proportion’.
While assuring the MCSL representatives that such incidents will not recur, Prof. Peiris had also warned them of the dangers of internationalising the incident, stating that such actions can have similar repercussions as that of the Tamil issue and the TNA that sought to internationalise their cause.
Meanwhile, the MCSL Vice President Hilmy Ahamed who has issued the statement on behalf of the MCSL says they raised concerns over holding Muslims at fault for the Aluthgama riots during the statement by the Sri Lankan delegation at the recent UNHRC sessions.
The MCSL had pointed out that by projecting a distorted picture on the events that expired in Aluthgama on June 15, the government in fact has missed out on a golden opportunity to assure the international community that Sri Lanka respects the rights of all minorities, that would have had a strong impact on the process that is being moved to carry out an international probe on Sri Lanka.
During their meeting with the External Affairs Minister, the MCSL had also raised objections on the extremist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) being allowed to continue its hate speech targeting Muslim community and had also agreed to address certain issues within the Muslim community that were of concern to the majority community.
Marwan / July 14, 2014
This regime must go. Dispatched from leadership sooner the better for the country’s good. Since an unjust ruler is the worst thing that can happen to any society in any country.
Now that the worst has happened to Muslims by this sordid Buddhist group called BBS (Bodu Bala Sena) goons, we all raise our hands in prayer in this Holy month of Ramazan with our fasting and Quran recitals, whilst praying for deliverance from our own sins, we also pray for justice to be served on those who caused us so much harm through death, loss of means of income, smashing up our humble homes, looting all our personal wealth and belongings and setting our abodes in flames. thus causing severe distress and anxiety to our families and our businesses, for no fault of ours, but for simply being Muslim. But wait, the worst is still to follow.
The marauders further added insult to injury by twisting the story in their favour by claiming that we Muslims (who were the most affected and victims) started the skirmishes and were the instigators of all the violence, which ironically affected 95% of Muslim population, including 4 deaths, of which 3 were Muslims and 1 Tamil. We Muslims know that Allah Almighty knows best what happened and was witness to all the events and machinations, and we have trust that justice will be served by Him.
To Muslims, God Almighty is the best Judge of all Judges Who will mete out the most appropriate judgment when it comes to serving justice. We have also been taught in our Islamic teachings that God is always on the side of those afflicted by injustice caused to them, and if they turn to Him in all sincerity with repentance and prayer, their prayers will definitely be answered.
As such, in this instance, all Muslims wherever they are, in SL or overseas have been extremely patient and have been bearing up the immense pain caused through the many insults having religious connotations on what they eat, dress and alleged breeding habits, uttering falsehood and ridiculing Your revelations on what You stated in the Holy Quran. They provoke us Muslims by burning an effigy with your name on it, splash pig blood and flesh into our Masjid, carry placards with your name in bold and a pig atop of that, demolish and set alight Your House of worship along with its contents such as volumes of the Holy Quran and Islamic literature. All this whilst provoking anger and hatred through spreading falsehood and horrendous lies uttered against us, to project us Muslims as being demonic and extremists amongst ordinary good people. They also belittle our strength in numbers as a minority who survive on their goodwill and at their mercy, they refer to us as an alien culture, that we have no place in this country, this the land of our birth and ancestral homeland. They truly have gone mad and lost their mental balance. They even have untethered government blessings to carry out their agenda, since not a word of caution is ever mentioned in their name, leave alone arrest and charge for arousing racial tension.
They spite us and curse us mercilessly. We don’t even have the luxury of minimum protection of law enforcement, nor any security from a rotten to the core STF (Special Task Force – special skills trained Sinhalese only armed Force) and a biased army, which only serve their own kind in crisis time. They too were active participants in the recent mayhem, since they too were armed and connived with the marauders to persecute us Muslims with intent to cause maximum punishment. All under the cloak of a bogus curfew, meant only to keep the Muslims in, whilst the mobsters freely carried out their looting and arson of Muslim homes, under their watchful eyes. Our Def. Secretary is in charge of all Forces and his legacy is what flows in their veins.
We don’t even have a proper forum (except in CT as in this case) to pour out our grievances and relieve our burdens. Our hearts cry out for justice. We are being suppressed at every turn. Events are falsified and presented to the local and Int’l media. Most of the local media itself is heavily biased against us Muslims, and report only to satisfy the government agenda by distorting facts. We Muslims are prevented from expressing our grievances, afraid that someone out there will get our message and will ratchet up the pressure on this racist government. What needs to be done is to demand that SL government immediately stop this nonsense and treat all its citizens equally and alike. The Leader is famous for lip service only, calling for inquiry, minorities should not be persecuted and the likes, but no action is ever made on the ground to implement any of those calls.
We pray for justice O Allah. It hurts us immensely as we are being persecuted for being decent practicing Muslims, in every aspect of our lives. It is your Dheen in all its purity we carry in our hearts, and we will die with it and not cause it to get eroded nor distorted. This is what You wanted and expected of us, and we dutifully answered Your call in accordance with Your commandments as laid out in the Holy Quran and the teachings of Your beloved Prophet Muhammed (May Peace and Your blessings be upon him), sent to us as as an exemplary Leader for us to follow. O Allah please relieve us from this heavy load we carry in our hearts, crying out for justice.
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Amarasiri / July 16, 2014
Sign this petition if u still haven’t
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/stop-the-extreme-bodu-bala-sena?share_id=PkqpxmAiyC&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
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Freedom / July 14, 2014
I am a muslim but I don’t think GL Peiris can be totally blamed. He might be under pressure as a government servant to fulfill his duties as ordered by the military family.
This said, I sincerely feel sorry for Sri Lanka. I really wan to see my country developed but it seems like when we take one step forward we take 10 steps back.
We are so worried and jealous about our very own fellow sri lankans (muslims/Christians/tamils) prospering and creating wealth and jobs in the country but never will these people realize that how much back we are compared to India and other emerging countries and we ourselves dig our hole deep! That’s a sign of an impoverished country.
May Almighty God enlighten and open these peoples heart and mind!
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Ravana / July 14, 2014
Just because ‘he might be under pressure’ he doesn’t have to lie thru his teeth to save a murderous regime.
Such a law professor should not be with this appalling regime when he knows what’s exactly happening.
Why should he pawn his reputation/dignity/education & ethics for a name sake ministry post? Sajin Gon vaas is the one who is running the foreign office.
Whoever working for Gonraja is a criminal.
No excuse!
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Ward / July 14, 2014
Impoverihed?
You mean Immoral.
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Ward / July 14, 2014
Government servant?
He is a MInister in the govt.
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Javi / July 14, 2014
“such a veteran in international affairs”
What crap. He was yet another frustrated lecturer at Colombo Campus. His trigger was stopping Tamil students from getting the gold medal and becoming lecturers. He accomplished this by striking their answer scripts. This is common a feature with stagnant lecturers who cannot get into the profession.
The island and its people were romanticised by western tourist looking for cheap holiday in the sun and especially the limies.
The national reality is just coming to light. Do you have any world class inventors in engineering?? Nada, but just another agricultural island where folk drink tea like farmers.
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ckprahalad / July 14, 2014
No wonder this nutty prof. is a popular plagiarist….
A Sri Lankan resident in the United States Parakrama Wijesinghe has accused Dr. Peiris of infringing on the copyright of his book, ‘Eight States of Sri Lanka’, published in 1983, by using its material in his writings, speeches, seminars and meetings both in Sri Lanka and abroad, on the subject of devolution of power…
Well, we can’t internationalize this also as Sri Lanka does not have strong intellectual property laws…
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MirakRajBanda / July 14, 2014
Shame on you coward!!!! You are useless boot licker of Rajapissa family and go around with your skeleton’s suite to preach the victims!!
Shame on you!!
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Saman Wijesiri / July 14, 2014
This man, GL would tell any lie at any forum here or abroad to appease his Master in a bid to secure his position as a Minister. He is disgracing the university that conferred a doctorate on him!
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Bensen Burner / July 14, 2014
This unsurpassed clown of a foreign minister must enumerate the measures that should be adopted towards his ridiculous recommendation. Perhaps he wants the victims to cover their crimes. Bensen
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manel fonseka / July 14, 2014
Prof Peiris
Read MP Thewarapperuma’s report of his experience in Aluthgama, given in today’s DAILY MIRROR, and then the account of 23 so-called “Buddhist” organisations in CEYLON TODAY (yesterday), and see which rings truer.
In fact, I wish COLOMBO TELEGRAPH could carry them together.
It is appalling that such events are being pushed under the carpet & the results swept up without a proper investigation. We are all going to pay the price of this one day.
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Ranjit Gunawardena / July 14, 2014
There is one thing intrinsically different from Professor
G.L. Peiris and all his predecessors.
Others did their work. Their officials reported on it.
Peiris conducts foreign policy and writes his own news
releases. Some of them, believe it or not, are ready
even before he meets some one of importance.
Except for verbiage, there is nothing else in the news
releases. Noting is done. However, his biggest important
to Mahinda Rajapaksa is that he is tutoring Namal Rajapaksa.
He will also end up being an eccentric nut.
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LoseLoose / July 14, 2014
Those who want to attack and denigrate all Sinhalese because of the BBS fake Buddhist thugs and crimes committed by them. I suggest you look at Boko Haram, ISIS, Taleban, Al Qaeda and their actions across the world. It is not racist to question them. It is not racist to question their attempts to behead and crucify people who do not believe and convert to their ways. It is not racism to challenge them openly and moderate muslims in Sri Lanka should not try to defend these terrorists and murderous thugs across the world. They want to force all women to wear the veil; they want to forbid education for women and they speak openly of wanting Sharia law even in secular nations of the west where they have become citizens and make money. ISIS and their Sunni radical zealots are killing Shias and Christians. Why is Mr. Hussein silent? Are Shias apostates as these radical Jihadis say? He wants to talk about Islam’s contribution to architecture and mathematics. Yes that did happen but look at the contributions to science, medicine, and progress made by Jewish people in the past 200 centuries. How many Nobel prize scientists, physicists are Arabs in comparison? Why are Sri Lankan muslims toeing the line of Arab radicals more and more and remaining silent at kids having their noses cut off, kidnapped for just exercising their right to an equal education? why are ISIS, Al Nusra and Al Qaeda killing Kurdish women and children ? Why are they killing Shias in Iraq?
Instead trying to blame Buddhism and Sinhalese for crimes of a few self appointed Buddhist Mullahs why are you silent when globally more heinous crimes are being committed in the name of Islam? how many times have sinhalese buddhists voted for secular Muslim Sri Lankans of the UNP and SLFP and in contrast why do Muslims in the East only vote for Muslims? Is it not time to examine some of the hateful doctrine of the religion?
For Example is it not true that in Quran (8:12) it says – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them”
“Fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures were given [Jews and Christians]…until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued.” (Surah 9:27-)
The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.
Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.
The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a perfect book from a loving God, however this can work both ways. Most of today’s Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book’s call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable violence. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.
Quran (2:191-193) – “And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, forpersecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]..
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Marwan / July 15, 2014
Hey Loony, what made you say ‘moderate muslims in Sri Lanka should not try to defend these terrorists and murderous thugs across the world’. Show me any one instance when this has happened. Where a Muslim, singularly or as an Organization defended the actions of so called ‘Muslim terrorists’ whoever (or wherever in the world) they may be. Don’t conjure up opinions which have no bearing, and are irrelevant in the context of the subject under discussion. This is the same way BBS extremists think and energize their lot to promote a false sense of bravado amongst their own lot, whilst intimidation and oppressive tactics are used to cause a fear psychosis amongst the minority folks, .
I am no Islamic scholar, but then have no problem living with Quranic verse quoted, which refers to a specific war situation. Without a proper background understanding why this verse was ever revealed, you can never appreciate the circumstances that warranted it. Please listen to Nouman Ali Khan on Youtube, an Islamic Scholar on the Quranic revelations and he explains it out in detail.
I know there are many more issues that you have raised which needs to be addressed, and I am no running away from it. I will attempt to put things in the right perspective in some future comments.
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Imran Ali / July 15, 2014
Always read full paragraph whenever u are reading Quran. Dont post Half paragraph or u will only create fuss.
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LoseLoose / July 14, 2014
For Example is it not true that in Quran (8:12) it says – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them”
“Fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures were given [Jews and Christians]…until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued.” (Surah 9:27-)
The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.
Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.
The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a perfect book from a loving God, however this can work both ways. Most of today’s Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book’s call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable violence. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.
Quran (2:191-193) – “And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, forpersecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]..
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BBS Rep / July 15, 2014
LoseLoose,
Why are you so worried about the horrors occurring overseas? They are beyond our control man. Think of the horrors happening here, right under our noses.
Islam maybe defective but so are all religions. Religion of all kinds failed to deliver peace, prosperity or liberation. All religions preach peace but advertently or inadvertently promote violence. Buddhism is no longer immune from such a fate. Today in Sri Lanka Buddha’s message of love and non violence is lost. Gnanasara’s message of hate and violence is thriving. What’s worse is that all this degenerate mayhem is being carried under the name of Buddhism. BBS and JHU messages of hatred of minorities are so popular even the government are riding this wave in decimating the minorities.
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Muslim / July 14, 2014
Lose Loose,
Go Read Quran, you have all answers of what you are asking
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BBS Rep / July 15, 2014
So then, what do you expect from GLP other than lies, distortion of truth and by covering up mass crime but perpetuate the decimation of the minorities. After all he is a Sinhalese and he is a Buddhist.
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Tamil from the north / July 15, 2014
This GL bugger is a filthy [Edited out] which would eat human feces to live. It is a disgrace.
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fauzer / July 17, 2014
GL, you are a waste of space.
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