The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has expressed their concern over the Sri Lankan government’s unofficial patronizing of extremist Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) in their seventh annual report on Islamophobia.
OIC Secretary General – Iyad Ameen Madani
“In the midst of this ever escalating Islamophobic sentiment, the Sri Lankan government whilst not officially patronising the BBS and its associated Sinhala-Nationalist mobs, has shown few signs of disowning the group or taking any serious action against it,” the report notes, taking into account the incidents that occurred between October 2013 – April 2014.
The OIC Observatory report on Islamophobia that was released on Wednesday at the commencement of the 41st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Jeddah, KSA has stated that the situation of Muslims in Sri Lanka is of concern to the OIC, as the persecution and discrimination against Muslims has turned a part of the local behavior.
It has also highlighted the lack of action by law enforcement authorities concerning the attacks on Muslims and their property.
“The police have been shown, time and time again, standing by as stone-throwing mobs attack Muslims and Muslim property. On the few occasions in which arrests have been publically called for, the accusations have been dropped prior to any arrests taking place. . .”
Moreover, the report has also pointed out the ban imposed by the government on Halal certification due to pressure exerted by BBS and other Sinhala nationalist, hardline groups.
We publish below the relevant section in full;
The Situation of Muslims in Sri Lanka
The situation of Muslims in Sri Lanka49 is of concern to the OIC, as the persecution and discrimination against Muslims became part of the local behavior. An article by Lewis Garland,a British freelance journalist and social justice activist, titled “The rise of red-robed Islamophobia in Sri Lanka”50, sums-up the issue:
Anti-Muslim fervour is now rife among the majority Sinhalese population, stirred and fed by the firebrand propaganda of extremist Buddhist-Sinhalese nationalist groups such as the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) – The Buddhist Strength Force.
(…)Sri Lanka’s Muslim community have been subjected to repeated attacks, including rotten meat being thrown into mosques during prayers, mosques being tagged with obscene graffiti, death threats, arson and Muslim-owned businesses being vandalized by marauding mobs.
These attacks have been driven by a series of high-profile hate campaigns targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslim community and their practices. As Javid Yusef, founding Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat for Muslims in Sri Lanka explained to me, the BBS have manufactured ‘distrust of the Muslims among Sinhala Buddhists by spreading untruths, half-truths and lies among the populace’. These have included advocating a ban on both Hijab and Halal meat certification and campaigns encouraging the Sinhalese community to boycott Muslim-owned shops and businesses (based on claims ranging from the false: that shop-owners have been concertedly converting their female Buddhist employees to Islam, to the nonsensical: that shop-owners were giving free miscarriage-inducing sweets to their Sinhalese customers).
The BBS has frequently advocated vigilantism and in one rally which boasted a crowd of over 10,000, the organization’s secretary, Gnanasara Thero, called on followers to become ‘an unofficial civilian police force against Muslim extremism’.
In the midst of this ever escalatingIslamophobic sentiment, the Sri Lankan government, whilst not officiallypatronising the BBS and its associated Sinhala-Nationalist mobs, has shown few signs of disowning the group or taking any serious action against it. The police have been shown, time and time again, standing by as stone-throwing mobs attack Muslims and Muslim property. On the few occasions in which arrests have been publically called for, the accusations have been dropped prior to any arrests taking place. Moreover, the government has bowed to pressure over the Halal issue resulting in an effective ban on Halal certification.
In fact, in the period under review, there have been reports of several other incidents targeting Muslims 52 as shown in the blog Islamophobia Today:
- BBS – Back on the Road with Anti-Halal Campaign Again – The BoduBalaSena was back on the road again pledging to recommence its anti-Halal agitation that resulted in widespread Islamophobia and violence against the Muslim minority community the first time it unfolded in January 2013.52
- Muslim women’s attire under attack in Sri Lanka – Hate groups in Sri Lanka have made the attire of Muslim women a key target in their onslaught against Muslims. They have used security and the need for uniformity as reasons to attack Muslim female attire such as the hijab, the punjabi attire and the niqab. Although the Ministry of Education by a directive issued in 1980 permitted Muslim girls to go to school attired in a punjabi attire, since 2009, school authorities have prohibited this in many schools in the country. Various excuses have been made out such as the need for uniformity or the simple and oft used one ‘this is a Buddhist school/country’. On a separate incident, University of Moratuwa stopped three Muslim girls from attending the university because of the niqab. Two students filed cases in the Supreme Court in SC (FR) 424/2013 and SC (FR) 427/2013. Both these matters were fixed for support on 29 April 2014. One student made an application to the National Human Rights Commission, which took the matter for inquiry on 19 February 2014.53
- BBS to Rescue Anti-Muslim Unqualified Janadipathi Balika Vidyalaya Principal – Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Galagoda Atte Gnananasara on 18 March 2014 defended the actions of Nayana Thakshila Perera who earlier forced two Muslim students to remove their attire which was in accordance with Education Ministry Circulars and Supreme Court orders, and ordered them to worship her. The BBS secretary ignoring the fact that Perera had forced the students to worship her, and was also an unqualified politically appointed Principal, addressed a Press Conference on the same day and said the Muslim ministers were harassing the Principal.54
saddam / June 21, 2014
for a moment i thought OIC referred to the Officer In Charge of a Police station who has questioned govt’s links…now am assured that wont happen in this spineless blunder of asia
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Dodo / June 21, 2014
Mahinda Jarapassa has refused to Ban BBS Balu Sena saying that this will not address the problem! What a bloody JOKE of an excuse to let Gota’s BBS rats keep on attacking minorities!
Banning BBS would certainly be a BEGINNING in SERIOUSLY addressing the virus of Sinhala Buddhist racism that Gotabya Jarapassa is using to run his PARALLEL MILITARY BUSINESS DEEP STATE via the UDA and Defense Ministry. Sinhala Modayas in their parallel universe do not see Gotas racist DEEP STATE!
Banning the BBS would send a STRONG MESSAGE to SInhala Buddhist racists who have attacked not just Muslims but also Christians and Hindus in the past, but with the Jarapasss popularity ebbing among Sinhala Modays Mahinda Jarapassa knows that the only way to win elections is playing the Sinhala Buddhist Majority racist card!
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Don Stanely / June 21, 2014
Where is GAG why has this vermin not been arrested and put behind bars and the BBS disbanded and its property and funds provided by the Sri Lanka tax payer via GOta the Goon’s UDA needs to be confiscated.
The Thunmulla Buddha Jaynathi complex which is BBS head quarters and is an insult to What the Buddha Taught – ahimsa, metta, karuna upeka, muditha..
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manel fonseka / June 22, 2014
I am very curious about this Buddhist centre which the President laid the foundation stone for 2 or 3 years ago and later then opened. II wish some investigative journalist (do we HAVE any?) would get some gen on the place. To whom does the 14 or 15 storey building belong? My belief was that the land belonged to a Tamil family who presently resides overseas. I may be wrong but how did it get into the hands of the present occupants? If the whole edifice is owned by the Buddhist Cultural Centre they are pretty business-minded having as one of their tenant a branch of the Bank of Ceylon.
Some time ago it was published somewhere that the BBS HQ was on the 5th floor, the rent of which was paid by the Buddha Sasana Ministry or anyway a Govt Ministry. Is this true? if so this is a direct govt link with the BBS. Otherwise is the BBS housed there free?
Really, who OWNS this building?
The area around Tun Mulla Handiya is becoming a veritable Nirvana what with Bauddhaloka Mw, and Sr Sambuddhattva Jayanthi Mw, and just down the road I find even that beautiful name which commemorates glorious trees which once graced the road, Thimbirigasyaya, has been replaced by the name of a Buddhist monk.
But my main interest is to whom or What does the Buddhist Centre belong? And DOES the govt pay the rent for the BBS?
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Fathima Fukushima / June 21, 2014
Check OIC links to Al Qaeda and ISIS first!
It is a curse these people have oil.
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mal-x / June 21, 2014
Not only oil check this out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmo5LJNbJAQ
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Shantha / June 21, 2014
I don’t know what your agenda is, but you are linking Glen Beck who is a known liar, and has no credibility in the US. He like Fox News he used to work for, has been found lying again and again, in fact they are known for lies, half truths, and exaggerations.
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/glenn-beck/statements/
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Ahmed / June 21, 2014
Yeah check the link of Gnanasera and Gota [Edited out]!! Mad monks!!
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UN / June 21, 2014
Racis with a Muslim name!!
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Thiru / June 21, 2014
Fathima,
Watch out for all the Menikes marching home from Muslims countries in the Middle East – No more maids going to ME to work – will hit the Sinhalese husbands and the children in their stomachs.
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mal-x / June 22, 2014
How about the Menikes the hubands were entertaining at home?
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Jelly Fish / June 21, 2014
Yo Anagarika Fukushima,
They (ARABS) also helped the Srilankan economy for the last 40 years.It is this money the Rajapakse (Ungrateful swine) is using against theirown brethren. The meal you are eating contains ARAB money.
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JAY / June 21, 2014
These marakalyas have there own problems in their owm muslim world. First resolve yhose matters before interfering to over problems.Get rid of your terrorist organizations like Al quida, ISIS, BOKO HARAM, HAMAS, HEZBULAR, JIHARD and other terrorists groups that are operating in Middle east amd Africa who ate masercuring Christians .These terrorist s have done so much destruction s to human mankind.
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shantha / June 21, 2014
Nice of you to worry about other countries. If you truly care about human rights, why don’t you focus on one of the oldest human rights violators, apartheid nation, and military occupier, in the world, Israel. They are stealing lands and killing Palestinian children, daily.
We Sri Lankans, should worry about what is happening in our own country, and the damage done by extremists monks, who are following orders like mindless robots. We should worry that the government is
rather selective in whom they protect. Minorities are treated like third class citizens, and they allow terrorists to attack them and their properties. This is destroying this country once again. We have forgotten the violence we just went through with suicide bombers, check points, and our people afraid to travel to work.
Why are we Sri Lankans asking for more trouble? Right now let us not get blind to what is happening in our country, people are used like puppets to cause terror and cause harm, even murder, of innocent minorities, have Churches and Mosques attacked (the worst sin in any religion) and show hatred for them.
Focus on the terrorists at home, the ones who pretend they are Buddhists, and incite violence.
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Shiro / June 21, 2014
The biggest revenue for Sri Lanka is from the labor force in these Middle Eastern countries. Despite our workers being ill treated, and one even beheaded, the greedy government of Sri Lanka continue to send their people to work like slaves and send home their money.
These Arab nations should stop taking Sri Lankans for their work, and instead recruit from other nations.
They should stop helping the modaya at Temple Trees build ports and refuse any more aid, until the Muslims and Christians are protected and not attacked anymore. There is no point uttering useless words. Actions will speak better, because the rajapaksa’s will understand economic boycotts faster than words.
Muslim nations must step in now and hit them where it hurts.
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standingforwhatsright / June 21, 2014
well said.
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Buddhism Betrayed / June 21, 2014
Why question when the equation below is answer with irrefutable proof.
BBS, Ravana Balaya, JHU = TERRORIST
Sri Lanka Government = TERRORIST
Thus,
BBS, Ravana Balaya, JHU = Sri Lanka Government = TERRORIST
Just like A=B
and C=B so, A=C=B. Now do you Arabs understand or is the math to difficult to digest?
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standingforwhatsright / June 21, 2014
OIC can threat sri lanka by offering to ban imports of oil if possible hits on Muslims occur. muslims in sri lanka really do need someone right now.
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Diogenes / June 21, 2014
Does this buffoon think that our government should take sides with moslem extremists? This man is trying to create unwanted trouble. Be ware of Al Qaida, Talaiban, Boko Haram etc
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Peace Lover / June 21, 2014
SL govt has bitten the hand that fed them (Muslim support at UNHCR sessions)
Is is that the majority of Sinhala Buddhists are ungrateful or do they suffer from selective memory loss?
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Goraka / June 21, 2014
Impose travel restrictions to Sri Lanka. simple. Hurt them economically and we can solve the problem without any bloodshed.
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Cut The Gordian Knot / July 24, 2014
Better still – drone a few jarapassas. They will like the cowards they are run away to the US – no more racist pigs in Sri Lanka. Problem solved.
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David / June 21, 2014
Modakamata No medicine
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Farzan / June 21, 2014
BBS and the SL government try to weak muslims’ economy. But a major income is coming from middleast workers to SL government. so we must stop this income and make them economically weak. then all these problems will be solved.
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ahamed / June 21, 2014
send all budhist from Middle East back to SL. They will kill ganasara by themselves.
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NoBody / June 21, 2014
As for anti-halal campaign I do not agree with what the BBS are doing. Halal and haram business of Muslims must not be a problem to other nationals.
But this female dress can cause problems in security and identification matters. Ministry of Education must amend this circular and prescribe clear guidelines on school dress code including university education. Of course allowances must be made for minor variations and colour of dress etc. but a general rule has to be adopted. The Muslim female dress is too extremist to be commonplace in education system. Besides it assumes and invokes a separate and separatist away from the rest of the people which is bound to create a sense of alienness and division among the children. It is this sense of separate identity that creates problems in their later stages in life with the Sinhalese. Of course, it Muslims insist on their particular dress then they can go to schools reserved for Muslims.
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Christina Williams / June 22, 2014
People should not judged of the way they dress.
They are not hurting anyone’s attribute or disturbances.
If a women wears something revealing people condemn her and perhaps try to illicitly have common grounds with the women.
Now when a women covers up herself she is an extremist?
Where is your genealogy of basic human rights?
The identification card in Sri lanka is the dumbest way of identifying someone, I was traveling in the United States and Canada and I had asked my Identification to be presented to clear my package, They taught I was making things up and was laughing at me and feeling ridiculed for having a polythene coated ID card which only can be read in Sinhalese or Tamil. (Do not aggravate this situation more by stating it should be in multi lingual) However there concept was that this could be made by an grade 5 Student.
Please do not rage morality concerning about what people should wear.
In the world The moral is the same, Please respect us as human beings.
Thanks
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Somebody / June 23, 2014
Christina Williams
A remarkably concocted name, partly Christian, another part with an English dose and functionally dying for Muslim cloths and extremism! This must be none other than a Bin Laden type Taliban terror member, I guess!
“People should not judged of the way they dress.”
Why the hell they should not be, because under this cloak they hide everything? Who order that these women wear this ghost-looking female Muslim body armour? Muslim men! Why do they do that? Because they want to dominate and subjugate the womenfolk, they treat their women as slaves, they do not acknowledge the females have human rights, they want to own the females, they also want to have the right to sell the females for money. Any old Muslim man, if he has enough money, can purchase a beautiful young girl-not one but up to seven! This is what they are doing under the sheep cloak! They do not allow women to enter their Mosques, when the men return from the Mosque the slavery duty of the women is to apply aromatic smokes to their men as if the men are Allah at home.
“Where is your genealogy of basic human rights?”
What nonsensical talk is this? While you denying your own females basic human rights you blow the human rights trumpet. This Islam is an extremist religion. Compliance, enforcement, punishment, violence and terrorism are its essential ingredients. Look at all the extremist terrorist organizations, groups, splints and countless number of terrorist acts and wars in the world. Almost all of them are originated as a result of Muslim extremism. This female dress code is part of their violence and patriarchy. Ask ten Muslim females of their true opinion of this gunny bag like dress and they will all say they hate it! All the Sinhala people send their children to school dress in the commonly accepted dress but you Muslims do not want to do that and create an unnecessary conflict by insisting on your patriarchy dress imposed on the women by force. It is not this particular dress that generates dislike among Sinhalese but your extremist Muslim implications behind it. Your very demand against the common school dress which is no means a “Sinhalized dress or uniform” is tantamount to Muslim extremism and violence against other cultures. You defy and create friction within the system you live in and then resort to Fundamental Right Petitions, hilarious, isn’t it?
Your dim witted stupidity is further revealed in your farcical comment where you have travelled to Canada and produced your Sri Lankan NIC to authorities to prove your identity! What kind of a dumb asshole are you? They did not laugh at the plastic coating or the Sinhala/Tamil NIC but at YOU bundle of idiot who produced it at quite the inapplicable place. You did not have the common sense of producing your passport which is the proper international document issued by the government of Sri Lanka for this type of purposes but did a stupid blunder which even a grade 5 child could understand and then come to this forum to proclaim your dimwittedness seamlessly bonded with Islamic extremism.
It is your type of fools who harangue about morality, human rights, culture, dress code, human beings, genealogy and all the imaginable things that demand gray matter to understand. It is your type extremists who destroyed the Bhamian statues in Afganistan using tons and tons of gun powder. The Talibans who did it are doing all kinds of terrorist killings, violence, system upsets and bomb blastings in the name of Islam, Allah, religion and culture. It is the same claim you are making here over your female dress and given the enough strength, manpower, weapon power and political space you would do exactly the same thing Talibans are doing out there. This is the very reason terrorists like Rajapakshas and BBS have been able to exploit terrorism and violence against their own citizens to further their familial and political aspirations. You and your Islam provide fuel to destruction. Look at your own Iran and find out how Iranian women are throwing your patriarchy dress to the dustbins and enjoying the freedoms of life. Get a life for god’s sake.
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hassan / June 22, 2014
there is nothing wrong with d dress of muslim women, it became an issue only after bbs in sri lanka, what a funny way is this “u like to c a woman walk half naked and u hate to see a woman walk fully covered?”
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Andare / June 21, 2014
The Sri Lanka Government should take strong action to punish Middle East Governments by banning the import of middle east oil into Sri Lanka.
Teach those fkrs a lesson.
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Marwan / June 21, 2014
Yah! I agree. They should also ban their women going to Middle Eastern countries and serving them in washing toilets and looking after Arab children. That will teach those Arabs a lesson. The SL government must also stop trading with them, like stop the export of tea, stop issuing tourist visa to enter the country and spend their Halal money, stop accepting outright grants, loans and financial support for development work as in road network development, infrastructure development and call for a ban on all such aid. Ban on import of oil as you have already mentioned, and totally isolate the Arab nations through travel advisories. Bunch of Bloody jokers.
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gonnamba / June 22, 2014
We will see in the next UN session how the Idiot Arab camels will vote in favour SL. Arab countries must charge a premium on OIL to Srilanka. Must with immediate effect stop new visas for all middle east countries. Must limit /cease their import of Tea and other products. Put a restriction on Trade and freeze all transactions.
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Shiro / June 22, 2014
The easiest way to make the rajapaksa come to their senses fast would be:
Middle Eastern nation must stop further recruitment from Sri Lanka.
Those who are already there, should not have their contracts renewed.
Once our Sri Lankans feel their incomes drying up, they will blame the rajapaksa’s for their plight,
and dislike the BBS.
It would be also be helpful for ALL Muslims countries to stop cooperating with the rajapaksa’s in the business field, and refuse any more aid and help.
Refuse to support Sri Lanka during crucial votes in the UN and other agencies.
Stop the flow of tourists that come from Arab nations and other Muslim countries.
The rajapaksa’s will suddenly become more protective of Muslims and minorities, FAST.
They have to be hit where it hurts them.
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BBS Rep / June 22, 2014
I wonder which Muslims the OIC represents. The Sunnis or the Shias. Or any other of the hundred offshoots of Islam.
There are also other people killed in Sri Lanka and women raped.
OIC should also show concern for people other than Muslims if it is to have any credibility.
Anyway in the absence of anyone willing to defend the Muslims in Sri Lanka against the well organised attacks by Government forces combined with mad dog well fed thugs in saffron robes, I must commend OIC for speaking up against this utter horror.
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Anton / June 23, 2014
Dear Muslim Brotherhood countries. Sri Lanka Forigen Minister GL PIRIES is started to inform all muslim countries in the Gulf region what was really happened Please don’t believe what GL Peries is informing regarding the incident to muslim world , he was not there when the situation was occoured for muslims in Sri Lanka, He was with president Rajapaksha in Bolevia, now what Rajapakshe he doing he has briefed all the falls stories about muslim to announce to all Diplomatic and muslim countries, we know how much we suffered, blady Terroist group BBS call Bodu Bala Sena was fully responsibily to this incident.Always using hate word which we cannot hear that type of filthy words are using agiant muslims, first they start to stop muslim sisters are wearing HIJAB, then start to stoip HALAL food, and now start to attack innocent muslim peoples, they killed 5 muslims, burned around 80 houses including muslim business shops, poultry farms, car sales, Gem shops, all burgled, now muslim peoples from ALUTHGAMA, BERUWELA and DARGA TOWN were desplaced with anything belongins thewy are like refugees,Very recently muslim own cloth shop call NO LIMIT was completely burned, now they are targeting all muslim business places to burn, and same day one MASAJID in Jaffna was attacked, and one muslim hotel in Trincomalee was burned, still some m uslim remote areas are attacking, know one know about that,This man GL peries is a lier he carry all Rajapaksha regeme garbage. I humbely request from all muslim countries not to believe what GL peries is saying. The whole world aware what was happen to muslims in Sri Lanka BBS BODU BALA SENA Secertry Gnanasara thera he is anti muslim very recently he has mention in the news paper This is a result of the misguided foreign policies of Sri Lanka. If I was the President I would side with the Western forces not the Muslim countries because I can very clearly foresee the dangers of befriending Muslim extremists 15 years down the line,” he has stated. Now almost one week still BBS seceretry was not arrested, WHY if he was arrested he will spell all the seceret of RAJAPAKSHA REGRME. that is the reason he was not arrested, all muslim embissies in Sri Lanka aware all the incedent.
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kuma / June 23, 2014
We have been witnessing Islamic barbarism all over the world. Islam says apostates must be killed. So, the believers of Islam kill apostates.
What about peace loving moderate Muslims? Do they think it is all right to criticize Muhammad? No, they do not. They also believe apostates should be punished.
I wonder who gave Muhammad and his Islam immunity from criticism?
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roy / June 23, 2014
If the arab countries impose sanction for one month thats enough , the dollar will be Rs 200/ the mass will be at the God fathers neck.
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