{"id":126534,"date":"2014-06-21T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T18:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=126534"},"modified":"2014-06-21T04:11:07","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T22:41:07","slug":"failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure To Firmly Counter Aluthgama Violence Is Irresponsible &#8211; Friday Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Organizations and individuals\u00a0who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/unedited-full-video-bbs-gnanasaras-pre-riots-speech\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">preach hatred<\/span><\/a> and advocate violence\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">cannot be allowed to\u00a0hold meetings inciting\u00a0attacks on fellow citizens, says the\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Issuing a statement on recent\u00a0<\/span>communal<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0riots the Friday Forum said; &#8220;The Government\u2019s failure to firmly counter\u00a0persistent\u00a0trends of religious intolerance is irresponsible<b>.&#8221;<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We publish below the statement in full;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum is appalled at\u00a0the violence in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Aluthgama&amp;x=8&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Aluthgama<\/span><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Beruwela&amp;x=14&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Beruwala<\/span><\/a> and other areas\u00a0over the period June 14-16. Three deaths, an estimated 80 injured and\u00a0extensive damage to houses and shops\u00a0have been reported in the international and private media\u00a0creating\u00a0fear and tension\u00a0in the country. We condemn these violent acts and call for the law to take its course with the perpetrators. We welcome the declaration of a curfew in the affected areas and the calls for restraint from all parties.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-126215\" alt=\"Aluthgama Violence\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg\" width=\"512\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg 512w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence--300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a>After sixty-six years as an independent nation state we have still not learned that neither majoritarianism nor aggressive identity politics will help us to forge national harmony in the plural society that we have inherited from our rich historical past. While extremism and demagoguery may be the price we have to pay for the democratic way of life we have, the rule of law demands that curbs be placed on organizations and individuals,\u00a0whether from the clergy or\u00a0laity,\u00a0who preach hatred and advocate violence. Such organizations and individuals cannot be allowed to\u00a0hold meetings inciting\u00a0attacks on fellow citizens. It is ironic that those most vociferous in condemning the international investigation of our &#8220;internal affairs&#8221; should be the very forces whose conduct makes such investigation both inevitable and justified.<\/p>\n<p>The Government\u2019s failure to firmly counter\u00a0persistent\u00a0trends of religious intolerance is irresponsible<b>.\u00a0<\/b>The\u00a0Presidential twitter and the vague report of a \u2018mechanism\u2019\u00a0being set up are\u00a0weak responses\u00a0to the incidents that have taken place which have the\u00a0potential to escalate into a major conflagration.\u00a0We\u00a0call for\u00a0stringent action to be\u00a0taken against those who have flouted the law. We call upon the security forces to fulfill effectively and impartially\u00a0their role in the protection of\u00a0human life and property and the\u00a0preservation of\u00a0law and order.\u00a0We call upon the Government and the Opposition, on\u00a0religious and community\u00a0leaders, on trade\u00a0unions and other organizations\u00a0and on groups of right-\u00a0thinking persons throughout our land,\u00a0to make\u00a0strong\u00a0and concerted\u00a0national appeals for\u00a0peace and harmony.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala,\u00a0Ms.\u00a0Suriya Wickremasinghe, Professor \u00a0Camena Guneratne, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Ms, Damaris Wickremesekera, Mr. Faiz-ur Rahman, Dr. Deepika Udagama, Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran, Professor Gananath Obeyesekere,\u00a0 Ms.\u00a0Manouri Muttettuwegama, Mr.\u00a0Ahilan Kadirgamar,\u00a0 Mr. Danesh Casie Chetty , Mr.\u00a0Tissa Jayatilaka, Rt. Reverend Duleep de Chickera, Dr. G. Usvatte-aratchi, Ms. Shanthi Dias, Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Dr. Devanesan Nesiah, Mr. J.C. Weliamuna,\u00a0 Dr. A.C. Visvalingam,\u00a0 Mr. Javid Yusuf, Mr. Chandra Jayaratne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":126215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Failure To Firmly Counter Aluthgama Violence Is Irresponsible - Friday Forum - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Failure To Firmly Counter Aluthgama Violence Is Irresponsible - Friday Forum - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-20T18:31:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-20T22:41:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"331\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/\",\"name\":\"Failure To Firmly Counter Aluthgama Violence Is Irresponsible - Friday Forum - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-20T18:31:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-20T22:41:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Aluthgama-Violence-.jpg\",\"width\":512,\"height\":331},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/failure-to-firmly-counter-aluthgama-violence-is-irresponsible-friday-forum\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Failure To Firmly Counter Aluthgama Violence Is Irresponsible &#8211; 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