{"id":203108,"date":"2019-07-04T16:10:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T10:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=203108"},"modified":"2019-07-04T16:11:20","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T10:41:20","slug":"saudi-embassy-disses-hemakumaras-racist-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/saudi-embassy-disses-hemakumaras-racist-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Embassy Disses Hemakumara\u2019s Racist Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Saudi Embassy has issued a statement rebutting claim by ex-Governor Hemakumara Nanayakkara, that the reason behind Wahhabi Muslims amassing wealth and assets in urban areas, is due to loan schemes funded by Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia that enables banks to issue loans at 1% interest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-203110\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-257x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-257x300.jpeg 257w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-768x898.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-876x1024.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi.jpeg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/a>The ex-Governor made this racist comment a few weeks ago at an event organised by teh All Ceylon Buddhist Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Hemakumara alleged that Wahhabi Muslims have been able to invest in valuable properties in Colombo as well as other urban areas, due to state and private banks issuing major financial concessions on loans, backed by Islamic nations including Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf an ordinary citizen wishes to take a loan from a state or private bank, we would be charged a 14% interest&#8230;But there is a special group of people in this country &#8211; a group of Muslims who are not charged the same interests as others. Not all Muslims are privy to these benefits, the Sufi Muslims are not given these concessions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hemakumara went on to state that it is the Wahabi Muslims who receive special treatment from banks, where, if they apply for a loan, the requested amount would be approved via a special committee that would issue the loan for a 1% interest.<\/p>\n<p>He alleged although it was initially only Amana and Habib banks that issued these Islamic loans, today the state as well as other private banks in Sri Lanka and other finance companies offer this concession to Wahabi Muslims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe banks have been enabled to grant this concession of 1% interest on loans because islamic nations including Saudi Arabia and Qatar have invested in the local bank shares&#8230;Wahabis are granted these monetary concessions and the loss due to not charging the full interest is absorbed by the fund backed by the Islamic nation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Saudi Embassy in Sri Lanka dismissed his claims and pointed out the country has only offered soft loans and that too, to fund the development projects of Sri Lanka intended to benefit Sri Lankans and enhance their quality of life.<\/p>\n<p>In a special statement the Embassy noted a total of 407.72 million USD has been granted to Sri Lanka so far to fund facilitation of various development projects.<\/p>\n<p>We publish below the letter in full:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-203110\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"1052\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi.jpeg 900w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-257x300.jpeg 257w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-768x898.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Saudi-876x1024.jpeg 876w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":203110,"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-203108","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 - 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