{"id":209237,"date":"2020-04-07T13:31:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T08:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=209237"},"modified":"2020-04-10T23:53:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T18:23:00","slug":"racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Latheef Farook<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Latheef Farook<\/p><\/div>\n

The unfortunate racist comments during a break in the political talk show<\/span><\/a> \u00a0\u2013 Wadapitiya, between Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage<\/span><\/a> and Chatura Alwis<\/span><\/a> of Derana television, known for poisoning innocent Sinhalese minds against Muslims, exposed their mindsets, ignorance and short sightedness.<\/p>\n

Whether the two understood or not, Sri Lanka is a multinational, multi religious, multi lingual and multi-cultural country where whether, one likes it or not, need to learn to live together in the interest of all.<\/p>\n

Chatura Alwis has been a known racist while Aluthgamage took pleasure in ridiculing the ulemas. He said \u201cIf I am asked whether the Ulema Organization (in reference to ACJU – the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (the apex religious body of Islamic theologians in Sri Lanka) has taken a decision (on the burial \/ cremation issue) I will tell I don\u2019t care whether its Ulema or Hanuma even\u201d.<\/p>\n

However Muslims do care about their\u00a0<\/span>religious demands on burying their dead<\/p>\n

On the other hand Derana TV, perhaps funded by local and international forces, has been known for demonizing and justifying violence against Muslims especially in the wake of Easter Sunday massacre. In continuing this policy Derana TV is now accusing Muslims of spreading the corona virus disease as Indian Prime Minister Narndra Modi and his RSS Hindutva fascists were doing in their country.<\/p>\n

Chatura and Aluthgamage were the products of racist politics and education and perhaps ignorant of minorities, their history and their culture. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they know that racist politics virtually ruined this country which during the time of independence in 1948 was a shining example for political and economic stability, communal harmony and peace in the entire third world? \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It has all the ingredients to move ahead to ensure a better life for all in the country.<\/p>\n

However racist politics accompanied by senseless communal violence turned the country into a killing field for almost 30 years. As a result Sri Lanka is one of most mismanaged countries in the world known for its \u00a0 <\/span>economic bankruptcy and political instability.<\/p>\n

The irony is that the Sinhalese community failed to produce a political leader who could think and work for the whole country rather than thinking only for the majority community – their best vote catching strategy.<\/p>\n

It is common knowledge that it was racist politics from all shades of political parties paved the way for the ethnic war which devastated the country for three long decades causing death and destructions besides untold misery to people while politicians flourished in the form of commission in weapons purchasing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However racists learnt no lesson from the ethnic war.<\/p>\n

Once the ethnic war ended in 2009 all were happy in the hope that peace would prevail and they could resume their normal life .However those dreams were shattered when the government opened the country to anti-Muslim forces such as Israel and Indian RSS \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>and started turning against the Muslim community only to please these destructive foreign forces.<\/p>\n

Israelis and the RSS, two sides of the same illuminati coin, care a damn for Sri Lanka. They have their global and regional agenda. Wherever they go they first get round the media, politicians and professionals with incentives and use them to demonize Islam and Muslims.<\/p>\n

In many of my articles I predicted their presence in the island will destroy good relations between Sinhalese and Muslims. And here we are-the two communities remain divided today of course to the detriment of the two communities. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israeli-RSS strategy and their background, by and large, were not known to local politicians and the media mercenaries. The result was racist elements in the majority community were carefully picked up to unleash a systematic violent campaign against Muslims while poisoning the innocent Sinhalese minds. This campaign which began in the aftermath of the end of ethnic war in 2009 culminated in the attacks on Aluthgama, Berulawal and Dharma Town Muslim for no valid reason.<\/p>\n

These senseless atrocities continued with greater intensity under disastrous Maithripala Sirisena presidency.<\/p>\n

However within a year after Maithripala presidency, Muslims were attacked in Gintota followed by attacks on Muslims in Ampara, Digana, and Akurana and in and around Kandy.<\/p>\n

These attacks climaxed when, in the wake of Easter Sunday massacre with which the Muslim community had nothing to do, the government dispatched forces to brutalize \u00a0 <\/span>Muslims to an extend that they were forced to burn even Holy Quran. He dispatched troops with dogs inside mosques.<\/p>\n

Racist media unleashed an equally vicious campaign accusing Muslims of the Easter Sunday carnage and demonizing them. This racism continues to date unabated.<\/p>\n

It is time for racist politicians and others wake up to realities around hem\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example Singapore, Maldives Islands and Dubai were far behind the island during the time of our independence in 1948. Singapore which firmly dealt with racism from the very inception is today a well-developed country where the people enjoy economic prosperity and peace. Maldives Islands were so poor that they used to sell Bondi Haluwa, locally made sweets, in the streets of Colombo for their earnings. It is a developed country today where people enjoy a very high standard of living.<\/p>\n

Dubai, then an unknown and unheard of desert strip, is today a most modern city state where people of more than 196 nationalities live and work in peace.<\/p>\n

Prof. Rohan Guarani of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, once said Sri Lanka must have a Sedition Act or Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act to prevent people insulting other people, especially different ethnic groups, \u201cUnfortunately, Sri Lankan leaders played ethnic and religious politics, seeded hatred and division and the country was dragged back 30 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prof. Gunaratna, is of the view that Singapore\u2019s survival and prosperity could be attributed to the country\u2019s harmonious coexistence between different groups of people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":209241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nRacist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka? - 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\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-07T08:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-10T18:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"792\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"582\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Latheef Farook\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Latheef Farook\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 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\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/\",\"name\":\"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka? - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-07T08:01:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-10T18:23:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a33fd179fb18127a7fa726c77643b912\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg\",\"width\":792,\"height\":582},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a33fd179fb18127a7fa726c77643b912\",\"name\":\"Latheef Farook\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/492a5df137138294dcd5c7491adfac3f13dc880e3c8bb74bcde11cbfa87b29f6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/492a5df137138294dcd5c7491adfac3f13dc880e3c8bb74bcde11cbfa87b29f6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Latheef Farook\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/lfarook\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka? - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka? - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2020-04-07T08:01:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-10T18:23:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":792,"height":582,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Latheef Farook","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Latheef Farook","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/","name":"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka? - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg","datePublished":"2020-04-07T08:01:29+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-10T18:23:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a33fd179fb18127a7fa726c77643b912"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg","width":792,"height":582},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/racist-comments-of-aluthgamage-chatura-it-is-time-to-realise-that-racism-destroyed-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Racist Comments Of Aluthgamage & Chatura: It Is Time To Realise That Racism Destroyed Sri Lanka?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a33fd179fb18127a7fa726c77643b912","name":"Latheef Farook","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/492a5df137138294dcd5c7491adfac3f13dc880e3c8bb74bcde11cbfa87b29f6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/492a5df137138294dcd5c7491adfac3f13dc880e3c8bb74bcde11cbfa87b29f6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Latheef Farook"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/lfarook\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Awantha-Artigalas-cartoon-on-Racism-and-corona.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209330,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209237\/revisions\/209330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}