{"id":248105,"date":"2026-07-19T13:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=248105"},"modified":"2026-07-19T23:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:14:11","slug":"back-to-the-christian-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Back To The Christian Enemy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tisaranee+Gunasekara\">Tisaranee Gunasekara<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFor the enemy to be recognised and feared, he has to be in your home or on your doorstep.\u201d ~ <\/em>Umberto Eco (The Prague Cemetery)<\/p>\n<p>The Tamil enemy and the Muslim enemy are pass\u00e9, for now. It\u2019s the turn of the Christian enemy, again.<\/p>\n<p>Parliamentarian Chamara Sampath Dassanayake heralded the change at the 12 July convention of the Joint Opposition in Kurunegala. \u201cVenerable monks, (we) should stop being patient. I\u2019m telling prelates and chief prelates, listen to this. The army commander\u2019s tenure was over on 2 July\u2026 (It) was extended before. Now (it is) extended again. Who appoints the army commander? On the night of 2 (July), the current army commander took a huge basket of fruits to the cardinal\u2019s house\u2026 Now his tenure will be extended till January or February 2028. Once this is extended\u2026Major General Nilantha Premaratne is finished. He will go home in July\u2026 Major General Udugama will go home. Nalin Bandaranayake (will) go home. Shantha Hewage (will) go home\u2026 None of them will be able to become army commander even for a day. Venerable monks, listen, the next to come will be a Fernando\u2026 The army has many resort bungalows. Recently a lot of fathers have gone to Batticaloa. Now they spend the night in these bungalows. The army provides food and all comforts. That is the way this government is going. The army commander (is) appointed by the cardinal. The CID is cardinal. Everything is done by the cardinal\u2026As I said once, it was fortunate the cardinal didn\u2019t become the pope. If not, this too would have been over. This would have become a Vatican.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F7UkShWGcpU?si=ZOspZZJzPkcwN9QI\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As a loyal Rajapaksa acolyte, Mr Dassanayake would have had a ringside seat when his masters started their 2009 search for a suitable enemy to replace the dead Tiger. Initially, they flirted with the Christian enemy. Conversion phobia was ignited and churches attacked, again. \u201cToday religious terrorism has replaced LTTE terrorism\u2026 Christian organisations were responsible for spreading disharmony among Sinhalas and Tamils,\u201d Medagama Dhammananda thero said, with a straight face (<em>Asian Tribune<\/em> \u2013 14.2.2010). Two years later, the Christian enemy was abandoned and the Muslim enemy enthroned.<\/p>\n<p>Today, sections of the Opposition are searching again for a suitable enemy. The Tamil enemy is hard to resurrect. The Muslim enemy is exhausted. Who else but the Christian enemy?<\/p>\n<p>As the July 2026 Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) survey demonstrates, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has an approval rating of 76% (this rises to 82% among the 18-29 age cohort). 63% are satisfied with the NPP administration\u2019s capacity to deliver efficient governance (only 23% are dissatisfied; the satisfaction level is much higher among the 18-29 age cohort at 71% while only 17% of this group is dissatisfied).<\/p>\n<p>This places the government in a politically unassailable position \u2013 for now. The survey also demonstrates that socio-economics could become the Achilles\u2019 Heel of the administration. 51% of respondents say that their household economic situation has worsened compared to a year ago; only 18% say it has improved while 30% say it remains unchanged. Only 45% are satisfied with the government\u2019s handling of cost of living while 44% are dissatisfied.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s recent return to upper-middle-income-status (we were first there in 2019 and was downgraded in 2020) was caused by a real recovery in growth, \u201csupported by broad-based industrial rebound and steady growth in the services sector.\u201d But this does not mean any significant improvements in overall development or general living standards. <em>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/documents1.worldbank.org\/curated\/en\/099213205052641407\/pdf\/IDU-df6d36cb-59f0-4e01-af7b-4893b4d08e24.pdf\">World Bank Sri Lanka Development Update 2026<\/a><\/em> points out, while economic recovery remains strong, socio-economic indicators continue to be weak. Poverty in 2025 is estimated to be around 22.1%. \u201cThe economic recovery has been unable to reverse crisis-induced welfare losses\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Today Sri Lanka\u2019s per capita income is around 1.6million rupees. At the same time, over 22% of its people earn less than 205,000 rupees per year. This is classic ruthless growth. The economic recovery is real, but it is built on the shifting sands of widening socio-economic disparities. If the extremely unequal nature of our current recovery is not corrected speedily, the government\u2019s popularity can take a nosedive.<\/p>\n<p>An opposition which cares about the Himalayan costs of inciting ethnic\/religious passions, an opposition which possesses a grain of sense or a patriotic bone in its collective body would focus its anti-government campaign on the solid ground of socio-economics. With such an excellent weapon waiting to be claimed and wielded, why are sections of the opposition trying to ignite religious fires?<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>The plague bacillus of 1956<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The success of the 1953 Hartal increased the prestige and the popularity of the left parties which led it. Had the 1956 election been fought on the socio-economic battlefield (as were the 1947 and 1952 elections), the left parties would have fared extremely well. That calculus changed when SWRD Bandaranaike embraced the Sinhala Only agenda a couple of months before the election. His opportunistic move transformed the terrain of battle from socio-economic to ethno-religious-linguistic.<\/p>\n<p>The disastrous outcome of the Sinhala Only language policy is well known. Less talked about is how the new government\u2019s Buddhist bias played out in governance. As the inimitable DBS Jeyaraj wrote, when PM Bandaranaike wanted the police to break up the Port strike by arresting trade union leaders, IGP Osmond de Silva refused. An angry PM sacked this honourable policeman. He wanted the new IGP to be not only pliant but also Buddhist. Since the officers next in line in terms of seniority were all Christians, \u201che\u00a0brought in an outsider &#8212; his friend and civil servant Walter Abeykoon\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/opinion\/Aftermath-Of-Bandaranaikes-Assassination-INVESTIGATION-TO-INDICTMENT\/172-175319\">Aftermath Of Bandaranaike\u2019s Assassination: INVESTIGATION TO INDICTMENT &#8211; Opinion | Daily Mirror<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>This appointment based on nepotism and religion would have disastrous consequences including for the PM. As retired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk\/101128\/Plus\/plus_01.html\">DIG Gamini Gunawardane revealed<\/a>, \u201cHe ultimately paid with his life for his folly. Not only he, his wife too nearly paid the price in 1962 when the civilian IGP was found playing bridge at the Orient Club on that fateful night blissfully ignorant of the coup d\u2019\u00e9tat to overthrow the government that was about to be launched! Their daughter too paid a similar price under an IGP of her choice over the heads of five seniors, all competent men. She survived losing only an eye\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In 1999, the senior-most judge on the bench and eminent jurist Mark Fernando was passed over and the supremely unsuitable Sarath N Silva was made chief justice by Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Justice Fernando had two \u2018disqualifications\u2019. One was his incorruptibility and fierce independence. The other was his religion. He was a Catholic unlike Mr Silva who was a Buddhist of the exhibitionist variety.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, none of this history matter to politicians who have no hesitation in driving the electorate through hell and high-water in order to return to power. Parliamentarian Chamara Sampath Dassanayake is not the sole igniter of religious fires. His might be the most openly virulent voice, but a veritable chorus is in the making, singing about an anti-Buddhist and pro-Christian conspiracy, especially behind the Easter Sunday Massacre investigation.<\/p>\n<p>On 10 July 2026, Patriotic National Movement filed an intervening petition seeking to support the writ application by Gen Suresh Salley against his detention. One of the petitioners was Angunugalle Sri Jinananda thero who, with his complaint against writer Shakthika Sathkumara, pioneered the using of the ICCRP as a blasphemy law (he is also a key promoter of Israeli interests in Sri Lanka). According to him, \u201cThere is an attempt by this government to make Major General Suresh Salley, the army, and the Sinhala-Buddhist people culpable for the Easter Sunday attack. This conspiracy is operated by the masterminds\u2026 the cardinal, Ravi Seneviratne and Shani Abeysekara\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z-O2oUe1cO4?si=MVvnMD5s6rDU3bR5\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nDapane Sri Mahinda thero, president of the Pasyodunrata Buddhist Congress and principal of Kande Vihare Maha Pirivena, also sought permission to be added as an intervening petitioner in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/breaking-news\/Senior-Buddhist-monk-seeks-to-intervene-in-Suresh-Salleys-writ-petition\/108-345783\">General Salley\u2019s writ application<\/a>. The senior prelate\u2019s petition \u201cexpresses concern that unproven allegations created a public narrative suggesting a wider conspiracy involving Sinhala Buddhist military and intelligence officers, contrary to the findings of the Supreme Court and the Presidential Commission\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Shantha Jayathialake, a retired air force official, lodged a complaint with the AG\u2019s Department against additional solicitor general Dileepa Peiris. Addressing the media afterwards, he implied that the concern about victims of the Easter Sunday Massacre was an unnecessary fuss. \u201c20-30,000 people of this country died from terrorism. Zahran killed and injured around 500\u2026 The Buddhist majority in this country follow Lord Buddha\u2019s middle path. they are familiar with the Eight Worldly Conditions (<em>Ata Lo Dahama<\/em>). Catholic or Muslim people might feel hurt (because) they cannot face the Eight Worldly Conditions, blame-praise, profit-loss\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7cNxB2MWHxo?si=A_xueyX1ml91S85W\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>70 years after 1956, the plague bacillus remains undead. For a range of opposition politicians, from Namal Rajapaksa to Champaka Ranawaka and Dilith Jayaweera, infecting polity and society with ethno-religious hate remains the only path to power.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Old history, new reality?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the most fascinating findings of the CPA survey is how Lankans view the idea of a secular constitution. Only 43% think that the majority religion should be given the foremost place in the constitution. <strong>52% believe that no religion should be so privileged constitutionally.<\/strong> The support for a secular constitution is much higher among the 18-29 age cohort at 61%; only 32% of this age cohort support a Buddhism-first constitution. Even more significantly, a plurality of Sinhalese (49%) support a secular constitution while 47% support a constitution which accords primacy to Buddhism.<\/p>\n<p>The enshrining of Buddhism in the constitution first in 1972 and then in 1978 led, not to a spiritual flourishing of the Sasana but to its debasement. While temples became materially rich, monks became spiritually poor. The sordid saga of Pallegama Hemaratana thera is the latest example of how far the monkhood had fallen. There is clearly an inverse relationship between over-the-top state patronage of Buddhism and the state of health of the Sasana.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the 1818 uprising, British rulers unilaterally amended the Kandyan Convention removing the special status granted to Buddhism. This severing of the umbilical cord connecting Lankan Buddhism and Lankan state led not to the decimation of Buddhism but to its flowering. Over the next several decades, Buddhism experienced a remarkable resurgence. This resurgence was led by a cohort of new monks who ordained not to escape poverty or to benefit from generous state patronage but out of a deep conviction of the rightness of Buddhism. Their work reached its zenith with the famous Panadura Debate (which was a series of debates commencing in Baddegama in 1864 and ending in Panadura in 1873). The debates were peaceful and mannered, erudite and accessible, exhibitions of doctrinal knowledge and rhetorical skills. Once the final debate ended, the British editor of <em>Ceylon Times<\/em>, John Cooper, published an account of it highly complementary to the Buddhist side, introducing Buddhism to many Westerners.<\/p>\n<p>So, contrary to popular belief, the Buddhist resurgence was not the work of Anagarika Dharmapala. The first Buddhist printing press was set up in Galle in 1862, 2 years before his birth. The long Panadura Debate began the year he was born and ended when he was a child of 9. He was 9 when the Vidyodaya Pirivena was founded and 11 when Vidyalankara Pirivena was founded. What Anagarika Dharmapala did was to change the course of Buddhist resurgence, placing it on a path of conflict with ethnic and religious minorities.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the first Buddhist printing press and the first Buddhist printed journal were called Lankalokaya (Lanka\u2019s Light and not The Light of the Sinhalese) while Dharmapala\u2019s first publication was called Sinhala-Bauddaya (Sinhala-Buddhist). The older leaders of the Buddhist resurgence might have been concerned by the new path it was taking. Some of them explicitly warned their followers against hate. For instance, the chief incumbent of Sri Pada concluded a two-hour sermon by telling his audience to exercise patience and \u201cto follow Buddha\u2019s command of not even so much as thinking evil of those who cruelly used and persecuted them\u201d (<em>Buddhism and Christianity Face to Face<\/em> \u2013 JM Peebles).<\/p>\n<p>Anagarika Dharmapala was not politically ambitious, but the path he forged has been exploited again and again by ambitious politicians looking for a short cut. The ongoing attempts at resurrecting the Christian enemy by a segment of the opposition is the latest such instance. The findings of the CPA survey indicate that this time, the old tactics of pitting Sinhalese against Tamils\/Muslims or Sinhala-Buddhists against Sinhala-Christians just might not work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":204497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Back To The Christian Enemy? - 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\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back To The Christian Enemy? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-19T07:42:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-19T18:14:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"449\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tisaranee Gunasekara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tisaranee Gunasekara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 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\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/\",\"name\":\"Back To The Christian Enemy? - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-19T07:42:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-19T18:14:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abdfa4662aa4646a0b394bdbe515467c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":449,\"caption\":\"Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith Worshipping the Tooth Relic: Removing the Roman Face from Roman Catholicism?\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Back To The Christian Enemy?\"}]},{\"@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\/abdfa4662aa4646a0b394bdbe515467c\",\"name\":\"Tisaranee Gunasekara\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86c50a33c9b66e26cf6305bd964e8a9f9929a5907c376b415806ad78c711c998?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86c50a33c9b66e26cf6305bd964e8a9f9929a5907c376b415806ad78c711c998?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tisaranee Gunasekara\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/tguna\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Back To The Christian Enemy? - 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\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Back To The Christian Enemy? - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2026-07-19T07:42:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-19T18:14:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":449,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tisaranee Gunasekara","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tisaranee Gunasekara","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/","name":"Back To The Christian Enemy? - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-19T07:42:09+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-19T18:14:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abdfa4662aa4646a0b394bdbe515467c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg","width":900,"height":449,"caption":"Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith Worshipping the Tooth Relic: Removing the Roman Face from Roman Catholicism?"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/back-to-the-christian-enemy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Back To The Christian Enemy?"}]},{"@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\/abdfa4662aa4646a0b394bdbe515467c","name":"Tisaranee Gunasekara","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86c50a33c9b66e26cf6305bd964e8a9f9929a5907c376b415806ad78c711c998?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86c50a33c9b66e26cf6305bd964e8a9f9929a5907c376b415806ad78c711c998?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Tisaranee Gunasekara"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/tguna\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Cardinal-Malcolm-Ranjith-Worshipping-the-Tooth-Relic-Removing-the-Roman-Face-from-Roman-Catholicism-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248105","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\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248116,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248105\/revisions\/248116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}