{"id":39686,"date":"2012-04-24T13:15:33","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T13:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=39686"},"modified":"2012-04-24T13:15:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T13:15:33","slug":"sri-lanka-muslims-decry-radical-buddhist-mosque-attack-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-muslims-decry-radical-buddhist-mosque-attack-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Muslims Decry Radical Buddhist Mosque Attack – BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By BBC NEWS ASIA –<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The main umbrella group of Sri Lankan Muslims says radical Buddhists are trying to damage peaceful co-existence between the country’s main ethnic communities.<\/p>\n

The statement came three days after hardline Buddhists tried to storm a mosque, after which the government said it would be demolished and relocated.<\/p>\n

Buddhists in the central town of Dambulla have defended their actions.<\/p>\n

But the issue has provoked anger among some prominent Muslims.<\/p>\n

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka said it was “deeply concerned” at the attempted destruction of the mosque in Dambulla last Friday.<\/p>\n

It said the building was lawfully registered and was 50 years old.<\/p>\n

The council said that radical Buddhist elements – against the will of the majority – were consistently undermining ethnic co-existence. It called on leaders of Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist faith to re-establish good ties.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Saleemdeen, a board member of the mosque, denied it was an illegal building.<\/p>\n

He told the AP news agency that it had been there long before the area was declared a sacred zone about 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

But prominent monks in Dambulla say the mosque is illegally built on ground sacred to their religion.<\/p>\n

On Friday the building was fire-bombed.<\/p>\n

Video of monks and other hardliners trying to storm it later showed one monk addressing the crowd in overtly racial terms, saying the campaign against the Muslim building was a victory for “those who love the race, have Sinhalese blood and are Buddhists”.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Charles Haviland in Colombo says that a monk was seen exposing himself against the mosque as an insult.<\/p>\n

‘Safeguarding Buddhism’<\/p>\n

Buddhist leaders in Dambulla say they now intend to demolish 72 structures in the sacred area that they say are unauthorised, including the mosque and a Tamil Hindu temple.<\/p>\n

A Dambulla monk told the BBC that the actions were necessary because Sri Lanka was “the only country to safeguard Buddhism”.<\/p>\n

He said that if encroachments continued there would be no Buddhist land left.<\/p>\n

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is overseas but senior Muslim politicians from his government have condemned the official decision to demolish the mosque.<\/p>\n

While most of Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority are Buddhists, Muslims are regarded as the third ethnic group, after the mainly Hindu Tamils.<\/p>\n

There have been appeals for calm, including from a Sri Lankan Muslim blogger who said it would be irresponsible for Muslims to respond to current events in a “reactionary” way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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