Eradicate ethnic conflicts in Srilanka once and for all
Posted on February 11th, 2015
Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela
Needless to say, the misjudged trust placed on BBS by the former government worked totally against them and was a major factor in turning the majority Muslim votes against Mahinda. Hot debates are still going on whether Maithri has BBS to thank for his historical victory.
Having said that the ethnic conflicts will not work in Srilanka for the people of all ethnic origins are wary and weary of wars in our blessed country. Enough is enough and lets’ live in peace.
However there are some ministers in the new government who had strong Buddhist ideologies and strong anti Muslim views during the last regime. Ranjan Ramanayake and Champika Ranawake are two of them. Their views arose from ignorance of Islam rather than personal antagonism. Both of them are strong proponents against corruption and nepotism today, which actions are welcomed by one and all in this country, including the Muslims. However when the dust settles down on these matters the ugly anti Muslim feelings should not raise it’s head again marring the peace of the country.
Knowledge is the basis of wisdom. Therefore all politicians and people must first learn whether what they see as the Ghost of Terrorism amongst Muslims actually exists in Srilanka. If it does the Muslims will be the first to condemn them and would insist of legal action against them to eradicate them. Similarly many facts about Islam are misunderstood by many non-Muslims. These people, especially the ones in power who can make an effect in the society, must establish means of mutual discussion to understand each other’s religions.
To this end both these factions, Muslims and others must make efforts to meet and discuss various issues that looks contradicting. Actually the more one studies Pure Buddhism and Islam the more one is struck by the similarities rather than the dissimilarities.
If we do not learn by our mistakes there is no difference between man and beasts. We have suffered enough and more by ethnic wars and fights. Let’s not forget this fact while we are in the process of rebuilding our nation.
Sent by:
Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,
Dehiwela
February 11th, 2015 at 6:37 pm
The only way to eradicate ethnic conflicts is to ban ethnically and religious named political parties such as Muslim Congress, TNA, BBS etc. If we are going to be a united country, every one must work together and join the mainstream political parties. MY3 should introduce new laws to get tough with racist extremist and introduce tough punishment.
February 11th, 2015 at 6:43 pm
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaa …. Is this a PART of your balleyhooed “Yahapalanaya”??
If you don’t ACT NOW as the Minister of Defence and President to SUSPEND the Northern Provincial Council and INDICT its members for TREASON, then you are UNWILLING & INCAPABLE of DEFENDING OUR Motherland!
Defending the Nation is YOUR FIRST & HIGHEST DUTY; ACT NOW or RESIGN!
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaa ….. What are YOU DOING to our Motherland??
…………………..
Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council adopts resolution calling for an international investigation on ‘genocide’
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Feb 10, Colombo: The Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka Tuesday adopted a resolution calling for an international investigation into alleged acts of genocide committed against the Tamils during the war.
Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran presented an amended version of the resolution calling for an international inquiry on genocide against Tamils committed by the successive governments since the country’s independence from the British in 1948.
The resolution notes that the obligation to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention is not a matter of political choice or calculation, but one of binding customary international law.
In the resolution, the NPC has urged the team appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the war in Sri Lanka, to comprehensively investigate and report on the charge of genocide in its submission to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015.
“During the war, government military forces engaged in deliberate aerial, artillery, and naval bombardment of civilian areas and also used prohibited weapons and ammunitions, such as cluster bombs. According to UN estimates, 60 – 100,000 Tamil civilians were killed over the course of the 27-year-long war. The large scale and severe nature of the genocide also forced many Tamils to flee the North East Provinces and seek refuge in Tamil Nadu and Western countries,” the resolution has stated.
The resolution described that the case of genocide in Sri Lanka is unique among genocides in history because it occurred over several decades and under different governments before intensifying into a “no-holds-barred war” for nearly three decades and culminating in the mass atrocities of 2009.
“It is accordingly vital that Sri Lanka’s historic violations against Tamils, in addition to the 2009 attacks, are addressed through an international mechanism in order to combat Sri Lanka’s institutionalized impunity,” it said.
The resolution has further noted that the UN Security Council should refer the situation in Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for prosecutions based on war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide adding that alternatively or concurrently, domestic courts in countries that may exercise universal jurisdiction over the alleged events and perpetrators, including but not limited to the United States, should prosecute these crimes.
February 11th, 2015 at 6:51 pm
Mareena,
“However there are some ministers in the new government who had strong Buddhist ideologies and strong anti Muslim views during the last regime. Ranjan Ramanayake and Champika Ranawake are two of them.”
Why didn’t you say so BEFORE the election?
Why didn’t you say so BEFORE the election?
Why didn’t you say so BEFORE the election?
Now it is TOO LATE. They are two GIANTS in the new government.
“To this end both these factions, Muslims and others must make efforts to meet and discuss various issues that looks contradicting. Actually the more one studies Pure Buddhism and Islam the more one is struck by the similarities rather than the dissimilarities.”
RUBBISH! Buddhism ABHORS worshiping or believing in a god. God is certainly NOT great. Man with enlightenment is the GREATEST.
Don’t discount the power of war. SL has won ALL the wars it fought and shall win ALL wars by hook or by crook.
February 12th, 2015 at 9:01 am
“Enough is enough and lets’ live in peace.”
George Washington once said and I paraphrase “in order to guarantee peace one must be ready for war”.
Sri Lanka’s entire history is pock marked with turbulence, invasions and ethnic rivalry. Peace is a commodity Sri Lanka hass had only for short periods of time. One sure way to guarantee peace is to make sure a good deal of the Tamil Hindus and the Muslims leave Sri Lanka for their own homelands. That Christianity is put in its place and Buddhism is placed back in the position it held for a good deal of the 2500 year history
that may give Sri Lanka an integrated stable nation, it will come with a new set of problems but the history of Sri Lanka by and large has proven that her best governance was under Sinhalese Buddhist patronage.
I personally say “LETS GIVE BUDDHISM A CHANCE” THAT STATEMENT IS MORE CONCRETE THAN THE VAGUE STATEMENT OF “LETS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE”
February 12th, 2015 at 12:36 pm
Ado Yakko “Facebook” Lorenzo,
What is a Tamil Anglican Christian EELAMIST HYPOCRITE like you, who danced a KOLAM jumping up and down before the Election UNDERMINING our President who Liberated, Reunified and Developed the Nation as Never before, doing at LankaWeb trying to “Explain” Buddhism to ALL??
And NOW, when EVERYTHING thatwe had said would GO WRONG IS GOING WRONG in our Motherland, you are offering EXPLANATIONS??
We DON’T NEED your preaching of Homilies on the CONSEQUENCES of your UNDERMINING to the Choir!
BEGONE …. BUGGER OFF …. SHOOO … DANCE YOUR EELAMIST KOLAMS ELSEWHERE! BLOODY EELAMIST HYPOCRITE!
February 14th, 2015 at 4:44 pm
What Mareena Thaha Reffai wants is peace to slowly Islamise Sri Lanka. Given time and “peace” they will multiply, buy off land and throw the Sinhalese into the Golu Muhuda.
February 16th, 2015 at 2:43 am
Blaming the Bodu Bala Sena for the defeat of Mahinda Rajapakse is not sustainable.
True a large majority of Muslims voted for the opponent in an anti – Rajapakse vote but it is highly presumptuous of Dr. Reffai or for that matter any Muslim to think that it was their votes that made the difference between victory and defeat. It would be wise for Muslims to not arrogate themselves to think that they are king makers in this country. They are not by any stretch of imagination.
If the Sinhala Buddhists (70% of the population) vote en block they can have their choice as the President. Their vote was badly split at this election. Sizeable numbers of Buddhists voted against Mahinda Rajapakse for no other reason than his apparently incurable weakness for minority appeasing policies.
See article by Dilrook Kannangara on“ Sinhala Voters are the King Makers and the Ray of Hope for the Defeated”
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/01/10/sinhala-voters-are-the-king-makers-and-the-ray-of-hope-for-the-defeated/
Inviting the Pope, Canonizing Joseph Vaz as a Saint and recognizing him as an Apostle of Sri Lanka, allowing the multi – culturalizing of Buddhist sites and pilgrim destinations like Sri Pada, Kataragama and Buddhist citadels like Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Mihintale and Mahanuwara (Kandy), allowing new Christian Churches and Mosques to be built in Buddhist holy towns and cities and at a rate totally out of proportion to the numbers of these religious minorities in this country cost the loss of critical numbers of Sinhala Buddhist votes for Rajapakse.
BBS is not more than two years old. BBS is a reaction against unacceptable practices of religious minorities that are seen gaining the upper hand in Sri Lanka. Has Mrs. Reffai taken time to consider the role played by extremist Muslim political parties like the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and new Jihadi groups in distancing Muslims from non – Muslims in this country ?.
Before SLMC came into being in the mid – 1980s there was a good rapport between the Sinhalese and the Muslims under the leadership of statesmen like Dr. T.B. Jayah, Dr. M.C.M. Kaleel (who was also made Chairman of the UNP), Sir Razeek Fareed among others. They were based in Colombo, lived among the Sinhalese and supported the Sinhalese to gain independence in 1948.
Ashroff and his SLMC grew from a close association with the LTTE and became advocates of Tamil rights at the beginning aimed at subverting the rightful place of the Sinhalese and the Buddhists in this country. That was the commencement of the rift between the Sinhalese and the Muslims. It was after SLMC became the voice of the Muslims that Muslims became targeted victims of communal strife, terrorist attacks and even expulsion from the Northern province.
Further the growing spread of Wahhabism among Muslims all over the world including Sri Lanka has continued to isolate the Muslims from the country’s mainstream. Why is that non-Muslims throughout the world are now up in arms against the Muslims? It is not only Sri Lanka or the BBS that are condemning Muslims and their behaviour but the entire world. 16 U.S. states have now introduced legislation to ban or restrict Sharia law since 2013.
http://toprightnews.com/?p=8284
Hate speeches
It is good that there are now calls for hate speech inquiries for we can bring out and show how the Koran is full of hate speech. I shall give the following examples to highlight how far the Koran calls on Muslims to hate non – Muslims by name calling such as ‘ Infidels’ or ‘Kaffirs’(disbelievers).
The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the war against non – muslims.
Refer this article for the exact quotes – http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
The defense of Muslims when these texts are given is to declare them out of context but they are never able to show a single line which denies that these are wrong.
The Muslims must stop using the BBS as a red herring and calling for its ban. Sri Lankan Muslims if they open their eyes they will see that all over the world and particularly in Europe a growing anti-Muslim feeling is spreading fast. That movement is far worse than the BBS. It is sanctioned and funded by European Governments e.g. the anti – Islamic ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Magazine is funded and supported by the French Govt. on the ground of freedom of speech.
Muslims are invited to look inwards and find their fault lines. They are purposely creating ghetto areas, they are becoming a nuisance to the public with their Mosque loudspeakers disturbing people of other faiths including the Mahabodhi Temple of Buddha Gaya ( birth place of Buddhism), they are wearing black to intentionally make a statement and look ridiculous with a new attire that they seem to think represents Islam (though it has nothing to do with islam and nowhere does the religious text say to wear black for women and white for men, with long beards). The fanaticism that the Muslims show only takes Muslims away from other people and along with it any empathy towards them. Islam has made Muslims insular in non – Islamic countries. Muslims demand freedom of religion in Buddhist countries but most Muslim countries in West Asia do not even recognize Buddhism as a proper religion because Buddhism rejects the concept of God. In Buddhism you are your own saviour through right effort. There is no external saviour(s) in true Buddhism.
It is high time the Muslims wake up without thinking that they can expand their domain with fast forward natural increase in population through huge families and polygamy, and conversions without trying to live peacefully on a ‘give and take’ basis with other communities.
Here is the list of anti-Islamic groups throughout Europe
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anti-Islam-Alliance/104201582969970
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/02/technology/02HATE.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/islamophobic-hate-groups-become-more-prominent-in-germany-a-956801.html
http://www.google.lk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FStop_Islamisation_of_Europe&ei=01XhVMPZNsqhugSLi4LACQ&usg=AFQjCNHbF2P_3p4mIaN1nWMz5uWXI-v4Tw&sig2=JwFYbicYYh2Nj44K9_CdxQ
Mrs. Refai is well advised to clean up and reform Muslim practices which tread on other people’s toes instead of going henpecking other movements which have arisen because of the Muslim menace – a feeling that is commonly shared throughout the world by all non-Muslims.