We need to examine the making of Islamic extremism now
so that precautionary measures can be taken to avert future catastrophe/s. Before you venture into rehabilitating the
yesterday’s terrorist the government must start a conversation with those who
have studied the problem to identify well in advance before they strike in
order to guarantee the security of citizens. Islamic terrorist is different
from other terrorists like the LTTE suicide cadre where the lower rank recruit
is brainwashed to become the martyr for a cause for which he even lacks first
hand experience. The Islamic terrorist/ suicide bomber is carrying out a
prescribed Godly mission who is intent on falling into the lap of God at the
flick of a detonator switch to enjoy carnal pleasures that are forbidden by the
same God in this world. Given the incompetence that the GCE (O) level
politicians have shown so far, this has to be entrusted to criminologists/
psychologists and other experts who explore the evolution of the criminal mind.
They are familiar with the notion of the alienated self and its possible nexus
with the family, school, environment, psychology, personality and many other
underlying causes. The suicidal terrorist is an unknown quantity but with the
danger of terrorism and the magnitude of its horror becoming the new normal
greater attention is paid to the would be terrorist. Even in terrorism the
political terrorist is easy to understand but the religious terrorist who blows
up people to appease a God is a difficult proposition.
A rational discussion cannot take place if we do not
talk openly which is specially thwarted in times of crises. Hence we sprout
feel good solutions, which last only until the embers are doused. That kind of
Sanwedi sanhindiyawa (empathic coexistence?) is ephemeral. We need to ask the serious
question whether Muslim society in general has an existential problem.
Practically in every continent the recent violence associated with terrorism
has links to Islam and Muslims. From the America’s to Europe, Australasia and
Africa this cancer is fast growing and as the years roll on it is increasing in
its monstrosity. A Muslim scholar resident in Australia has argued that the
Muslim society is having an image problem and a tendency to self alienate them
from the mainstream. This self-alienation in societies where the Muslims live
as a minority is talked about in the West in response to the radicalization of
the youth in Western society.
In the Sri Lankan context it is pertinent to pose the
question whether our Muslims are a fractured, ‘morally inconsistent’, confused
society. There are varying conflictual moral authority systems at play. Within
a wider democratic framework Muslim society operates as a mini ‘theocratic’
state, controlled by a priestly class. Given the multiplicity of contradictory scriptural
interpretations there are warring sects and collectivities. From the cloistered
religious worldviews each one of these moral systems grasp the world in parts
but not the totality. Godly moral canons cannot relate to the totality of the human
world because modern society has gone past the boundaries of a God dictated
world. They cannot take a critical stance outside of their values. In a sense
they have moral specialists who are simultaneously a graduate of a university
but illiterate in liberal worldly matters. There are those who are retailers
who sell the Godly canon through motivational preaching’s and there are also buyers.
Those who are confused flock to them. In such a culturally disorganized society
the fanatic and the psychopath see a respectable niche opening to win his
desired accolades from God.
From a sociological viewpoint this is the constitutional
duality of human nature, the duality of the body and its needs in conflict with
the soul. The idea of the homo duplex that earlier philosophers spoke of is in
a state of antagonism instead of being in a balance. We cannot pursue moral
ends without contradicting each other (body and soul), causing a split between
the two, without offending the instincts and the penchant for the desires
deeply rooted in our bodies. For civilizational advance it is necessary to
repress the excessive individualism of the body because the failure to repress
this part of the constructional duality of the human being leads to an anomic,
‘asocial’ situation of normlessness or at best confusion. If the moral
authority has no relevance to the men’s real material situation in their
performance of the occupational and social roles concomitant with natural
talents, society tends to decompose itself into a multitude of incoherent
corporations with a pervasive guilt complex in the wider society. Subcultural
norms of conduct sprout and with their different scriptural interpretations of
morality a ‘split personality’ complex abounds. Some of the pathological minds
lead the groups and espouse oppositional conduct norms. The highly motivated
religious fanatic will not hesitate to jump the bounds of reason. No better
power than the Cod’s command will justify his actions. The use of violence and
other forms of degeneration are not evil per se but an occasion for
self-congratulation.
In the Muslim society there is a love-hate nexus
between the priestly class and the bureaucrat, politician and the financier who
operate in the wider democratic framework. They in general are sympathetic to
the priestly class although they may not openly profess complete allegiance to
the strict Godly interpretations and even abhor violence. The priestly class cultivates them and the
fanatic sees him as an ally of the violent subcultures and its conduct norms,
which need political and financial resources to survive. The fanatical
subculture needs the blessings of political power and bureaucratic favor to
defuse the thereat to the their moral authority system. These contradictory
moral authority systems make it difficult for the ordinary people to follow behavioral
patterns in a socially adaptive manner.
Therefore alienation is rampant. Living according to
God’s command and abiding by the strict conduct norms the alienated self finds acceptance
and even a sense of superiority. The subculture of religious chauvinism
believes that the Muslim social world must be unquestioned and in its determinist
way human behaviors must be controlled. Those who want to live in the modern
world may enjoy the forbidden fruit in secret and the vices may be practiced in
cloistered quarters. But guilt abounds in this theocratic society. Creating
Arabia by reintroducing the Arabic language, the beard, the desert landscape,
the dress, headgear are all part of the self-infliction of alienation. Their politician offers subcultural groups
exclusive schools, churches, political parties, ethnic ghettoes, banks, legal
systems and communication systems without hindrance. This is given the name
pragmatic politics by all and sundry, which in the final analysis is, becomes a
huge social menace.
(Given below is an excerpt of the Friday Sermon delivered by Hazrat
Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
in Islam, on 10th May, 2019, at ‘BaithulFuthuh’, London, U.K. gave a
discourse on Ramazan and our Responsibilities.
Ahmadiyya
Supreme Head recited Holy Qur’an – verses 184-187 of Surah al-Baqarah and then
stated:
The translation of these verses is as
follows:
O ye
who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those
before you, so that you may become righteous i.e. to abstain from sin and
increase in spirituality. The prescribed fasting is for a fixed number of days,
but whoso among you is sick or is on a journey shall fast the same number of
other days; and for those who are able to fast only with great difficulty is an
expiation — the feeding of a poor man, providing they have the capacity to do
so. And whoso performs a good work with willing obedience, it is better for
him. And fasting is good for you, if you only knew. The month of Ramadan is
that in which the Qur’an was sent down as a guidance for mankind with clear
proofs of guidance and discrimination. Therefore, whosoever of you is present
at home in this month, let him fast therein. But whoso is sick or is on a
journey, shall fast the same number of other days. Allah desires to give you
facility and He desires not hardship for you, and that you may complete the
number, and that you may exalt Allah for His having guided you and that you may
be grateful. And when My servants ask thee about Me, say: ‘I am near. I answer
the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me
and believe in Me, that they may follow the right way.’”
In these
verses, God Almighty has described the obligation of fasting, its importance,
the duties of the believers with regards to this month and the ways in which
one’s prayers can be accepted. On one occasion, the Holy Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) said, If you knew the excellences of Ramadan
and in which ways and how much God Almighty manifests His mercy, you would have
wished that Ramadan were extended to the entire year so that you can gather the
blessings of Allah the Exalted all year long.” Thus, God Almighty has
prescribed fasting for our own benefit. We can derive spiritual as well as
physical benefits from fasting. Now, even the non-Muslim doctors are of the
opinion that fasting has a positive effect of one’s health.
God Almighty
has said in these [aforementioned] verses, that fasting has been prescribed for
every believer and every Muslim who is a true Muslim. To remain hungry from
morning until evening is not considered a fast.
Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community (Jama’at) Founder – The Promised Messiah – Hazrat Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad, peace be on him, has stated that through the practice of fasting,
God Almighty desires for a person to decrease one form of nourishment and
increase in another form of sustenance. A person observing the fast remains
occupied in the remembrance of God Almighty in order to develop a state of
inclination towards God and detachment from the world. Fasting has been
prescribed so that one may become righteous. However, what is righteousness? It
is to abstain from spiritual and moral weaknesses. The observing of the fast
should develop a standard of righteousness within a person, through the means
of which one is then able to protect themselves from all forms of spiritual and
moral weaknesses, otherwise it is meaningless to fast. Thus, by truly
fulfilling the due rights of fasting and by attaining high standards of
righteousness that the observing of fasts will bring a person, a believer and a
Muslim become under the protection of God Almighty.
Ahmadiyya
Khalifa continued:
Hazrat Abu
Huraira narrates that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) stated that God Almighty says
that every deed of a person is for his own sake, except for observing fasts.
In fact, the fast is observed for My sake.” Similarly, the Holy Prophet (PBUH)
also stated that fasts are a shield and if anyone of you is observing a fast,
he should not utter anything which is indecent and foul.”
The Holy
Prophet (PBUH) also said, by God, in Whose hand lies Muhammad’s (PBUH) life,
the smell of the mouth of an individual observing the fast is more pleasant to
Allah the Exalted than musk.” That is, it is more pleasant than the fragrance
of musk. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) then stated, there are two joys for an
individual who observes fasts and that bring him happiness. Firstly, he
rejoices when he breaks the fast in that Allah the Exalted made provisions for
him to break the fast. Secondly, when he will meet his Lord, he will rejoice
due to the fasts as Allah the Exalted states that I Personally become the
reward for one who fasts.” Furthermore, the state of the joy of an individual,
who observes the fast for the sake of Allah and receives the uncountable
rewards of Allah the Exalted, will be of a completely different nature.
His
Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad went on to say:
The Holy
Prophet (PBUH) has also warned us and drawn our attention to the fact that if
during the month of Ramadan, wherein the doors to heaven are opened; the doors
to hell are closed and Satan is shackled, but yet if one were to witness the
month of Ramadhan and not have their sins forgiven then when will he be
forgiven? The Holy Prophet (PBUH) also warned that if despite the extremely
comprehensive mercy of God Almighty, the means to secure one’s forgiveness are
not attained (even in Ramadan), then when will they be attained? Hence, we
should not simply become happy on account of Ramadan’s arrival and become
satisfied in merely congratulating each other for Ramadan and the act of
fasting. Rather, we should seriously evaluate ourselves about whether we are
striving to attain the true purpose of fasting as laid out by God Almighty. May
Allah Almighty enable all of us to achieve this purpose and grant us His
forgiveness.
Then, in
the next verse, God Almighty also describes those conditions in which one may
be excused from fasting. However, before elaborating upon this, God Almighty
explains, saying that since I Myself am the reward for the one who fasts, and I
personally provide believers the means to secure their forgiveness, therefore
the thought should not arise in anyone’s mind that we are making a great
sacrifice by fasting, as a result of which Almighty Allah has granted us His
favours, forbearance and forgivingness. No doubt, the mercy and forgiveness of
God has been made extremely vast, but this (fasting) is still not an
extraordinary sacrifice. At the time of Sehr, we eat our stomach’s fill, and at
the time of breaking the fast, everyone eats whatever they desire; and then,
this is hardly an ongoing sacrifice – it is only a matter of a small number of
days in the year.
Hence,
those afflicted with temporary illnesses can also give the Fidya, so that they
get well and can fast. And then, at the end of one’s journey and upon
recovering from sickness, it is also compulsory to fast. The need to observe
both – observing missed fasts and giving the fidya – is proven by the
following.
Ahmadiyya Founder
– The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, explains that those who end up
recovering and are able to make up their fasts, for them to think that they
only need to pay the Fidya [and not keep the missed fasts] opens a dangerous
door to legitimising that which is forbidden. If one’s condition is such that
he recovered after Ramadan, or he became ill in Ramadan but later recovered, if
such people simply say that we did not fast in Ramadan but paid the Fidya, then
this is also opening the door to legitimising something wrong. It would be
condoning false exceptions, opening forbidden ways and forging false
innovations. Even if one has paid the Fidya, he still needs to make up the
missed fasts after Ramadan. These missed fasts can be kept at any time in the year.
Then, God
Almighty states in this verse that whichever good work you carry out with the
utmost obedience, even if you don’t want to do it, you still do it because it
is a command of God, and subsequently God Almighty shall reward you with even
more. At the end of this verse, God Almighty has once again emphasized that
your observing fasts is better for you in every respect.
Then, in
the following verse, God Almighty states, We caused the Qur’an to descend in
this month, which is a means of guidance for you, and contains within itself
clear and illuminating signs. Thus, the Holy Quran and the month of Ramadan
have a special connection. Therefore, alongside fasting one ought to ponder
over the Quran and strive to act according to its teachings, so that one can
derive true blessings from the fasts during Ramadan.
Hazrat
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, further says: When
reciting the Holy Quran, when someone comes across a portion in which there is
mention of the Mercy of God Almighty, then at that moment one ought to seek
mercy from God Almighty. And when one recites a portion in which the Quran
refers to punishment of a particular people, at that point one ought to seek
protection from God Almighty through repentance and seeking His forgiveness.
One should ponder and reflect over the Holy Quran and act according to its
teachings.” Thus, this is the manner in which the Holy Quran ought to be read.
Then in the
following verse [of the Quran], God Almighty states: In the month of Ramadan,
My servants increase their endeavour and search for Me. Thus, I am near, and
that I listen to their supplications. If they seek from Me with sincerity, I
accept their prayers. However, in order for you to have your prayers accepted,
you must first act on My commands.” God Almighty states that one ought to act
on His commands and for one to increase in their belief in Him.
The Holy
Prophet (PBUH) has stated that the first ten days of this month are to attain
God Almighty’s mercy, the middle ten days are to seek His forgiveness and the
last ten days one seeks to be saved from the hellfire.
Concluding
his Sermon, Ahmadiyya Khalifa prayed:
May God
Almighty enable us to become His true servants and cover us with His mercy and
forgiveness and we may become the recipients of the blessings of this month.
During these days particularly pray for the Jama’at…….. Pray for the Muslim
Community (Ummah) that may God Almighty stop them from carrying out cruelties
and from taking the lives of one another. May they become truly sincere Muslims
and recognise the Imam of the Age. Pray for the world in general because they
are heading towards destruction at an alarming pace. May God Almighty grant
mankind wisdom so that they may recognise God Almighty and be saved from this
destruction.
Sri Lanka, Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019: More than half a dozen bomb blasts shook the country killing from 250 to more than 350 people. Depending on who counts, the death toll varies. The devastation took place in in several catholic churches and luxury hotels. Other explosions, including from – what they say – are suicide bombers, have since killed another several dozens of people. Many are children, women – christen worshippers. Why the luxury hotels? Western (Christian) tourists?
Yesterday, another explosion ripped through a suspicious building, killing 18, including children and women. Again, they, the ‘authorities’, say suicide bombers, who didn’t want their ‘cache’ to be discovered. Conveniently they are all dead – the suicide bombers”. Nobody can ask them any questions.
There was a lot of confusion, and still is, all through Sri Lanka. Nobody claimed credit for the massacres. There were rumors that Sri Lanka’s President received warnings ahead of the attacks from foreign intelligence, but ignored them. The President denies these allegations. And the explosions continue.
Finally, the verdict is in. The culprits are an Islamic terrorist group, associated with ISIS. What else is new.
Sri Lanka’s population is composed of about 70% Buddhists, 13% Hindus, almost 10% Muslims, mainly Sunni, the Salafi version, and about 7% Christians. The New York times reports that the accused mastermind of the terror attacks was strongly influenced by Wahhabism, the same extreme hardliners that control most of Saudi Arabia.
Hatred between religions seems on the rise. In New Zealand a few weeks ago a white supremacist assaulted a mosque, killing 50. This past weekend, a shooting in a Synagogue near San Diego, California, killed a woman. The murderer said he was inspired by the New Zealand massacre. Are these spontaneous, interreligious mini-wars part of a foreign directed ‘divide to conquer’ effort, a strategy that has been used by empires for centuries, but seems to be alive and well with the current Washington based empire?
MintPress News reports that Sri Lanka Easter attacks are the handiwork of terrorists returning from fighting in Syria, practicing the Saudi-backed Wahhabi Salafist ideology,” adding, though not confirmed yet, they, [the attacks], are in keeping with the modus operandi of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi terrorism worldwide. [The] Saudi sponsorship of Salafi Wahhabi dogma [is found] across the globe. From Boko Haram to ISIS, and from the Taliban to Al Qaeda, a common ideological thread runs through these terror groups. This is the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi Salafi ideology whose South Asian counterpart is Deobandi. For abbreviation purposes, it is becoming increasingly common to term this interconnected ideology as WSD (Wahhabi Salafi Deobandi).”
May we expect a wave of Saudi-sponsored WSD terrorism in the east too? – Is the horror Saudi government protected by the US, because it does its bidding? And this bidding leads to making gradually Islam extremism the justification for NATO bases around the globe? – Perhaps in Sri Lanka, tomorrow? So far Sri Lanka is clean from NATO. Sri Lanka has not even an association agreement with NATO.
Just look at the world-geostrategic location of Sri Lanka, linking the Arabian Sea with the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka may also have a direct, open-sea connection with the small British island of Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Archipelago, north-east of Madagascar. Diego Garcia hosts the US’s largest Navy base outside the American Continent. Many of the drone killings in Yemen, Syria and other places in the Middle East originate from Diego Garcia. The civil war” in Syria was (and still is) largely directed from Diego Garcia, as well as from Djibouti.
Wouldn’t it be logical for NATO to set up base in Sri Lanka to control South East Asia? Saudi guided WSD attacks would create the necessary chaos justifying all the AngloZionist secret services – plus NATO – to descend on Colombo, to create further protests and anarchy – a never-ending internal strife, giving the war industry a new never-ending flow of profit, hence, further justifying the never-ending war on terror – and, thereby, moving yet an inch closer to Full Spectrum Dominance over Mother Earth and her hapless spectators, what western humanity has become – a bunch of complacent consumers, drenched in turbo-capitalist market ideology, too comfortable to go on the barricades.
The key and engine to all of this is NATO, whose modus operandi is killing for a living, for dominance and for profit. If there is ever to be Peace – and that’s what the vast majority of the inhabitants of this globe wants – I’m not exaggerating pretending that 99.99% of world population wants to live in peace – then NATO must go, NATO must be dismantled.
So, Europe which has the largest membership in NATO (27 out of 29 nations) has to put the money where her mouth is: Europe calls for Peace, Europe claims to be Peace-loving – really? Then put your money into creating Peace – pulling out of NATO, refusing at once to fund this killing machine under the pretext of protecting Europe”. Protecting Europe from what? From whom? – Not from Russia – despite all the highly propagandized and highly corporate-funded Russiagate / Russia phobia, exacerbated by a new artificially implanted fear – China. These countries have no history of expansion, like the west.
They only seek friendly relations of trade, of transport, cultural and research interconnectivity within the supercontinent, Eurasia, and ultimately, they promote a multi-polar world. The best example is the Chinese President Xi’s ingenuity – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that just finished its highly successful forum in Beijing – where more than 120 nations signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) and cooperation agreements with China for tens of billions of dollars equivalent. – What a way of cooperating, instead of sowing western-style belligerence.
Europe and the rest of the world is not in danger, except in danger of itself for being a vassal of the US and for hosting 30-plus NATO bases which would be first in the line of fire, if the east is forced to defend itself from that permanent Pentagon-NATO driven aggression.
Europe withhold your funding for NATO, get out of NATO, dismantle NATO, – NOW, before NATO sets up yet another base in Asia, before NATO spreads more death around the globe.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
Minster
of Science, Technology & Research, along with a delegation is currently
attending the 22nd session of the commission on Science and
Technology for Development (CSTD) in Geneva, Switzerland. This session is held
form the 13th to 17th of May 2019.
The
CSTD is a Subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the
united Nations focal point for Science, Technology and Innovation for
development.
It
acts as a forum for strategic planning, sharing lessons learned and best
practise, providing foresight about critical trends in STI in key sectors of
the economy, the environment and society and drawing attention to emerging and
disruptive technologies.
Every
year, the commission has two priority themes. This year these are,
·
The
impact of rapid technological change on sustainable development
·
The
role of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in building resilient
communities.
This
session will review the progress made in the implementation of the Outcomes of
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), In addition, the commission
will hear presentations on national Science, Technology and Innovation policy
reviews (STIP reviews).
This
session is attended by Ministers, Government officials, civil
activits, representatives of business community, academia and international and
regional organizations. Most member states are represented by high- level
delegations.
The
opening ceremony of the session was followed by a special segment
devoted to A Conversation with Great Minds” a dialogue between eminent
thinkers in the field of Science & Technology. The 22nd sessions
will continue with high level roundtables.
His holiness Cardinal Malcolm
Ranjith, the bishop of Colombo is the man of the moment. At the most decisive
time when the country needed a voice of sanctity, he delivered. And,
delivered in no uncertain terms that doused the heat that was running at
volcanic molten lava scale when the majority Sinhalese would have unleashed
their wrath and venom, in reminiscent of the July 83, on Muslims. His name is
deservedly proposed as a nominee to the coveted Noble peace prize which would
undoubtedly challenge any other similar feat anywhere in the world
Nevertheless, the flip side of the
Malcolm phenomenon is, the behavior of the so called moderate Muslim
leadership, in different political persuasions and from the intellectual
strata. They are, in unison, falling over each other, to jump on the bandwagon
that our good Cardinal Ranjith built as a deterrent to mounting angst amongst
the aggrieved masses under Muslim invasion of the country during the last two
or so decades that knows nothing but killing as their only modus operandi, in
glorifying their God, Alla. Succinctly put, look no further but the scripture
in their holy book, Koran, which has dedicated chapters to guide them as to how
a majority of a country could be cowed down, at the right time, when their own
number is multiplied from nothing to majority within a short span of time.
Until such time be the most trusted and faithful subordinate to the
majority.
Yes, the heroic efforts of the Muslim
soldiers of our armed forces contributed heavily to the war effort against
Tamil terrorism. Yes they speak better Sinhalese than Sinhalese themselves.
Yes, they even deliver Buddhist sermons more eloquently than most Buddhists
themselves. However, be aware, where are all these virtuous deeds leading to.
By the hour, these Muslim leaders are
scoring heavily through this shrewd line of attack, taking the heat off the
sensible action against the invasion they have been engaged in with the
blessing of warped political leadership of the country who are hell bent on
securing their continuity of pillage through ballet.
Majority Sinhalese
Buddhists/Christians and Tamil Hindu/ Christians and all attached to other
denominations who prefer to call this resplendent island as their motherland
need not be fooled by the scoundrels whose only goal is plunder of the wealth
at any cost. This is the golden opportunity that has been offered to them on a
platter, a blessing in disguise which should not let go without reaping the
best to eradicate the Muslim invasion, that has engulfed the present day world
to irretrievable scale, since the barbaric invading armies of Ottoman
empire.
Back to the good Cardinal.
Hats off to your timely action that
gave us some breathing space to bring the tenuous situation under control.
Nevertheless, it’s time to make some soul searching whether your God will be
able to save your flock from this Lucifer, nurtured under the watchful eyes of
225 rogues at Diyawanna, turned into a behemoth of an octopus, stretching its
monstrous tentacles to all spheres of Sri Lankan life with unflinching grip.
The first foremost move is, stop singing hosanna to the so called moderate
Muslim leadership. You need not build a centre stage from where they are
moralizing the victim, thats us, that lets the demon off the hook. No
other community should accommodate Muslims in their campaign of eradicating
fundamentalism since Muslim Koran propagates, killing the adversary is the
God’s Will. No pious Muslim ever renounce these edicts in their holy book. The
cunning Muslim cleric keeps a safe distance from answering these horrific
practices in Koran.
Dear Cardinal, may your attention is
drawn to a decisive instant in the Sinhala Buddhist history. That was 1505,
anno domini. They came, they saw and they crucified or you may call it
christened – the native Buddhists, brandishing the sword with right hand while
the left holding the holy Bible. And where did the “conquistador”
start from. A piece of land, area of a cowhide in extent. ‘Gerisamka Idak’.
Today, your flock, the descendants of that holocaust paid a terrible price at
the hands of an identical aggressor who came under the guise of selling pieces
of Siling Biling to our innocent village damsels.
Your recent comment that, Buddhism
should be the foremost religion is noted with reservation. Declining Ranil’s
offer of a bullet proof limousine too observed with reservation. What is your
ultimate goal. Only the heavenly God knows, your holiness.
For true
freedom, people need transparency in all things. The fact is, for democracy
(and freedom) to survive we need good information; we need to understand. When
government hides things or give us false information, our freedom is
diminished. In fact, there are so many things we are not told.
For how
much longer can human civilization survive? For seventy years we have been
living under the shadow of nuclear war. Several times, we humans have
come extremely close to final nuclear disaster, even by just a few minutes due
to misunderstanding or human error. When the doomsday clock of the Bulletin of
National Scientists was set last January at just two minutes to midnight that
is now the closest it has been to terminal disaster since the clock was set up
in 1947. With the USA and Russia, armed with unstoppable hypersonic weapons,
staring each other down, the world is facing total destruction.
Another
threat to our continued existence is global warming. It has been slowly getting
hotter year by year over the last ten years and shows no signs of slowing down.
Experts say it is the sun changing and warming our upper atmosphere – but
assisted by our emissions of methane, carbon dioxide and other noxious gases.
A third
danger facing us all, is the threat from Earth’s N-S Polar reversal. The
Earth’s magnetosphere provides us with protection from harmful solar and space
radiation. A reversal is when the North and South poles switch positions. This
is highly disruptive, causing mountainous tsunamis, violent earthquakes and
high winds.
Those are
terminal cataclysms, but there are others of lesser degree.
There is
the danger from state tyranny to our freedom. The price of freedom is
eternal vigilance. There is the grave danger facing the free world made by the
world’s ruling elites who are busily undermining democracy. On one side is the
political left, who secretly plan a ‘New World Order’ ruled by the United
Nations. On the other is the political right, who want to, country by country,
install right-wing governments into power ruled by dictators, all for the
benefit of business!
They want
dictators installed into power to implement their agendas of either the left or
right, who can rule and imprison all those who oppose their rule. Donald Trump
has seriously upset the left’s long-laid plans of re-organizing and oppressing
the common man. That explains the animosity directed towards him.
Then,
there are the Islamists, who want a Caliphate to rule the world with Muslim
Sharia law, putting society back a thousand years. Extremists, idealists all,
would be happy to install such a state by Jihad or by terror.
Or,
irresponsible researchers playing with viruses which can unleash an epidemic,
or other sources of a virus which is unstoppable and wipes us all out. AIDS and
Ebola viruses are unstoppable and lethal.
Little of
these threats named above get into the newspapers or on television – governments
want the common man to be kept in the dark, vulnerable to the dangers, but
entertained by gossip and drama! With our heads empty of meaningful thoughts,
they can manipulate and control us like sheep and pigs, and profit from us,
too.
How we,
ourselves, Undermine Democracy
Philosophers
say we cannot have true freedom without personal moral constraint in a
democratic society. The only truly free people are those that are ruled by
personal moral behavior. Democratic government can be very successful where a
population is moral, but it will fail when good standards and practices decline
and fall and good order in society breaks down.
RULE: When
unrestrained liberty leads to a loss of order, then the demand for order leads
to a loss of liberty.
EXPLANATION: In the
case of a society enduring moral anarchy, corruption and chaos, even before the
arrival of a strong man, people are not truly free. They must be alert and on
the defensive.
You
can say that those who are unrestrained in behavior; by being corrupt and
immoral, are destined to be ruled by a tyrant.
They
mistakenly think it is necessary to install a strongman to restore order – a
just man – if such a man can be found! But just men or tyrants have few tools
in their tool box – when you only have a hammer – you see all problems as a
nail to be hammered.
Thus,
moral anarchy, corruption and chaos can lead to dictators who have to use
strong-arm tactics to solve all the different problems. They have only one
response to extreme problems – the police, jails and even torture and death.
The
Superiority of Reasoning and Moral Restraint
Strong
men are a one-sided response to modern situations of chaos; but society is
better reformed by reasoning, explanation and debate for problem solving.
Therefore,
the only truly free people are those who are ruled by personal moral behavior.
Good, educated people can reason and realize the importance of the best human
qualities, trust, truth, moderation, an efficient system of law; recognizing
what is good and beautiful and protecting it. There is a need to teach the
constituent aspects of a moral society.
Democratic
Society based on Free, Unbiased Information
Free
people need accurate, unbiased information with nothing held back by which to
form opinions and understand events in this world. Freedom and good information
are inseparable necessities for mankind.
It is
reality, not illusion or delusion that will determine what the future will
bring. Unfortunately, there are few TV. documentaries to educate and inform
people. All they get is TV. news which is severely limited to five minuits of
news – supplying what one person thinks are items of importance, all
followed closely by the Tele-Dramas. They do not tell us of our dependence on
the sun, its power and treachery, nor do they give information of the factual,
repeating planetary disasters nor the true history of mankind. Without this,
people cannot imagine such events. Many people have only limited awareness of
news and events in the wider world.
The
main media fails them and most people do not trouble themselves to access
smaller, better news providers. They live in a bubble of delusion. Then they
act accordingly.
This
limited awareness of a fast moving, violent world should not be enough for any
normal educated person. People need more facts about the sun and our planet and
truths of political currents and form opinions about them. (For example, Julian
Assange distributed information about the massive political corruption in the
USA – so he is arrested and maybe sent to prison for life for revealing the
truth.)
The fact
is, we live in a turbulent world of man’s inhumanity to man. Who would have
dreamed that just before Easter this year, suicide bombers would change our
society so deeply?
There was
the French Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, the American Revolution, the
revolution in Nicaragua. The world seems peaceful, but in fact, like volcanoes,
explosions occur! – and driving these are the elites who plan for a New World
Order, or world dictatorships or even an Islamic Caliphate. Be aware of
all the dangers facing you!
A
Suggested Definition of ‘Good’ And ‘Bad’
‘GOOD’ is
defined as whatever is beneficial or brings social harmony and happiness to
society. These actions are good Karma which brings its own good reward. This is
important for progress along the ‘Eight-fold Noble Path’ towards a personal
wisdom, peace and
Nibbana.
‘BAD’
is whatever action(s) or event(s) that result(s) in pain, harm, anger, conflict
or causes disharmony in Buddhist society. This slows, hinders or even prevents
people following their ‘Eight-fold Noble Path’ to self-development and wisdom.
Most
actions of people fall within these limits of ‘GOOD’ or ‘not BAD’ as defined.
This can also be seen as a way of minimizing society’s overall unhappiness.
(i.e. maximizing overall happiness in society).
It is sad to see how politicians behave.Some government
ministers and MP’s were criticising the Leader for running away from the
country during the most needed times in the country
Yesterday when I saw TV clippings I saw two prominent ministers sitting in a meeting with our president during the discussion with Chinese President
Conference is supposed to be about Asian Culture.
Why does a minister of justice and another prominent minister
from east was also sitting in such meeting !!
Statements made by The Eminent cardinal and some Buddhist
clergy have been very critical about the leaders in the country for
inability to tackle the situation.
Whole country is helpless when we have have such leaders ?
When I see how government ministers and opposition
politicians and politically motivated artists express various views
indirectly supporting and even abetting terrorism and also tend to
interfere in police actions against wrongdoers in various areas ,I feel sad
that we lost leader like Athulathmudali who would have act differently.
In eighties one of his nephew was arrested by police for
active involvement In JVP activities and kept in Panagoda camp
His father who was a ex military office met me after coming
from UK to try to get him released.
Ministers flatly refused to interfere
After he was released I gave him a sponsor letter to run
away to UK
Our blabbering politicians should stop interfering with the
police actions against Muslim terrorists as well as Sinhalese racist
elements who are trying to destablise the good name of the country.
BBC and some western press organisations are already going
to town trying to tell the world that Sinhalese Buddhists are very racist
.
My contention still stands.
We need a just and benevolent brave leader to take matters
to their hands.
Military top brass should stop playing political games
One voice from one leader should decide how to tackle the
situation
Muslim-owned shops and businesses were targetted by rioters in Sri Lanka’s North-West Province
Sri Lankan authorities said Wednesday they had the situation “under control” after mosques and Muslim-owned shops and businesses were targetted in a violent backlash after the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
A second overnight curfew imposed nationwide ensured there was no repeat of Monday’s violence against the Muslim minority, who make up some 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 21 million.
Many Muslims have been bracing for revenge attacks since three churches and three luxury hotels were bombed by local Islamist extremists on April 21, killing 258 people,
“The situation is now totally under control,” said Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu. “There were no incidents of violence overnight and we are arresting groups of people responsible for taking part in mob attacks.”
Ruwan Gunasekera, a police spokesman, said that more than 80 people were in custody as of Tuesday evening.
But Muslims in North-West Province remained nervous and stayed indoors Wednesday, after sword-wielding rioters killed one man late Monday while vandalising scores of shops and mosques.
In Bingiriya, where some 2,000 people went on the rampage, Muslim cleric M. I. M. Siddeeque said the community was worried.
“Our people are still afraid to go out,” he told AFP by telephone.
Military spokesman Atapattu said security forces were arresting small groups of suspected trouble-makers and handing them over to police.
They were being held under emergency laws under which convicts can be jailed up to 10 years, police spokesman Gunasekera said.
Among those detained was Amith Weerasinghe, a man from Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist Sinhalese community and on bail for his role in similar riots in March last year in the central Kandy district.
Police had also ordered a shake-up of their leadership in the province after allegations of inaction to contain the unrest.
Parliamentary speaker Karu Jayasuriya condemned the violence and appealed for calm.
“The attacks on mosques, the burning of houses and shops, the attacks on innocent people cannot be condoned in any way,” Jayasuriya said in a statement.
The attacks come during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
A state of emergency has been in place since the bombings and security forces have been given sweeping powers to detain suspects.
Internet service providers said the telecoms regulator on Tuesday extended a social media ban to Twitter. Earlier, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram had been blocked to prevent the spread of messages inciting violence.
Sri Lanka’s debt crisis and Chinese loans – separating myth from reality.
By Umesh Moramudali
Sri Lanka is often portrayed as a country that fell into a debt trap as a result of public investment projects financed by China. One such investment project was Hambantota port, which was leased to China Merchant Port Holdings Limited (CM Port) for 99 years for $1.12 billion in 2017. This project is largely the reason as why Sri Lanka is widely cited as a clear example of getting trapped in Chinese debt and being forced to hand over assets with national and strategic importance to China. The general belief seems to be that Sri Lanka was unable to pay off the loans obtained from China to construct Hambantota port in the first place, and therefore had no choice but hand over the port to Chinese control to pay off the debt.
However, the real picture of Sri Lanka’s debt crisis, which is not often explained, is very different and far more destructive. Debt owed to China is in fact the tip of the iceberg, and that should make the debt crisis all the more alarming. The famous Hambantota port deal is not merely an issue of Chinese debt — Sri Lanka has much larger economic issues that go well beyond the debt owed to China.
It is true that the EXIM Bank of China funded the construction of Hambantota port and the project certainly was not an economically sensible decision at the time given the fiscal constraints of the economy. In fact, there were serious concerns about the necessity of constructing an additional international port in Sri Lanka, particularly one financed through borrowing at commercial rates, and whether such a port would be able to generate enough revenue to break even. Sure enough, Hambantota port was not making enough revenue to repay China when loan payments came due. However, the real reason Sri Lanka moved to lease the port to China goes well beyond the difficulties of paying off the loan installments on debt obtained to construct the port. Alarmingly, the Hambantota handover indicates a far bigger economic crisis underway in Sri Lanka.Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.
The Sri Lankan government obtained several rounds of loans to construct Hambantota port from 2007 to 2016. All these loans were obtained from China EXIM Bank, most at commercial rates. However, each loan had a grace period of around five years and a payback period of 15-plus years. For this very reason, the loan repayments for Hambantota do not amount to a large portion of Sri Lanka’s external debt servicing payments; some loan repayments have not even started yet. Debt repayments for the loans obtained for Hambantota port amount to only around 5 percent of Sri Lanka’s total annual foreign debt payments, and even less among total debt repayments.
The economic reality is that Sri Lanka leased out Hambantota port to China largely due to a persistent balance of payment (BOP) crisis resulting from the reduction of trade over the years even while external debt servicing costs have been soaring. Sri Lank faced a severe shortage of foreign reserves in light of the upcoming debt servicing payments, due to the maturity of international sovereign bonds. Therefore, the country had to look for various avenues to obtain foreign currency inflows. Leasing out Hambantota port was one of the ways to increase the country’s foreign reserves.
Although Hambantota port was leased to CM Port, the loans obtained to construct Hambanota port were not written off and the government is still committed to loan repayments as per the original agreements. The money obtained through leasing Hambantota port was used to strengthen Sri Lanka’s dollar reserves in 2017-18, particularly in light of the huge external debt servicing due to the maturity of international sovereign bonds in early 2019.
Sri Lanka’s debt problem goes well beyond China. It is related to a change in foreign debt composition and structural weaknesses of the economy, such as an overall reduction of trade, the rise of protectionism, and the reduction of government revenue.
By the end of 2017, only little over 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was owed to China and most of that was in the form of concessionary loans.
Data from the Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka. as of the end of 2017.
Instead, the largest portion of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was international sovereign bonds, which amounted to 39 percent of the total foreign debt as of 2017. These are commercial borrowings obtained from international capital markets since 2007, and such bonds have resulted in soaring external debt servicing due to the nature of the debt. Unlike in concessionary loans obtained to carry out a specific development project, these commercial borrowings do not have a long payback period or the option of payment in small installments. When sovereign bonds mature, it results in a significant increase of external debt servicing costs, as the entire face value of the bond should be paid once as opposed to paying installments for concessionary loans.
Data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
The danger of rising external debt repayments is they require a large amount of foreign currency. To put it in simple terms, a country should have a sufficient amount of foreign currency inflows (through exports, FDI, or more external debt) to finance foreign debt repayments. Sadly, though, Sri Lanka has failed to increase exports or FDI by a sufficient margin to match its rising foreign debt repayment obligations. On the contrary, the country’s export-to-GDP ratio (including exports of both good and services) has declined from 39 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2017, raising serious concerns regarding external debt sustainability. Meanwhile, the foreign debt servicing-to-exports ratio, a major indicator of external debt sustainability, reached a peak of 28 percent in 2015. The ratio was only 10.6 percent in 2007 and had increased to 22.5 percent by the end of 2017. Since 2011, the foreign debt servicing-to-exports ratio has remained above 20 percent except for a slight drop to 19.7 percent in 2016. By 2017, Sri Lanka was compelled to increase the level of foreign reserves despite the unfavorable global economic environment for emerging markets in light of the pending maturity of sovereign bonds amounting to $5 billion, which are due between 2019-2022.
Estimates based on Central Bank of Sri Lanka data.
This scenario forced the government to seek out for various ways to raise foreign currency and leasing Hambantota port, which was not generating sufficient return on investment, was among the options. In addition to that, media reports have indicated that the government is planning to lease Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), one of the emptiest airports in the world, also located in Hambantota, to India. Both these infrastructure projects were constructed using Chinese loans and severely criticized as economically nonsustainable investments.
It is true that, thanks to financing a number of infrastructure projects, the portion of Sri Lankan foreign debt owned by the Chinese has increased drastically during the last decade or so. From 2008 to 2012, approximately 60 percent of foreign borrowing has come from China.
However, having said that, Sri Lanka would have encountered concerns pertaining to external debt sustainability and persistent balance of payment (BOP) issues even in the absence of Chinese debt. Of course, there were serious concerns regarding the economic sustainability and the necessity of the projects financed by the Chinese at the time those were initiated. Yet the bigger issue behind Sri Lanka’s debt crisis was the choice to borrow from international capital markets at commercial rates at a time when the country’s exports were going down even while the government consistently failed to fix structural issues such as the reduction of trade, rising protectionism, and reduction of government revenue. With those structural issues, serious concerns regarding debt management are inevitable. Resolving the problem will require a consistent effort for reforms, which involves serious political challenges.
Umesh Moramudali is an economic researcher focusing on public debt dynamics in Sri Lanka and international trade. He is currently pursuing an M.Sc in Economics at the University of Warwick.
Watch out: There is distinct possibility of ISIS attempting to take advantage of the Rohingya refugee crisis
The people of Sri Lanka have shown courage, wisdom and resilience in recovering from the traumatic effects of the country’s brutal ethnic conflict between 1983 and 2010. An estimated 47,000 Tamil civilians, 27,000 LTTE members, 50,000 Sinhala civilians, 23,790 Sri Lankan soldiers and 1,500 members of the Indian Peace Keeping Force laid down their lives, during the conflict.
The Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, however, did not affect the lives of Indian Tamils” in Southern Sri Lanka, whose ancestors had migrated, as plantation workers, during British rule. There have, however, been recent incidents of religious tensions between the Sinhala Buddhist clergy and radicalised elements in the Muslim minority. Sri Lanka’s relatively small Christian minority, which is peaceful and relatively affluent, had steered clear of getting drawn into any ethnic conflict.
In these circumstances, the world was shocked to learn that in the midst of holy Easter Sunday church services on April 21, churches in Colombo, Negombo and even the eastern port of Tamil dominated Batticaloa, were hit by bomb explosions.
Three hotels housing a large number of western tourists in Colombo were also targeted. As many as 253 innocent people perished in the carnage.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) soon claimed responsibility for the attack, contradicting President Trump’s claims that the terrorist outfit had been 100 per cent” crushed in Syria. It soon emerged that the mastermind behind the blasts was a rabidly fundamentalist Sri Lankan Tamil, Maulvi Mohammad Zahran Hashim, who was from the town of Kathankudy, in Sri Lanka’s Tamil dominated eastern province.
Indian intelligence agencies had provided timely warnings to the Sri Lankan Government about an impending terrorist strike by the ISIS. These warnings were not seriously taken note of by the Sri Lanka Government. It is, however, imperative that India keeps in touch discreetly with the Sri Lankan Government. We are evidently seeing the beginnings of long-term internal and regional problems and challenges, as ISIS members disperse and regroup, after being ousted from Iraq and Syria, like Al Qaeda and the Taliban did, after American militarily intervention in Afghanistan.
As the ISIS targets in Sri Lanka were the country’s peaceful Christian community and western (Christian) tourists, the bomb attacks sent ripples across the West, as the attacks came soon after the massacre of Muslims in New Zealand, during their Sunday prayers.
Radicalisation drive
Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, which has done well economically in the Island, has lived in peace with both Buddhist Sinhalas and Hindu Tamils. Recent studies, however, indicate that some years before the bombings, sections of Tamil Muslims from the eastern province were getting radicalised in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries.
Zahran Hashim was one of those so influenced by radical Islamist practices and beliefs. Cutting across ethnic differences, Hashim made common cause with Sinhala Muslims, including two sons of a Muslim business tycoon in Colombo, who had been deeply influenced by the ISIS. Both the sons died in suicide bomb blasts, even as the wife of another bomber detonated explosives in a suicide bombing the same day, resulting in the deaths of three police personnel.
The Sri Lanka bomb blasts were thus executed by young radicalised Sri Lankan Muslims, cutting across the ethnic divide. Moreover, there are now signs that an estimated 75-100 Indian Muslims, who were with the ISIS in Syria, have dispersed and chosen escape routes, including through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hashim has also reportedly established close institutional links with a counterpart group in Coimbatore and with people in other parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
There are now indications that after being forced out of Iraq and Syria, ISIS fighters have now dispersed across Asia, Africa and even to parts of Europe. While the Osama bin Laden-led Al Qaeda made it clear that its struggle was against Jews and Crusaders,” the ISIS targets all non-Muslims, as was evident from its brutal killings of Indians in Iraq. Moreover, the Al Qaeda operated primarily out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, apart from select Arab countries. Al Qaeda’s leadership was predominantly Arab. It had very few members from other parts of the world.
The ISIS poses a much more serious challenge to India than the Al Qaeda ever did, primarily because it has recruited its fighters from countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. President George Bush praised India because not a single Indian joined or backed Al Qaeda. But, things are different with ISIS, which regards India as a part of the Islamic State of Khorasan”. Over 100 Indians are estimated to have joined the ISIS.
Extending its reach
The reach of ISIS across India is evident from its links with extremists in Kashmir, apart from those established in the recent past, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Radicalisation in our southern States poses new and serious security challenges. ISIS also acknowledges its links with associates, across India’s maritime frontiers in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, Maldives, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It also has a growing presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
India will also have to take note of the distinct possibility of ISIS attempting to take advantage of tensions arising out of the Rohingya refugee crisis. A senior Myanmar official recently revealed that even as ISIS was losing influence in Iraq and Syria, its supporters were moving into Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where Rohingyas reside. Many Rohingya refugees, now in Bangladesh, could well make common cause with ISIS and with members of Pakistani backed militant outfits like the Jamat-ul-Mujahideen, to destabilise the situation along the common borders of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Pakistan has had an abiding interest in destabilising the Sheikh Hasina-led Government in Bangladesh.
Apart from having to deal with continuing Pakistan sponsored terrorism, India will now also have to keep a watch on challenges that would likely arise from the ISIS, with its emerging presence in the southern States. Like in Sri Lanka, ISIS activities could target selected sections of the population in India, while seeking to radicalise them. They will pose a challenge to internal security in India. Finally, Pakistan could be expected to use the challenges posed by ISIS, to absolve itself of responsibility on actions of its trained jihadis, on Indian soil and in Bangladesh. These issues will hopefully receive careful attention after the general elections.
The writer is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan
China has agreed to provide aid worth USD14 million to Sri Lanka to procure Chinese-made counter-insurgency equipment, it was announced on 14 May.
The funding – pledged during Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to Beijing – is intended to boost the capability of Sri Lanka’s security forces, the president’s media division said.
China has also agreed to provide Sri Lanka’s police force with 150 vehicles, it added.
The donations were pledged less than a month after Sri Lanka endured a series of suicide bombings, which killed more than 250 people.
The funding pledge is the latest that China has offered Sri Lanka to support defence equipment purchases
Sri Lanka said on Wednesday hardline Buddhist groups were likely to blame for a wave of anti-Muslim riots that swept the island this week in apparent retaliation for Easter bombings by Islamist militants.
The April 21 attacks, claimed by Islamic State, targeted churches and hotels, killing more than 250 people and fueling fears of a backlash against the nation’s minority Muslims.
In the anti-Muslim unrest that started Sunday, mobs moved through towns in Sri Lanka’s northwest, ransacking mosques, burning Korans and attacking shops with petrol bombs, residents said.
Authorities have arrested some 78 suspected rioters, including three described as Sinhala Buddhist extremists who had been investigated for similar actions in the town in Kandy district last year.
“These are organized attacks on Muslim business houses and premises,” Navin Dissanayake, minister of plantation industries, said during a government news conference about the security situation.
Asked who was organizing the attacks, Dissanayake said: “I think these organizations that Amith Weerasinghe, Dan Priyasad, and Namal Kumara [are heading],” referring to the three Buddhist extremists arrested on Tuesday.
Local media reported on Wednesday that Priyasad was released on bail on Wednesday while Weerasinghe was remanded until May 28. The status of Kumara was not clear.
A police spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on the arrests.
Muslims make up nearly 10% of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist. The Indian Ocean island was torn for decades by a civil war between separatists from the mostly Hindu Tamil minority and the Sinhala Buddhist-dominated government. The government stamped out the rebellion about 10 years ago.
In recent years, Buddhist hardliners, led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force” have stoked hostility against Muslims, saying Middle Eastern influence has turned the community more conservative and insular.
In the same press conference, Ranjith Madduma Bandara, minister of public administration, said the group behind the attacks had political aims.
“This group is trying to tarnish the government’s image and show the government is unable to handle the situation,” he said, without naming the organization.
Authorities said the island was calm again, with no anti-Muslim violence reported on Wednesday.
Army probe
Also on Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s army said it was investigating a video posted on social media that showed a man wearing what appears to be an army uniform walking away seconds before an anti-Muslim mob attacked a building this week.
In the video, the man stands outside the building and then leaves. Seconds later, about two dozen people, including young men wearing motorbike helmets, run over and throw stones at the building.
Reuters could not independently verify the video. “The attention of the army has been drawn to a video clip where a person dressed in uniform similar to that of the army was watching while a group of violent saboteurs were in action in the general area of Thunmodara,” the army said in a statement announcing the investigation.
Two residents of Thunmodara, a town to the northeast of the capital Colombo, told Reuters that a mosque and some Muslim-owned shops were attacked.
In over a dozen interviews in the hard-hit Kurunegala district northeast of Colombo, Muslims said attacks took place despite the presence of security forces.
One police source who declined to be identified told Reuters they did not have enough officers to handle the rioters. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera on Tuesday rejected allegations that police had stood by.
Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa says he is not at all satisfied with most of the decisions and actions taken so far by the Government following the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.
According to a statement issued by his Media Secretary, taking decisions relating to the present situation prevailing in the country is the responsibility of the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers.
The Leader of the Opposition can only perform the task of the opposition in Parliament.” He can move resolutions and express his views in Parliament on matters of national importance and also if necessary apprise the general public outside Parliament, the release said.
Accordingly, Rajapaksa has already taken action to address the people on the prevailing situation through press releases and statements, his media secretary Rohan Welivita said.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Leader of the Opposition is not at all satisfied with most of the decisions and actions taken so far by the Government following the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.”
However, he is always prepared to support any meaningful decisions taken by the government in this connection,” the statement added.
The police have arrested a wanted suspect who had allegedly assisted the suicide bomber at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo to purchase a white-coloured van, used by the bomber at St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade to arrive at the location.
The Criminal Investigation Department had carried out extensive investigations into this van in question and managed to find out links between Mohamed Assam Mohamed Mubarak, the bomber at the Kingsbury Hotel, and another person to who had aided Mubarak to purchase the vehicle and to renew its passenger seats.
On May 13th, police released four sketches of the visage of the suspect, which were drawn based on the information gathered from four witnesses.
All four witnesses have agreed that the suspect is a tanned-skinned bearded person who is of 35-40 years of age and approximately 5’6” in height.
The arrested named Mohamed Adam Lebbe is a resident of New Kattankudy area.
He is being questioned over the series of attacks on Easter Sunday, the Police Media Spokesperson said speaking at the press conference held in Colombo this evening (15).
The van in question (WP-PJ-4080), registered under the suicide bomber at the Kingsbury Hotel, was set up with explosives for another blast and was parked near the church intentionally.
However, on April 22nd, the Police Special Task Force safely diffused the explosives found inside the van.
To millions of Sri Lankans the Easter Sunday tragedy must have seemed a nightmare come true, a frightening déjà vu of the rampant violence this island nation has known for thirty years of LTTE terror (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).
The horrific attacks in which estimated 253 lost their lives and many hundreds were wounded signaled that the decade’s calm that prevailed after LTTE’s 2009 destruction by Sri Lanka’s Army is over.
What Went Wrong?
At the time, victory over the LTTE inspired confidence and heady optimism. A 2012 defense seminar in Colombo (in which two of the present authors participated) heralded Peace and Stability” as its core theme and the Five Rs” (Reconstruction, Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Reconciliation) as the imperative agenda for Sri Lanka.
The mood at the time was upbeat and the country’s future seemed bright. The safety of the post-war period brought to the country millions of tourists (2.1 million in 2017 alone) and the reconstruction of Sri Lankan economy and infrastructure commenced apace.
But with the horrific Easter disaster, this process has come to a grinding halt. And the troubling question is what developments allowed it to happen. SECONDS
Confluence of Factors
There is no unique answer to this query. Rather, four distinct factors converged to enable the Easter bloodbath: (1) political developments in Sri-Lanka in the post-war period, (2) dysfunctionality of the current government, (3) the regional penetration of the Islamic State in South and Southeast Asia, and (4) collaboration of the perpetrators with radicalized networks and groups.
Post-war political developments.
The military campaign that decisively defeated the LTTE was carried out by a Sri Lankan government (2005–2015) led by Mahinda Rajapaksa as President with Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Secretary of Defense. It was a bloody campaign fueled by the government’s resolve to end the thirty year war in which estimated 150,000 people lost their lives. The intensity of the fighting, particularly in its final stages, brought allegations of human rights abuses against the Sri Lankan military, and resulted in its condemnation by parts of the international community (including the United States, the UK and the UN).
In the postwar period, the Rajapaksa administration continued its strict emphasis on security while rehabilitating the vast majority of the LTTE terrorists and reintegrating them into society.
During that time, Sri Lanka earned the reputation of a safe and appealing travel destination and millions of tourists from around the world flocked to its shores and enjoyed its attractions.
This was not to last, however. As often happens, war-time governments and leaders (e.g. Winston Churchill) tend to lose their appeal in peacetime. Whereas Rajapaksa’s resolute leadership managed to unify the majority of Sri Lankans behind the war effort, over time cracks began to appear in its support.
Sri Lankans grew accustomed to their newly gained security and began taking it for granted. Complacency set in. The Rajapaksa administration faced allegations of corruption and of human rights abuses during the war. By the time of the 2015 elections, it faced stiff competition and ultimately was replaced by a government formed by a broad melange of factions headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) as Prime Minister and Maithripala Sirisena as President.
Beyond the UNP, the coalition included the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) faction of Rajapaksa’s United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), as well as Tamil and Muslim parties.
Naturally, its policies accommodated the demands of the Tamil and Muslim coalition partners; were pro-Western in orientation and adopted the criticisms of Rajapaksa’s policies as nationalistic and militaristic. Correspondingly, it loosened the tight” policies of their predecessors, dismantled their security network, lowered the alertness to potentially subversive activities, and denied reports about Islamic State growing influence, and of resurgent separatism.
It turned a blind eye to attempts to re-radicalize the Tamil population ,ignored Muslim radicalization and failed to check Buddhist anti-Muslim extremism. The normative looseness” that ensued allowed the emergence of criminal gangs, and a general rise in crime.
Dysfunctionality
Despite repeated and detailed warnings from local and international intelligence services as to impending attacks in Sri Lanka by the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) group and its ties to Islamic State, the Sri Lankan government failed to react, thus bearing partial responsibility for the horrific loss of life.
The puzzle of their passivity in light of the clear and present danger is, nonetheless, explicable by political psychology: The Wikremesinghe coalition included Tamil and Muslim parties who played the role of essential kingmakers.” Clamping up on the brewing Tamil re-radicalization or on rising Muslim extremism would have been anathema to these indispensable political partners (Dharmawardena, 2015–2016).
This induced the motivation to ignore warnings that would necessitate politically problematic decisions. That inclination was compounded by the government’s reluctance to take steps that would invite allegations of nationalism and militarism.
Motivated closed mindedness to critical information that, if heeded, would have prevented major debacles (e.g., Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa, or Arab states 1973 Yom Kippur attack on Israel) is well documented.
The paralysis of the Sri Lankan government despite ample warnings reflects this fundamental psychological process.
Zahran Hashim, leader of National Tawheed Jamaat leader
Islamic State regional penetration
A troubling development made salient by the Sri Lanka attacks is Islamic State’s deep penetration into South and Southeast Asia. Particularly after the collapse of its Caliphate but also prior to its downfall, the Islamic State has been sending its tentacles into the region and successfully co-opting local jihadist movements by harnessing them to its global cause.
In the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf Group was recognized by Islamic State as its official Willayat (governance).In 2014 Abu Bakkar Baysir, leader of Indonesian Jemmah Islamiyah, pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State. In Bangladesh the Jamiatul Mujahidin Bangladesh became an official Islamic State affiliate. The list is long.
The spread of Islamic State influence in the region did not spare Sri Lanka. In 2015, 41 Sri Lankan Muslims traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State fight and local groups like the NTJ committed to the Jihadi agenda.
The Sri Lankan government banned two groups responsible for the Easter Sunday events. The NTJ, held responsible for radicalizing and inciting violence, and the JMI (Jamathei Millathu Ibraheemi Seilani) held responsible for recruiting radicalized NTJ members for attacks.
The recent Sri Lanka attack constitutes a spectacular victory for Islamic State, second only in its impact to Al Qaeda’s 9/11 inglorious achievement.
The precise coordination of attacks in multiple sites, their lethality, and the display of diverse assault styles; citing” different well known prior operations (attacks on churches, hotels, public venues, train tracks) sends a powerful message that Islamic State is alive and kicking, that the news of its demise is grossly exaggerated, and that Jihad 3.0” is on.
Collaboration with other groups and networks?
While the LTTE was conclusively dismantled in Sri Lanka, it remained intact in Tamil Nadu in Southern India. The NTJ and the JMI, appears to have broken away from the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ) that evolved from the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ).
Given the link to Tamil Nadu, whether NTJ and JMI utilized the logistical network, the drug and crime grid in Sri Lanka previously used by the LTTE is yet to be seen.
Terrorist groups with common enemies are known to share resources, capitalizing on each other’s capability and intelligence. This includes radicalizing the community, recruiting members, transportation of explosives, the placement of bombers, accessing information and evading security.
The NTJ and JMI therefore are likely to have had a head start in radicalizing and operationalizing it’s global Islamic State ideology, locally in Sri Lanka.
Why Christians?
The world’s stunned response to the Easter Sunday massacre is owed in part to the fact that some of its targets were Christians.
Indeed, the small Sri Lankan Christian minority (about 7.4 percent of the island’s population) would seem an unlikely target in a country riveted for decades by a war on LTTE terror in which Christians as well as Muslims played a vital role.
The puzzle unravels, however, considering the attack from a global perspective: There were ideological as well as practical reasons for targeting Sri Lankan Christians.
From the ideological perspective, Christians are the Muslims’ iconic enemy and the depiction of contemporary Christians as latter day Crusaders permeate the rhetoric including the April 23 communique in which Islamic State claims responsibility for the attack.
It cannot be ruled out, furthermore, that the specific timing of this attack was at least partially influenced by the Islamic State call for vengeance (enunciated by Abu Hassan al Muhajir, its spokesman) for the recent Christchurch massacre in New Zealand.
Equally compelling are the practical (strategic and tactical) reasons for assaulting Christian churches. Strategically, places of worship are venues of mass assembly. They promise spectacular lethality and an appreciable world attention of pivotal importance to Islamic State.
Tactically too, Christian churches in Sri Lanka have constituted relatively soft targets as compared to, say, Buddhist temples that are more carefully watched (in light of the long lasting LTTE insurgency against the Buddhist Sinhalese).
Finally, note that the churches were only three out of the sites under attack suggesting that the operation was meant to maximize casualties rather than targeting Christians uniquely.
More globally, the Easter attacks signal that the war on Islamist extremism is far from over, and that letting our defenses down and/or neglecting the social and psychological determinants of extremism risks disastrous consequences.
Arie W. Kruglanski is Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, and a co-founding PI at START, the National Center of Excellence for the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism.Malkanthi Hettiarachchi is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, and a counterterrorism researcher and instructor.Michele Gelfand is Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her bookRule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our Worldwas published in 2018.
While the Islamic State has claimed responsibility, the real story is a bit more complicate
On
21st April 2019 Islamic suicide bombers struck at 8 venues instantly
killing some 250 plus people and injuring over 800 some of whom have succumbed
to their wounds. Some 36 foreigners have also perished. Foreigners or locals –
innocent people were targeted and the tragedy is that intel reports were
received since 4th April 2019 giving even the targeted venues. So
the question is not whose fault it was but to realize that intel sent went into
incompetent hands of people who were not suited for their roles and lacked
knowledge in how to handle the situation because the competent people were
either made to retire, were given minor roles or transferred elsewhere. The replaced
were people who did not know how to handle a calamity. Given the political set
up & environment, the security apparatus knew that those in power were
simply enjoying power with no patriotism so everyone was just doing a daily job
& going home. How did an administrative system that inspired itself to
defeat the most ruthless terrorist group end up this docile? The answers lie
with the bandwagon of players who carried out a vilification campaign against
the Armed Forces post May 2009 and demonized & demoralized them.
When Sri Lankan troops defeated the murderous LTTE & held the dead body of its ruthless leader & showed the world that LTTE ground force was well and truly defeated in May 2009, people hit the streets, holding the national flag, lighting crackers, distributing kiribath – there was jubilation all round and people of all parties joined in with virtually all vehicles flying the national flag. That jubilation was chopped by the so-called international community via the UN Secretary General demanding to stop the ‘triumphalism’ inspite of US, UK & Allies still celebrating defeat of Nazi Germany – Victory Day since 1945 annually in grand scale. Such was the jealousy & hypocrisy of the world who hated to admit that Sri Lankan Forces was the ONLY NATIONAL ARMY to defeat a terrorist movement.
The
bandwagon of individuals and groups that collaborated against the armed forces
post May 2009 were the very same linked to the separatists indirectly &
directly. There is nothing ‘non-governmental’ in NGOs – most are funded by
foreign governments & on their payroll. Most are part of the LTTE’s own
human rights linked club. Others belong to the historical trouble makers that
land in every country pretending to be the ‘rights activists’ but all the while
trying to implement some foreign geopolitical agenda.
Immediately
after LTTE defeat came the ‘allegations’ of 40000 dead which inflated itself to
even 200,000 though none of those making the allegations or counting the dead
has produced names or details of the dead. If even the basic name or skeleton
is not presented as evidence how can an army be charged of killing people?
Thereafter
came the Ban Ki Moon report that was a personal report which was never tabled
in the UNHRC, UNGA or UNSC but became the basis of 3 successive UNHRC
Resolutions all of which are controversial & legally questionable and
sought to demand as recommendations changing of the country’s constitution,
repealing terrorism act and internal matters which by UN Charter was an
interference into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.
Totally
forgotten was that Sri Lanka’s armed forces were called upon to defeat no one
but terrorists and in terms of civilian deaths the Sri Lankan official
statistics given corroborated with that of the UN Country Team statistics and
was less than 10,000. Totally forgotten was the close to 300,000 Tamils the
soldiers saved along with 12,000 surrendered LTTE combatants who fought in
civilian clothing.
But
the bandwagon of locals none of whom have a semblance of patriotism except
doing anything for dollars and pounds led the ugly onslaught to name and shame
Sri Lanka’s army. Most were heavily funded by LTTE diaspora as seen by the
events organized by them to which these individuals were regular attendees. They
all went to town to hold our army & intel services accountable in word only
– no proof or evidence but because the unpatriotic press gave them space and
columns their lies were promoted. The armed forces were demonized, degraded and
the credit due to them were denied. Political pressures were such that even the
Victory Day celebrations were forced to be renamed.
The
well-funded efforts to show our war heroes as war criminals was next taken to
the international arena. With foreign media, foreign envoys, UN & UNHRC all
taking lead roles. Some who held plum posts went to Geneva to play to the LTTE
gallery and paint the Sri Lankan Army as war criminals.
From
the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission head to the NGO circle heads and many
others, the same forces that were too chicken to come out & condemn any of
the LTTE atrocities are now talking as if they are the God’s gift to human
rights & righteousness.
The
links are clearly obvious. All that the LTTE diaspora elements & destabilizing
agents demand are the very same that these HR & NGO activists are now
attempting to delivery on their behalf as the regime change assisted by the
foreign forces have cleverly placed them in prominent & powerful roles.
LTTE
Diaspora demanded war crimes court against Sri Lanka’s Army and from foreign
envoys, TNA, HR activists, NGOs, media all demanded same which was articulated
via 3 UNHRC successive resolutions.
The
resolutions were all flagrant violations of the UN Charter interfering in the
internal affairs of Sri Lanka and called for the repealing of the Prevention of
Terrorism Act and even a new constitution. Not surprisingly, all those that
sided with LTTE through the years were promoters of this.
They
were all promoters of the Office of Missing Persons Act, Enforced Disappearance
Act – both of which would facilitate false evidence against war heroes and
subject them to foreign judicial jurisdiction when the US soldiers in all of
its illegal invasions are omitted of investigation as was recently seen in ICC
withdrawing case against US troops.
The
SLHRC head is also a promoter of repealing the PTA and in favor of the new
Counter Terror Act that not only dilutes the powers vested in the PTA but is
more of a political witch hunt to charge opposition on frivolous charges
including media. Freedom of speech & expression would be greatly curtailed
and many are of the view that an increasing unpopular government would benefit
by passing a CTA to gag the opposition.
The
SLHRC head is suddenly vested powers to whet military personnel nominated for
peace keeping missions overseas and she is withholding nominations claiming
them to have allegations of war crimes. When no one making blatant charges has
produced names of the dead or even skeletons of the dead – how can any military
personnel be charged with war crimes? Even the basic requirement of ‘proving
guilt beyond doubt’ is missing. However, the paid media is used lavishly both
in Sri Lanka & overseas to paid Sri Lanka’s Army as demons and devils.
Here
are a few examples of a government bowing down to the bandwagon of vultures
attempting to project Sri Lanka’s Forces as war criminals and painting the LTTE
as squeaky clean completely ignoring the 30 years of terrorism LTTE inflicted
on all and the brutalities LTTE committed not only against surrendered or
captured military personnel but upon unarmed civilians too.
Throwing a war hero to the
wolves to appease Tamil separatists; the real story behind the ‘Mirisuvil
massacre’ needs to come out
LTTE is banned
in UK. LTTE diaspora carries LTTE emblems and flags but nothing is done against
them and their events are not even stopped inspite of massive cut outs of
Prabakaran however, Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, inspite of holding diplomatic immunity issued warrant by UK
police & later charges dropped. Power of LTTE diaspora lobby in UK seen.
Former Navy
Spokesperson D. K. P. Dassanayake, who played a pivotal role in defeat of LTTE is
arrested in July 2017 and denied bail. Eventually bail granted in January 2018
yet no charges filed.
Field Marshal Fonseka, in
September, alleged that he had been denied a visa to attend the UNGA in 2017
When Maj. Gen. Shavendra
Fernando was appointed the Chief of Staff, this is how foreign media reacted alleged
war criminal named second-in-command of Sri Lanka army”
Retired military intelligence head Major General Amal
Karunasekera was arrested by the CID. Major
Prabath Bulathwatte, Sergeant Duminda Weeraratne and Sergeant Hemachandra
Perera of military intelligence were arrested but still no charges filed.
There
are 2 intelligence officers on death row on questionable evidence. The secret
nature of intelligence services is such that their identities and their scope
of work are required to be classified and top secret but we know what happened
when their names and details were released following the Millennium City
debacle under this same government in 2002 resulting in 58 intelligence
officers killed by LTTE. Many of the intel officers are now probably in hiding
knowing the treacheries of this government in exposing their real identities
and their work.
In
2018, Sri Lanka’s highest-ranking military officer,
Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne was arrested.
Former Senior DIG Anura Senanayake, was arrested and remanded in
May 2016 and granted bail only in June 2017. He was not even allowed to attend
his daughter’s convocation.
Kapila
Hendawitharana, former Chief of National Intelligence, Donald Perera, former
Air Force Commander. Chief of Defence Staff during the war, Roshan Goonetillake
– the Air Force Commander during the war, Jayanath Colombage – former Commander
of the Navy was questioned by the FCID
Daya Ratnayake former Army
Commander and a key figure in the Eastern theatre of the war, Major Gen. (Rtd)
Udaya Perera – the Director Operations of the Army during the war,
questioned by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Serious Acts of Fraud
and Corruption
Jagath
Jayasuriya, former Army Commander (Vanni Commander during the war.) Wasantha
Karannagoda Commander the Navy during the war was extensively questioned by the
CID.
While
war heroes were getting arrested not only were LTTE combatants in prison
getting released the Parliament even passes compensation for LTTE terrorists –
another first!
Naturally,
since 2015 when the decorated officers of the Armed Forces were ashamed in
front of the nation, brought to questioning like common thieves and treated
dismally even by the paid press who cared not to question why forces heads are
being arrested without evidence and simply kept in prison without bail.
Most
of these arrests almost always took place just before a UN official landed, or
Geneva sessions were held or a Western/Indian envoy landed in Sri Lanka – it was
as if this was what they were expecting and the government was waiting in
anticipation for pat of the back to say ‘good show’.
This
treatment of decorated war heroes, most of whom were not given extensions and
made to retire had virtual puppets placed in their roles, people easy to
manipulate and people who were willing to tow the appeasing line…Is it a
surprise that when intel with such detail was sent with venues and names of the
assassins, nothing is done to at least increase security at these venues and
inform the hotel heads and church heads about the threat?
For
demonizing the war heroes, making them think that patriotism is not the norm,
giving them the message that they just needed to do their daily job &
return home was enough to keep the entire system off guard more so because the
appeasing government exposed internal systems not only to the enemies but even
the enemy agents in politics linked to the LTTE diaspora were privy to
confidential information.
Therefore,
every HR, NGO activists including media that towed the separatist line and
demonized and demoralize our war heroes have BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS of close to
300 people & hundreds of others who are injured & thousands of others
who have got affected by these 9 suicide bombers. The hypocrisy is such that
from the PM to even the TNA leaders and Sivajilingam, Mavai Senathiraja &
Ananthi Sasitharan who were jumping up & down calling for the removal of
the Armed Forces are now appealing to the government to increase the army in
the North while the politicians are also seeking additional security for
themselves by the very persons they were not shy to call war criminals. Probably,
the NGO heads and others are also using the very army they demonized for their
security too.
Such
hypocrites we have – goes to show no education can make a person humane and
compassionate and traitors would do anything for money.
The SLHRC is a government apparatus and such an apparatus cannot be allowed to vilify another government apparatus to such an extent of going to Geneva & play to the Eelam gallery and demotivate, demoralise and demonise Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces.
A future government must investigate governmental lapses and treacheries that has resulted in the bloodshed of innocents in the manner they have systematically weakened the military and intelligence set up.
A content analysis of their statements, their meetings, their ulterior motives as against the demands made by the separatist lobby and financial backers need to also be investigate and accountability has to happen.
Those that demand accountability from others must also learn to face the same music in the manner they have also been singing since January 2015.
Colombo, May 14 (newsin.asia): The head of the Catholic church in Sri Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, told newspersons here on Tuesday, that the clashes in the North-Western Provinces have no religious nuances and that the attacks on Muslim properties appear to have been carried out by political and not religious elements.
What we see is more a political crisis where certain political parties and their agents at the base level have run out of control and they go and attack these people unnecessarily. I don’t think there are religious nuances,” the Cardinal said.
The Catholics of Sri Lanka, even those in Negombo where they are in sizeable numbers, have been quiet following the Cardinal’s appeal not to retaliate or take the law into their hands after eight suicide bombers, belonging to the National Tawheed Jamaat (NTJ) and the Jamaathei Millathu Ibrahimi (JMI) attacked three churches and three hotels in the island on April 21 killing 253 persons, mostly Catholics attending the Easter Mass.
A charred Muslim shop.Photo: Daily Mirror
Fr.Edmund Thilakaratne ,a spokesman of the Catholic church said that if the Catholics were to take revenge against the Muslims, they would have done so in the first two days. But they did not because they had been persuaded by the Cardinal not to precipitate a fresh communal problem.
The present riots, taking place two weeks after the Eastern Sunday carnage, appear to be the handiwork of outside political elements,” Fr.Thilakaratne said.
Sure enough the police on Tuesday arrested Dan Priyasad, lader of the Buddhist extremist organization Nawa Sinhale National Organization.He had surrendered to the police.
Misleading Reports
However international agencies had gone to town describing the rioting as a Christian-Muslim clash.
AFP described the rioters as Christian-led”. But at the same time quoted a police officer saying: There is a strong political element to the riots today. There are people trying to make political capital out of this situation.”
Burning Muslim shops: Photo: Daily Mirror
Muslim Leader’s Appeal
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader and Minister Rauff Hakeem on Tuesday called on the Prime Minister and tri-forces commanders to control the violent incidents in the country in absence of the President, who is in China attending a conference on Asian civilizations.
In a statement, Hakeem sought protection for Muslims who are suffering for a dastardly crime committed by a few with whom the larger Muslim community has nothing to do with whatsoever”.
With the danger of the terrible experience snowballing into a more complex conundrum, we urge the government and the Armed Forces to curb continued violence against the innocent Muslims in the country,” he said.
He said it was dreadful and frightening to witness the unfolding events as innocent men, women and children of the Muslim community are targeted in reprisal for the horrendous and beastly attacks by some extremists on April 21.
An invisible hand with political motives is behind the violence reported from the North-Western Province and in Minuwangoda, the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and Ven. Ittapane Dhammalankara Mahanayaka Thera told a news conference today.
The Thera said it was clear that some invisible hand had misled the people two days ago. People acted with restraint after the Easter Sunday’s Bomb blasts. They were calm for about two weeks after the incident on April 21. However, the sudden eruption of violence makes it clear that there is an invisible hand misleading the people,” the Thera said and appealed to the people to act with restraint.
The Cardinal said he had information that some local politicians belonging to certain political parties were behind the violence. We like to tell the leaders of these political parties to control their party members,” he said and added that those who resorted to violence had even been offered liquor. The two religious leaders said the authorities had failed to heed their request to carry out search operations.
We requested the government to subject all houses to security checks but the government had turned a deaf ear to our plea,” the Cardinal said.
He said the weapons used in the two days of violence would have been found if proper search operations were carried out.
The Thera said people should support the security forces to maintain law and order. Attacking another person does not make you a hero. This country does not need cardboard heroes,” the Cardinal said.
Referring to security in schools, the Thera said ministers and MPs should visit these institutions and remain there for some time so as to ease the tension among the parents.
If they do this for two or three days, the parents will send their children to schools,” the Thera said. (Yohan Perera)
On
21st April 2019 Islamic suicide bombers struck at 8 venues instantly
killing some 250 plus people and injuring over 800 some of whom have succumbed
to their wounds. Some 36 foreigners have also perished. Foreigners or locals –
innocent people were targeted and the tragedy is that intel reports were
received since 4th April 2019 giving even the targeted venues. So
the question is not whose fault it was but to realize that intel sent went into
incompetent hands of people who were not suited for their roles and lacked
knowledge in how to handle the situation because the competent people were
either made to retire, were given minor roles or transferred elsewhere. The replaced
were people who did not know how to handle a calamity. Given the political set
up & environment, the security apparatus knew that those in power were
simply enjoying power with no patriotism so everyone was just doing a daily job
& going home. How did an administrative system that inspired itself to
defeat the most ruthless terrorist group end up this docile? The answers lie
with the bandwagon of players who carried out a vilification campaign against
the Armed Forces post May 2009 and demonized & demoralized them.
When Sri Lankan troops defeated the murderous LTTE & held the dead body of its ruthless leader & showed the world that LTTE ground force was well and truly defeated in May 2009, people hit the streets, holding the national flag, lighting crackers, distributing kiribath – there was jubilation all round and people of all parties joined in with virtually all vehicles flying the national flag. That jubilation was chopped by the so-called international community via the UN Secretary General demanding to stop the ‘triumphalism’ inspite of US, UK & Allies still celebrating defeat of Nazi Germany – Victory Day since 1945 annually in grand scale. Such was the jealousy & hypocrisy of the world who hated to admit that Sri Lankan Forces was the ONLY NATIONAL ARMY to defeat a terrorist movement.
The
bandwagon of individuals and groups that collaborated against the armed forces
post May 2009 were the very same linked to the separatists indirectly &
directly. There is nothing ‘non-governmental’ in NGOs – most are funded by
foreign governments & on their payroll. Most are part of the LTTE’s own
human rights linked club. Others belong to the historical trouble makers that
land in every country pretending to be the ‘rights activists’ but all the while
trying to implement some foreign geopolitical agenda.
Immediately
after LTTE defeat came the ‘allegations’ of 40000 dead which inflated itself to
even 200,000 though none of those making the allegations or counting the dead
has produced names or details of the dead. If even the basic name or skeleton
is not presented as evidence how can an army be charged of killing people?
Thereafter
came the Ban Ki Moon report that was a personal report which was never tabled
in the UNHRC, UNGA or UNSC but became the basis of 3 successive UNHRC
Resolutions all of which are controversial & legally questionable and
sought to demand as recommendations changing of the country’s constitution,
repealing terrorism act and internal matters which by UN Charter was an
interference into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.
Totally
forgotten was that Sri Lanka’s armed forces were called upon to defeat no one
but terrorists and in terms of civilian deaths the Sri Lankan official
statistics given corroborated with that of the UN Country Team statistics and
was less than 10,000. Totally forgotten was the close to 300,000 Tamils the
soldiers saved along with 12,000 surrendered LTTE combatants who fought in
civilian clothing.
But
the bandwagon of locals none of whom have a semblance of patriotism except
doing anything for dollars and pounds led the ugly onslaught to name and shame
Sri Lanka’s army. Most were heavily funded by LTTE diaspora as seen by the
events organized by them to which these individuals were regular attendees. They
all went to town to hold our army & intel services accountable in word only
– no proof or evidence but because the unpatriotic press gave them space and
columns their lies were promoted. The armed forces were demonized, degraded and
the credit due to them were denied. Political pressures were such that even the
Victory Day celebrations were forced to be renamed.
The
well-funded efforts to show our war heroes as war criminals was next taken to
the international arena. With foreign media, foreign envoys, UN & UNHRC all
taking lead roles. Some who held plum posts went to Geneva to play to the LTTE
gallery and paint the Sri Lankan Army as war criminals.
From
the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission head to the NGO circle heads and many
others, the same forces that were too chicken to come out & condemn any of
the LTTE atrocities are now talking as if they are the God’s gift to human
rights & righteousness.
The
links are clearly obvious. All that the LTTE diaspora elements & destabilizing
agents demand are the very same that these HR & NGO activists are now
attempting to delivery on their behalf as the regime change assisted by the
foreign forces have cleverly placed them in prominent & powerful roles.
LTTE
Diaspora demanded war crimes court against Sri Lanka’s Army and from foreign
envoys, TNA, HR activists, NGOs, media all demanded same which was articulated
via 3 UNHRC successive resolutions.
The
resolutions were all flagrant violations of the UN Charter interfering in the
internal affairs of Sri Lanka and called for the repealing of the Prevention of
Terrorism Act and even a new constitution. Not surprisingly, all those that
sided with LTTE through the years were promoters of this.
They
were all promoters of the Office of Missing Persons Act, Enforced Disappearance
Act – both of which would facilitate false evidence against war heroes and
subject them to foreign judicial jurisdiction when the US soldiers in all of
its illegal invasions are omitted of investigation as was recently seen in ICC
withdrawing case against US troops.
The
SLHRC head is also a promoter of repealing the PTA and in favor of the new
Counter Terror Act that not only dilutes the powers vested in the PTA but is
more of a political witch hunt to charge opposition on frivolous charges
including media. Freedom of speech & expression would be greatly curtailed
and many are of the view that an increasing unpopular government would benefit
by passing a CTA to gag the opposition.
The
SLHRC head is suddenly vested powers to whet military personnel nominated for
peace keeping missions overseas and she is withholding nominations claiming
them to have allegations of war crimes. When no one making blatant charges has
produced names of the dead or even skeletons of the dead – how can any military
personnel be charged with war crimes? Even the basic requirement of ‘proving
guilt beyond doubt’ is missing. However, the paid media is used lavishly both
in Sri Lanka & overseas to paid Sri Lanka’s Army as demons and devils.
Here
are a few examples of a government bowing down to the bandwagon of vultures
attempting to project Sri Lanka’s Forces as war criminals and painting the LTTE
as squeaky clean completely ignoring the 30 years of terrorism LTTE inflicted
on all and the brutalities LTTE committed not only against surrendered or
captured military personnel but upon unarmed civilians too.
Throwing a war hero to the
wolves to appease Tamil separatists; the real story behind the ‘Mirisuvil
massacre’ needs to come out
LTTE is banned
in UK. LTTE diaspora carries LTTE emblems and flags but nothing is done against
them and their events are not even stopped inspite of massive cut outs of
Prabakaran however, Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, inspite of holding diplomatic immunity issued warrant by UK
police & later charges dropped. Power of LTTE diaspora lobby in UK seen.
Former Navy
Spokesperson D. K. P. Dassanayake, who played a pivotal role in defeat of LTTE is
arrested in July 2017 and denied bail. Eventually bail granted in January 2018
yet no charges filed.
Field Marshal Fonseka, in
September, alleged that he had been denied a visa to attend the UNGA in 2017
When Maj. Gen. Shavendra
Fernando was appointed the Chief of Staff, this is how foreign media reacted alleged
war criminal named second-in-command of Sri Lanka army”
Retired military intelligence head Major General Amal
Karunasekera was arrested by the CID. Major
Prabath Bulathwatte, Sergeant Duminda Weeraratne and Sergeant Hemachandra
Perera of military intelligence were arrested but still no charges filed.
There
are 2 intelligence officers on death row on questionable evidence. The secret
nature of intelligence services is such that their identities and their scope
of work are required to be classified and top secret but we know what happened
when their names and details were released following the Millennium City
debacle under this same government in 2002 resulting in 58 intelligence
officers killed by LTTE. Many of the intel officers are now probably in hiding
knowing the treacheries of this government in exposing their real identities
and their work.
In
2018, Sri Lanka’s highest-ranking military officer,
Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne was arrested.
Former Senior DIG Anura Senanayake, was arrested and remanded in
May 2016 and granted bail only in June 2017. He was not even allowed to attend
his daughter’s convocation.
Kapila
Hendawitharana, former Chief of National Intelligence, Donald Perera, former
Air Force Commander. Chief of Defence Staff during the war, Roshan Goonetillake
– the Air Force Commander during the war, Jayanath Colombage – former Commander
of the Navy was questioned by the FCID
Daya Ratnayake former Army
Commander and a key figure in the Eastern theatre of the war, Major Gen. (Rtd)
Udaya Perera – the Director Operations of the Army during the war,
questioned by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Serious Acts of Fraud
and Corruption
Jagath
Jayasuriya, former Army Commander (Vanni Commander during the war.) Wasantha
Karannagoda Commander the Navy during the war was extensively questioned by the
CID.
While
war heroes were getting arrested not only were LTTE combatants in prison
getting released the Parliament even passes compensation for LTTE terrorists –
another first!
Naturally,
since 2015 when the decorated officers of the Armed Forces were ashamed in
front of the nation, brought to questioning like common thieves and treated
dismally even by the paid press who cared not to question why forces heads are
being arrested without evidence and simply kept in prison without bail.
Most
of these arrests almost always took place just before a UN official landed, or
Geneva sessions were held or a Western/Indian envoy landed in Sri Lanka – it was
as if this was what they were expecting and the government was waiting in
anticipation for pat of the back to say ‘good show’.
This
treatment of decorated war heroes, most of whom were not given extensions and
made to retire had virtual puppets placed in their roles, people easy to
manipulate and people who were willing to tow the appeasing line…Is it a
surprise that when intel with such detail was sent with venues and names of the
assassins, nothing is done to at least increase security at these venues and
inform the hotel heads and church heads about the threat?
For
demonizing the war heroes, making them think that patriotism is not the norm,
giving them the message that they just needed to do their daily job &
return home was enough to keep the entire system off guard more so because the
appeasing government exposed internal systems not only to the enemies but even
the enemy agents in politics linked to the LTTE diaspora were privy to
confidential information.
Therefore,
every HR, NGO activists including media that towed the separatist line and
demonized and demoralize our war heroes have BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS of close to
300 people & hundreds of others who are injured & thousands of others
who have got affected by these 9 suicide bombers. The hypocrisy is such that
from the PM to even the TNA leaders and Sivajilingam, Mavai Senathiraja &
Ananthi Sasitharan who were jumping up & down calling for the removal of
the Armed Forces are now appealing to the government to increase the army in
the North while the politicians are also seeking additional security for
themselves by the very persons they were not shy to call war criminals. Probably,
the NGO heads and others are also using the very army they demonized for their
security too.
Such
hypocrites we have – goes to show no education can make a person humane and
compassionate and traitors would do anything for money.
The SLHRC is a government apparatus and such an apparatus cannot be allowed to vilify another government apparatus to such an extent of going to Geneva & play to the Eelam gallery and demotivate, demoralise and demonise Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces.
A future government must investigate governmental lapses and treacheries that has resulted in the bloodshed of innocents in the manner they have systematically weakened the military and intelligence set up.
A content analysis of their statements, their meetings, their ulterior motives as against the demands made by the separatist lobby and financial backers need to also be investigate and accountability has to happen.
Those that demand accountability from others must also learn to face the same music in the manner they have also been singing since January 2015.
Sri Lanka has been convulsed since the nine coordinated suicide-bomb attacks against Christian churches and five-star hotels on Easter Sunday. More than 250 people lost their lives and many others were injured on that fateful day. More terrorist suspects and vast amounts of explosives and equipment continue to be found in mosques, factories and homes across the country.
People are afraid to leave their homes and children are not going to school. After having defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the most lethal and well organizedterrorist organization in the world” in May 2009, Sri Lanka is again faced with terrorism and gripped with fear and insecurity.
Indianintelligence passed on information to Sri Lankan authorities of an imminent terrorist attack on April 4. Based on this alert, Sri Lanka’s police chief sent out a nationwide alert on April 11 warning of attacks on the Indian High Commission and churches. Indian intelligence again sent warnings on April 20 and about one hour before the bombs started exploding on April 21.
According to a report denied subsequently by Saudi Arabia, it also knew of the impending attacks and advised its mission in Colombo five days before Easter. A Sri Lankan government minister also warned his son of an impending attack. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was out of the country and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe was out of town. The government failed to warn the public and tighten security allowing the carnage to take place.
It is now confirmed that the attacks were carried out by a local Islamic extremist group, National Towheeth Jamaath (NTJ), with support from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), which has claimed responsibility.
The Easter Sunday violence is widely attributed to inter-religious animosity on the island. Interfaith vigils are being held around the world to foster harmony among the country’s Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. The overwhelming focus on religion as the root of conflict, however, diverts attention from the geopolitical dimensions of the violence.
‘Religious’ violence
Communal harmony and cooperation rather than violence and conflict are the predominant features of Sri Lankan society. Christians did not attack Muslims in the aftermath of the Easter bombings just as Buddhists did not take up violence against Tamils after innumerable LTTE massacres of Buddhists and attacks against Buddhist sacred sites during the course of the 30-year civil war. Even the 1983 anti-Tamil violence was not a spontaneous backlash but a government-orchestrated pogrom.
Both colonial and local rulers have manipulated grievances and incited ethnic and religious groups against each other during times of crisis and challenges to their authority. The violence against Muslims in Kandy in March 2018 is an example. The failure of the state to take timely action despite prior warnings contributed to a communal conflict. It allowed Prime Minister Wickramasinghe, who was then facing a no-confidence motion, to assert his authority.
The leader of the radical Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena, Galagoda Ganasara, who called for a ban of the NTJ is serving a 19-year jail sentence. Despite the pleas of Buddhist monks, former justice minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa and moderate Muslim leaders like Kabeer Hashim, no action was taken against the spread of extremist Wahhabi ideology. Islamic schools and separatist Wahhabi culture spread over the past several years, particularly in Kattankudy in the Eastern Province, home of Muhammed Zaharan, the leader of the Easter attacks. The reliance of successive Sri Lankan governments on Muslim votes and Muslim politicians and the economic and political power wielded by Saudi Arabia and other external forces have been major factors in Sri Lankan government’s failure to curb the spread of radical Islam.
Even after the carnage on Easter Sunday which paralyzed the country, four leading Muslim politicians – the governors of the Eastern and Western provinces, a cabinet minister and a member of Parliament – M L A M Hizbullah, Azath Salley, Risad Badhuitheen and Mujibur Rahuman – who, critics claim, have connections to radical Islam or the wealthy families of the Easter suicide bombers, have not yet been questioned. According to reports, some terrorist suspects taken into custody have been released, presumably because of pressure from powerful politicians. Indeed, the country’s intelligence and security apparatus was greatly weakened after the change of government in 2015.
Weakening security
In January 2015, a US-backed government replaced the former Mahinda Rajapaksa government, which had defeated the LTTE. Soon thereafter, the new Sri Lankan government and the United States co-sponsored a United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution in Geneva with support from the international Tamil separatist lobby. The requirements in this resolution to account for alleged war crimes and missing persons in the final stage in the war against the LTTE put pressure on the Sri Lanka to set up war-crimes courts with foreign judges and an office of missing persons consisting of activists funded by Western non-governmental organizations.
The requirements of the UNHRC resolution also pressured the government to dismiss or imprison intelligence officers and army personnel. Forty intelligence officers who were involved in the anti-LTTE military effort are in prison apparently ‘without sound evidence against them’. These measures weakened Sri Lankan intelligence and security and increased dependence on India and the international community.”
Even after the Easter carnage, the UNHRC, Western governments and NGOs continue to dictate national-security policy. The government’s proposed new Counter Terrorism Act (CTA), which would replace the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act, is an example. While it is designed to protect ex-LTTE elements living abroad, it could be used to suppress student unions, trade unions, media freedoms and the opposition” and possibly postpone presidential and parliamentary elections due within the next 12 months.
International intervention
Ever since the Easter bombings, Sri Lankan police and military have been working tirelessly to gather information, track down suspects, detect weapons and explosives and protect people. At the same time, both Wickramasinghe and Sirisena have been calling for foreign intelligence and cooperation to fight the global Islamic threat. The US Embassy has stated that the United States had sent in teams from both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Navy’s Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM).
Military ties with the United States, which had been growing over the last few years, are rapidly being strengthened in the aftermath of the Easter terror attacks. There are rumors that the lapsed Acquisition and Cross Service Agreement (ACSA) has been renewed and that the government has entered a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US. Neither the public nor the Parliament have yet been informed of these matters vital to the sovereignty and independence of the country.
In August 2016 the first joint operation between the US and Sri Lankan militaries took place in Jaffna with participation of TNA (Tamil National Alliance) politicians at the launch. US Seventh Fleet vessels and the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis have visited Trincomalee, a Sri Lankan port of great strategic military value in the Indian Ocean.
Last December, the US Navy announced the setting up of a logistics hub in Sri Lanka to secure support, supplies and services at sea. On December 31, US President Donald Trump signed the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act to strengthen the US strategic position in Asia vis-à-vis China. It is reported that between January 24 and 29 this year, Bandaranaike International Airport in Sri Lanka was used for US military planes to bring in supplies, and for aircraft aboard the John C Stennis to fly in, load, and ferry them back.” While this exercise was portrayed as a commercial activity,” Sri Lankan observers argue that such an operation could not have taken place without some bilateral agreement being in place.”
On April 27, in the aftermath of the Easter bombings, Wickramasinghe signed an agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the United States. Detailsleaked to the public are raising fears that the MCC Agreement is nothing but a plan to splinter Sri Lanka and turn it into a US military base.” A failure to heed the call to ‘reveal the contents of the agreement without any redactions to the general public’ will only deepen suspicions that Sri Lanka is being turned into a US military base to control South East Asia and the Indian Ocean against the rising regional and global power of China.
Developments surrounding the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka are raising questions if Islamic extremism is a justification for US military intervention and establishment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization bases around the globe? Are extremist Wahhabi ideology exported by Saudi Arabia and the creation of Islamic terrorism in selected countries, such as the Philippines and possibly Thailand, a political tool aiding geopolitical ambitions of the US, UK and other international interests?
Sri Lanka, an important partner of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, is strategically situated in the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean. The Shangri La Hotel where suicide bombs were detonated on Easter Sunday is located in the Port City in Colombo, a massive project of China and the largest single foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka. Destabilization of Sri Lanka via terrorism and ethno-religious conflict may serve short-term geopolitical interests of the US, India and the international community,” but it will only intensify destruction and chaos on the island and the suffering of the Sri Lankan people.
[Asoka Bandarage was educated at the University of Sri Lanka, Bryn Mawr College and at Yale University where she received a Ph.D. in Sociology. Ms. Bandarage has served on the faculties of Brandeis University, Georgetown University and Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Bandarage is the author of numerous books including Colonialism in Sri Lanka, Women, Population and Global Crisis, The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka, Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy. Asoka publishes widely on South Asia, global political-economy, ethnicity, gender and ecology. She has given hundreds of presentations, including keynote lectures at South Asian Studies Conferences. She has also given numerous media interviews on CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR and Bloomberg News. In addition to her columns in the Huffington Post, Asoka serves on the boards of a number of publications and organizations including Critical Asian Studies and Interfaith Moral Action on Climate. She is currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University and Colorado College. See her website for more information.]
After
the Easter Sunday attacks in Catholic Churches and Tourist Hotels in Colombo
and Suburban areas, it seems that various comments and policy ideas have been
published in media during the past several weeks. Many of publications were in
the English language which attracted only a few readers and listeners. The history of racial/ethnical and religious
problems in Sri Lanka goes back to centuries and the major reason for conflicts
and differences could be considered as isolate and separate living of ethnical
and religious groups in ghettos. In Sri Lanka people in racial/ ethnic,
religious or castes reside in separate areas and they do not like to mix with
other ethnical, religious or caste groups and this nature promotes the
development of different cultures, traditions, beliefs, etc and it also restricts
information going out about the activities of a community. In Western
countries, it seems that human settlement policy does not encourage creating
ghettos and promotes mixing different communities, ethnic and religious groups.
Human
settlement policy or the environment in Sri Lanka promotes conflicts between
communities and groups and the nature of this social system has created
difficulties for government authorities such as police, intelligence agents and
armed forces to gain information about the inside of communities. In history
during the Dutch era districts of the country lined to encourage the further
promotion of isolation of communities and restricting the allocation of
governments lands to mixing of different communities. It appears that among
Sinhala people, creating ghettos is not a problem as they mix with each other
and they don’t want to maintain closed societies, but others such as Muslim and
Tamils want to maintain closed societies or groups.
Except
for Sinhala and Buddhist communities, all others such as Tamil, Muslim,
Catholic, Christian communities have networked in various areas of the
country. Within the Sinhala Community,
it could have seen that the Sinhala community was also divided by religions
such as Catholic, Christian and caste dictions, however, the division of the
Sinhala community has radically changed after the political metamorphoses in
1956. Socially, it seems that the Sinhala community has been uniting to ignore
the differences and the pace of changes in the Sinhala community does not
reflect in other communities such as Tamil and Muslim.
Since
the origination of the Kandyan Kingdom, the differences of the society have
been sharpened and the British imperialism in the country used such divisions
for the advantage of divide and rule policy. The vicious aspect of isolate
living is the promotion of discriminations within a community. The personal law structure of the country
seems to be fuelling the discrimination and major victims are women and children
in isolated communities.
The
major reason to create unreasonable personal laws, which contradict with common
law and ethnic conflicts is a settlement system restricting other communities
to go in. The proposed constitutional reforms of the Yahapalana regime promoted
developing legally isolated communities.
When Mr. J.R. Jayawardane was in power disagreed with the North and East
merger as his view was, when population rapidly increases in Western Province,
the lands of East should be allowed to accommodate excess population in the
West. The Yahapalana regime attempted to
gain political advantages through constitutional reforms and promote ghettos of
communities or religious groups.
After
1970, Buddhists and Christians have mixed within Sinhala community and
excellent reconciliation has developed among two religions and why other
religious groups such as Hindus and Muslims cannot mix with Buddhists and
Christians?
The
following policy actions are essentially needed in the country.
Settlement policy should
be changed to restrict creating ghettos of races, ethnic groups, religions,
castes, and many others.
Personal laws of the
country should be reformed disallowing the discrimination of women and
children.
The population of the
country is rapidly increasing and the government must set policies to reduce
the population to 1981 level within 20 years restricting a woman have only two
babies.
Polygamy in the Muslim
community must be banned and restrictions to mixed marriage should be removed
Strict anti-discrimination
laws must be enforced in the country.
The question in the title is relevant to the
current crisis in Sri Lanka. The sudden (actually, it was not sudden, it was
years in the making, as it shockingly transpires now) incursion of ISIS terror
is the only significant ‘foreign direct investment’ that the Yahapalana
government has attracted, that too, at the tail end of its tenure. It could be
good for its own unwelcome survival, but it is going to be unimaginably deadly
and disastrous for one of the most peaceful and cultured nations of the world, if
it is not immediately contained with might and main. To any concerned observer,
it is clear that the real or sham tug of war between the two erstwhile foreign
backed champions of good governance, the president and the prime minister, is
undermining their joint ability to provide the proper unambiguous commanding
and coordinating leadership that is indispensable for the national security
agencies to deal with the volatile situation with efficiency. My layman’s
opinion is that, had the powers of the executive president not been weakened as
done by the 19th amendment, this kind of unnecessary rivalry between
the executive and the legislative branches of the government would not have
arisen. There may be certain shortcomings in the executive presidential system,
but it has so far helped the country to overcome a number of crises
successfully. Under the 1978 constitution, the president and the parliament
were mutually dependent. But the 19th amendment enacted by the
Yahapalana government has made it impossible for the president to dissolve a
corrupt, malfunctioning parliament and allow the people to elect a new one.
Seemingly, the principle that the people are sovereign (sovereignty lies in the
people) and that the president exercises that sovereignty on behalf of all is
being violated. This, I think, is the worst time for us to be talking about
abolishing the presidential system of government or about making a new
constitution.
Feeble attempts to deflect attention from the real
perpetrators of the terrorist bombings
All Sri Lankans and other nations across the
world who are sympathetic to them out of a sense of common humanity were
shocked and distressed by the April 21st Easter Sunday terrorist
bombings in Sri Lanka, which left more than 250 dead and double that number
injured. It didn’t take long for the perpetrators to be identified as some Sri
Lankan Islamists with connections to the ISIS. However, initially, it appeared
that the knee jerk reaction to the news of the attacks on the part of most ill
informed foreign observers, certain NGOs, foreign and some mainstream local
media, and others similarly grown antipathetic to the majority community due to
false propaganda was to speculate that these attacks could not have been
carried out by anyone other than the so-called
‘Sinhala Buddhist extremists’. Some newspapers continued, for a few
days, to illustrate their news stories with photos exclusively of weeping women with conspicuous dark red
‘pottus’ or bindis on their foreheads, creating the false impression that the
victims were Tamil, with the contextual implication that the attackers were
Sinhalese Buddhist extremists. NGOs and
media looked askance at Buddhist monks. The BBC Colombo Sinhala language
correspondent Azzam Ameen (who probably knew the truth about the identity of
the attackers at first hand) initially connected the attacks to alleged
Buddhist extremists. In a Twitter message, Eric Solheim, former Norwegian
minister, and once long time peace-maker in Sri Lanka, arbitrarily attributed
the bombings to ‘Sinhala extremists’.
Jude Lal Fernando, at a service held in Dublin, Ireland, said that it
was an underhand operation carried out by Sinhala Buddhists. The revelation
that the attacks were actually the work of a local extremist Jihadist group
known as the National Thawheed Jamath (NTJ) sponsored by the ISIS came to those
who were looking forward to a confirmation of imagined Sinhalese Buddhist
culpability for the mayhem as a secondary shock.
How the members of the majority community responded
While they were being thus misrepresented to
the world by separatist sympathizers and irresponsible sensation-mongers in the
media, Buddhists accounted for the largest number of volunteer blood donors who
queued up near hospitals to give blood for the injured in need of it; monks
invited the victimized Christians to hold their services in the Buddhist
temples; a few monks were shown in a news video voluntarily participating in
cleaning up work in a damaged church. Senior monks joined the Cardinal in
consoling the grief and terror stricken Christians. To us Sri Lankans, this
sort of compassionate behavior among Sinhalese Buddhists towards fellow citizens of whatever race or
religion is a familiar thing. But it is
in stark contrast to the image of the majority community that is prevalent
abroad.
Friday Forum’s exclusive politics
The Friday Forum was formed, apparently, after
the defeat of separatist terrorism in 2009. As they claim, it is ‘… an informal
and self-financed group dedicated to democracy, good governance, human rights
and the rule of law’ that works on a non-partisan basis. The composition of the
membership shows that it is an elitist group that excludes representatives of
the major Sinhala Buddhist culture of Sri Lanka. Their non-partisan claims are
hollow; they are obliged to be partial to the parties that are closer to their
class. Though the above stated ideals are laudable, their culturally alienated
and isolated situation in the Sri Lankan body politic prevents them from doing
anything constructive to influence the politicians that the hapless ordinary
citizens have thrust on them by circumstances beyond their control. The
negatively distorted image of the majority community outlined above is the one
that the members of the FF, wittingly or unwittingly, project to the outside
world through their occasional statements.
In a
pre-poll media release dated January 2, 2015, they stated
This election gives us the opportunity to
decide whether it is possible that we, our children and future generations will
live in a country founded on the norms of participatory democracy, the rule of
law and good governance, reinforced by an independent judiciary and public
service. We must reflect on which of the choices before us best promises us a
government which implements a model of sustainable and people-centred
development, ensuring equitable allocation of resources and meeting the needs
of all our people, particularly the most disadvantaged.”
They called upon
…..our fellow voters to consider which
candidate gives us the best opportunity to achieve democracy, rule of law,
peace and harmony in Sri Lanka, for ourselves and future generations”.
Whether the voters heard their call or not, the
change of government the FF expected came about. Now the country is where it
is. What the people are experiencing today in reality are the exact opposite of
those objectives. We may guess how wretched the FF members should feel now as
the leaders they implicitly trusted and championed in 2015 have proved
themselves to be rogues who are inimical to the realization of the high ideals
they hoped they’d achieve after the Yahapalanaya was set up in January 2015.
The government whose ouster was engineered with
foreign assistance (probably these old well meaning armchair bound idealists
were innocent of any knowledge of this) realized all those democratic goals to
the maximum extent possible in the short
five years that followed a devastating thirty-year civil conflict. The
Yahapalanaya has undone every one of those achievements.
Making an importunate demand for a new constitution that no
one wants
Less than nine months after the January 9, 2015 ‘revolution’, the voters were fed up with the ill performing Yahapalanaya, and they wanted earlier president back in the saddle as prime minister. Pollsters predicted a decisive victory for the UPFA of which the SLFP headed by the current president is the principal partner and which offered the former president as the prime ministerial candidate. The incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena’s strategic pre-poll eleventh hour disavowal of Mahinda Rajapaksa (‘I will not make Rajapaksa prime minister even if the UPFA wins the majority of seats’) demoralized the Mahinda loyalists among the voters and they didn’t go for casting their vote, which cost them 31 out of the 117 predicted (the UPFA got 95 to UNP’s 96 seats). Wasn’t this a good start for restoring democracy?
Neither the UNF nor the UPFA promised a new
constitution in their manifestos for the presidential or the parliamentary
elections. At the latter, neither alliance won the absolute majority of 113
seats needed to form a government by itself. But the UNF for Good Governance
comprising the UNP and some minority parties led by UNP’s Ranil Wickremasinghe
and the SLFP faction loyal to Maithripala Sirisena cobbled a so-called national
governmnet. The survival of the government depends on the support given by the
racist minority parties, who now have begun to call the shots. It is a
minoritarianism at its worst. It is a vengeful inversion of the non-existent
majoritarianism that minority
politicians attribute to the normal Sri Lankan political power structure, a
charge that buttresses the call for federalism. A statement issued by the FF
(‘New Constitution A Must’) on August 17, 2017 asserts that
The
peoples’ verdict at the Presidential election of January 2015 reflected the
mandate of the people for a new constitution to remedy democratic deficits in
Sri Lanka’s governance arrangements, nearly 40 years after the enactment of the
current constitution.”
On the basis of
this dubious ‘reflected …..mandate’ the Yahapalanites began a process for
eventually introducing a ‘new constitution’ that no one asked for and no one
promised at the elections. The FF repeated this call for a new constitution in
a statement they issued two or three days after the recent Easter Sunday bombings
carried by alleged NTJ terrorists. The following was composed in response to
that statement:
Untimely call for the
abolition of the presidential system of government
Professor Carlo Fonseka’s short Opinion piece ‘Abolish the Presidential
System of Governance’ (The Island/April 27, 2019) prompted me to take a look at
a Friday Forum feature published earlier in the same paper that I had
deliberately skipped as something I couldn’t be doing with: ‘Easter Sunday’s
suffering: Seeking and Finding Answers’ (The Island/April 26, 2019). This is a
response to the latter, made without prejudice to Professor Fonseka.
18th
Amendment
However, at the outset, a word must be said to reassure the well meaning
Professor Fonseka. He regrets having
supported the 18th amendment (later replaced under Yahapalanaya)
‘against (his) better judgement’, but in accordance with the policy of his party the LSSP. I am sure that,
personally, he has a rational explanation for his disapproval of that
amendment. I am without any party affiliation. My own ordinary citizen’s point
of view, for what it was worth, of 18A, was positive as I explained in an
article in The Island at the time of its being debated in parliament, and my
opinion has not changed to date. The 18th amendment was not so
harmful as the then opposition wanted us to believe in that particular
historical context, though it was impossible for its chief proponent to avoid
opposition allegations of excessive power hunger and undue dynastic ambitions,
and other more substantive criticisms. But, the fear that the 18th
amendment would pave the way for creating a ‘Mahinda
Rajapakse-president-for-life’ phenomenon was entirely misplaced. The immediate
purpose of the amendment, of course, was to make the most successful executive
head of government Sri Lanka had ever had until then eligible to run for
election for a third term after completing the constitutionally allowed two
terms. As the UPFA that he led had over 140 MPs in the 225 member legislature,
the passage of the amendment was not a problem. This made it possible for
Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest a third time (at the 2015 January presidential
election). But, to his disadvantage, the adoption of the new legislation (18A)
was exploited by opposition rivals as a negative development under an alleged
authoritarian ruler. No doubt, the charge was among the factors that
contributed towards eroding the general
popularity he enjoyed as the most suitable person to continue to lead the
resurgent Sri Lanka that emerged under his leadership after the military defeat
of separatist terrorism in May 2009. The 18th amendment did nothing
more than remove an obstacle in the path of a popular leader who had served for
two terms and done well enough in office to be considered for re-election for
yet another term. It did not interfere with the people’s democratic right to
deny him a third term if a majority of the electorate thought otherwise, as his
defeat in 2015 showed. That this result had to be engineered with the
involvement of foreign players is a different matter. As opposed to the 18th
amendment, the 19th amendment
that replaced it under the yahapalanaya administration is a really pernicious
piece of legislation, that was fraudulently passed in parliament, as some
constitutional experts, ordinary lawyers and other eligible commentators have
pointed out. (The clause that says that Parliament can only be dissolved after
the completion of four and a half years of its five year term was allegedly
smuggled into the bill at the committee stage, because, according to the
existing constitution, such a clause had to be passed by a two-thirds majority
in parliament and ratified at a public referendum, which was an impossible
requirement for the Yahapalanaya to fulfill. This fraud was casually admitted
by one of the experts behind the drafting of 19A to the media.) It is due to
19A that Sri Lankans are forced to passively endure a government that they
would love to get rid of at the first opportunity available. Their patience,
love of peace, humanity, and faith in democratic values have never been so
clearly demonstrated as at this present terror-stricken moment.
Turning now to Friday Forum’s statement under the heading ‘Easter Sunday Suffering: Seeking and Finding Answers’ mentioned above which is my focus here, it exhibits the group’s customary lack of empathy with their own people, particularly the majority community. Most of the observations these reputed intellectuals make through this statement about the failures of governance that facilitated the recent attacks on some churches and hotels (in Negambo, Colombo and Baticaloa) are generally correct; but they cannot be counted as the sort of original revelations and unbiased judgements expected of savants like them in a national emergency to an innocent people stunned and immobilized in the wake of an apparently well organized terror strike by an unknown enemy motivated by an unknown objective. Instead, their sagely advice is that the presidential system of ‘governance’ be dismantled immediately, whereas the real priority at present is ensuring the physical security of the people from mindless terror and, as soon as possible, holding elections to elect a new president and a new parliament capable of containing the downward trend that has apparently started.
FF correct
about appalling lapses in national security helping the carnage
In their
statement, however, the FF correctly identifies the immediate cause of the
recent violence as appalling lapses in national security that failed to
prevent this carnage”. The criticism embodied in the demand that The President, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of Defence
and the Inspector General of Police must explain to the nation why the State
intelligence agencies did not pass on the specific and detailed prior warnings
and information on the impending violence, so as to take preventive action” is also valid. Nevertheless, their admonition
that the president and the prime minster should cooperate with each other,
identify the perpetrators, and introduce a strong effective system of national
security, though perhaps well meant, is self-consciously hollow in the
circumstances; further, it is accompanied with a reservation that makes a sly,
unfair dig at the war-winning pre-yahapalana government which had developed a
most successful national security system and a sound economic plan managed by technocrats
as even the former US ambassador Robert O Blake admitted during a presentation
made at the BMICH on May 7, 2019. No one would question the validity of what
the FF members advocate for the government to follow: They (prez and pm) must
do so (i.e., mutually cooperate, identify the perpetrators of terror, and
introduce a strong system of national security) while respecting the core
values of democratic governance and fundamental rights in our constitution”.
But the redundant cautionary words allude supportively to the false human
rights violations and war crimes charges, the basis of the UNHRC Resolution
30/1, which the alleged local affiliate of the ISIS could be suspected to have
exploited as a mitigating circumstance for the crime of visiting terror on Sri
Lanka. Of course this could sound a bit too farfetched. Yet the wording of
their advice seems to suggest that Sri Lanka has probably committed serious
violations of human rights and crimes of war.
The
current political situation in Sri Lanka arguably becoming extremely complex
and convoluted by the hour. The majority of Sri Lankans have expressed
their lack of confidence in the government since the Good Friday attack.
In
spite of government assurances, the parents are refusing to send their loving
children to schools. The shopkeepers are reluctant to resume their
businesses for fear of reprisals. The workforce reluctant to report for
work. The management of most companies have remained closed due to
lack of work force, reduction of incoming sales orders or cancellation of
existing orders. The service sector is paralysed, home craftsmen’s’
activities eroded, factories have reduced their shift working hours or
temporary closed down. These factors results in erosion of export
trade. Imported goods are stock piling at the Port containers causing
demurrages and stevedoring charges. Due to reduction of volume of
products and services, the selling prices are becoming prohibitive.
In
the midst of all these, the Prime Minister and the President are playing
games. They don’t see each other eye to eye. The government is
dysfunctional. The situation cannot be rectified by sacking few selected
Cabinet Ministers or Governors. The situation is much larger and pose a
serious threat to Sri Lanka’s independence as a sovereign nation.
All
Members of Parliament who realize the dangers of Sri Lanka becoming
unsafe place to live, should support a No Confidence Motion against the entire
Government and the Cabinet of Ministers, so that a snap General Election could
be called.
Buddhists account for about 95% of the
population of Thailand and most foreigners refer to it as the Land of Yellow
Robes”. Buddhism has been the established ‘religion’ or spiritual force in
Thailand for many centuries, according to some historic sources, since the 9th
century, and therefore has had a marked influence on the lives of the people of
Thailand. Buddhism has been the main spring from which flow its culture and
philosophy, its art and literature, its ethics and morality, and many of its
folkways and festivals. There are more than 21,000 Buddhist shrines and
monasteries scattered throughout the country. Thailand is a country where the
king is constitutionally stipulated to be a Buddhist and the upholder of
Buddhism. All the Thai kings in the recorded
history of present-day Thailand have been adherents of Buddhism.
Thailand is one of those rare countries in
South and Southeast Asia which was not under European colonial powers at any time
in its history and therefore not subject in the past to the influence of
Catholicism or Christianity.
A SMALL MINORITY OF MUSLIMS
Muslims account for a
mere 4.6% of population. About two-third of Muslims in Thailand are ethnically Malay and the balance are those who have migrated to Thailand from China,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Malay Muslims
of Thailand are concentrated in the southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala,
Narathiwat, Songkhla and Chumphon. Their language is a dialect of the Malay
language. Most of the non-Malay
Muslims are scattered here and there in Thailand with a concentration in Bangkok. Northern
Thailand is home to some Burmese, Pakistani and mixed Muslims. In the far North
and in some Central and Southern urban centres there are some Thai Muslims of Chinese Hui origin.
Most of Thailand’s Muslims consider
themselves to belong to the Sunni branch of Islam and almost all mosques are
associated with Sunni Islam. However, the Islamic faith in Thailand has become
integrated with many beliefs and practices not integral to Islam. In the South,
animistic practices indigenous to Malay culture are mixed with Islam. There are 3,494 mosques in Thailand with the largest number in Pattani
province in the South.
There are more than 200 Muslim schools in Thailand.
ISLAMIC
SEPARATIST INSURGENCY
A separatist insurgency is taking place in Southern Thailand, particularly in the Pattani region which is made up of three southernmost provinces. Its beginnings were
evident in the latter half of the 20th century and in recent decades,
Muslim separatists have increasingly and openly rallied against the central
government of Thailand, accusing the government of ethnic-religious bias,
discrimination and corruption.
In recent years Islamic extremists have been
spreading fear among the indigenous Buddhists of the region, using violence and
brutality. They have resorted to the random killing of Buddhists, including
school teachers and Buddhist monks. Also, they have murdered Muslims working in
public institutions in Southern Thailand and those who are suspected to be
supportive of the Thai Government and members of the Thai Military forces. A
brutal attack on a Buddhist temple in the town of Pattani in 2005 is seen as an
attempt by militants to deepen the religious divide between Muslims and
Buddhists in Thailand’s deep South. About 20 insurgents stormed the
Promprasith Temple in Pattani’s Panare district, armed with assault rifles,
knives, machetes, fireworks and petrol. They then hacked a 76-year-old monk to
death while two teenage temple novices died in the hail of gunfire. The temple was set ablaze. The news from
Promprasith came as a shock to the rest of Thailand. Muslims and Buddhists had
lived in this area in harmony and peace for a long time. Buddhists here never
had any conflict with their Muslim neighbors. The militants appear to be
outsiders who want to create a rift between Buddhists and Muslims. The
increased occurrence of violence in the South has been spilling over into other
provinces as well.
During
2000, authorities responded with military force and legal action to separatist
activity in the south. In February 2000, security forces dealt a severe blow to
the New Pattani United Liberation Organization, a Muslim separatist group and killed
its leader who was responsible for 90 percent of the terrorist activities in
Narathiwat, a southern Thai province. In 2004, the Thai government officially
recognized attacks in Thailand as terrorist acts performed by the various
insurgent groups that were in the country.
INCREASING TREND IN VIOLENCE
Although separatist violence has occurred for decades in the southern
region, the campaign escalated in 2004. Over
4300 lives have been lost since the year 2004 owing to Islamic insurgency. Buddhist monks have been beheaded, children
killed and civilians attacked. More than 500 people have been killed in 2004 in three southern Thai
provinces. Massive killings occurred throughout the mid to late
2000s and as of 2010, nearly 4,000 people had been killed due to insurgent
violence. The death toll has increased to 2,579 by
mid-September 2007 and surpassed 3000 in March 2008. By the end of 2010,
insurgency-related violence had increased. In the first few weeks of January
in 2011 nine Buddhists have been killed in Southern Thailand by Islamic
terrorists. In a separate attack four
members of Thai armed forces have been killed. Many Buddhists have left their
traditional home in Southern Thailand in order to escape the ongoing Islamic
insurgency.
According to Lee Jay Walker (www.theseoultimes.com) writing to The Modern Tokyo Times, under the title Islamic Terrorists
kill more Buddhists in Southern Thailand”, states that Southern Thailand
resembles modern day Afghanistan and Somalia because in both these nations the
radical Sunni Islamists show their extreme intolerance of other faiths. In
addition to Buddhists, moderate Muslims are also being killed by radical Sunni
Islamic fanatics of Southern Thailand. The methodology of killing is intended
to spread fear to all who oppose the Islamization of Southern Thailand.
GRUESOME NATURE OF VIOLENCE
Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Professor of International Relations
at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University says “The gruesome fashion of
beheadings of Buddhists by Muslim assailants … is not normal violence…”
“it is driven by deep animosity and hatred.” Muslim extremists
believe that violence, including killing civilians, is justified as a means to
restore sharia or Islamic law and maintain Islamic cultural identity. According
to the adherents of this brand of Islamist activism, they are engaged in a jihad
or a holy struggle against Islam’s enemies, including even fellow Muslims who
have abandoned what the extremists view as true” Islam.
HATE LITERATURE
AGAINST BUDDHISTS
One approach that
these extremists use in Southern Thailand is the distribution of hate
literature in the form of pamphlets, against the Buddhists. They are meant to
intimidate the local Buddhist community. They are also used a warning
mechanisms. One such Document states “Dear every Siamese Buddhist Thai who
lives near the police stations……I’ll give you three days for you to leave my
land. Otherwise, I will kill, burn, destroy all Buddhist Thai property……The
Buddhist Thai will never live in peace. If you leave the house, travel or go to
work, you will die violently. I will wait for you for 24 hours, in every
direction” (Pamphlet No.22). Another states “The Islamic warriors of
Pattani announce the purpose that we will never stop killing the Siamese kafir
(infidel) and will never stop destroying army weapons, the economy, politics,
education and the Siamese kafir society until we regain the land of Pattani and
establish the state of Pattani Darulslam. I ask for Muslim Malays to be the
witnesses.” (Pamphlet No 23).
ISLAMIC INSURGENT
GROUPS
In the 20th
century, there were 5 main Islamic insurgent groups responsible for terror
attacks in Thailand. One group was called the Patani Malay National
Revolutionary Front-Coordinate, or BRN-Coordinate. The second insurgent group
was the National Liberation Front of Patani (BNPP) which was the first
organized armed resistance group active in the 1970s and 1980s, but had become
defunct. The third insurgent group was the Patani United Liberation
Organization (PULO) operating mainly from exile in Syria and Sweden where its supporters
lived. It had a working relationship with BRN. The fourth insurgent group was
the Islamic Mujahidin Movement of Patani (GMIP) formed in 1995 by Afghanistan
war veteran Nasoree Saesaeng. This group was linked to the Malaysia-based
militant organization Kumpulan Mujahidin which, in turn had close ties with the
Indonesia- based Jemaah Islamiya. The fifth main insurgent group was the United
Front for the Independence of Patani, commonly known as Bersatu.
INVOLVEMENT OF
FOREIGN MUSLIM NATIONS
In the last decade,
there has been evidence that Islamic institutions of foreign Muslim nations
have been involved in promoting Islamic radicalization and the doctrine of
Islamic Jihad in Thailand. Thai authorities knew for quite some time that many
Muslim Thai activists had been to overseas Islamic schools, where they came
under influence of hard-line Muslim teachers. Some were reported to have joined
the jihad against the Soviet Army in Afghanistan and returned to Thailand as
extremists.
According to Michael Scott Doran, a Professor
of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, this brand of Islamist
extremism is not a new phenomenon. The basic sentiment of today’s Muslim
extremists has flourished in the Islamic world for decades. In recent decades
the newfound wealth of the oil-rich Middle Eastern Islamic countries and
massive immigration of Muslims to the West, Islamic fundamentalism has been on
the rise and the dormant spirit of Jihadism has been rekindled once again. This
fervor has been translated into various forms of upheavals and terrorism and
world peace has been put in jeopardy. In 2001 it was reported that of the 28
terrorist organizations in the world, 11 are Islamist and that there were
thousands of Islamist terrorists in more than 60 countries.
MUSLIM MADRASAS
INDOCTRINATE THE YOUNG
Another approach that
these extremists use is enumerated well by Zachary Abuza in his book titled
Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (Crucible of Terror). It highlights the role
of Islamic schools called Madrasas in indoctrinating the younger generation. The
author comments that “In their pursuit of the creation of Islamic states,
many Southeast Asian jihadis established Islamic schools to indoctrinate,
propagate, and recruit. The leaders of many militant groups in Southeast Asia,
including the Laskar Jihad, Kampulan Mujahidin Malaysia, and Jemaah Islamiya,
returned from Afghanistan and established a network of madrasas as the base of
their operations and recruitment.” These radical Islamic madrasas, with
unrestricted material support from foreign Muslim countries, have begun to
recruit and brainwash many Muslim children and youth in Islamic Jihadist
movement and Islamic fundamentalism. This is a dangerous trend and a great
threat to peace and security of Thailand.
THAI MUSLIMS TRAINED
IN FOREIGN MADRASAS
The extensive media
reporting in Pakistan on the presence of foreign students in Pakistani
madrasas, which followed the reports of the involvement of three British
citizens of Pakistani origin in the London explosions of July 7, 2005, has
revealed the presence of nearly a thousand Thai Muslims from Pattanis, in the
Pakistani madrasas. Until the Pakistani media gave an estimate of the number of
Thai students in their madrasas, the world was not aware of the large number of
Thai Muslims in Pakistani Madrasas. It is now known that madrasas in Bangladesh
also contain large numbers of Thai Muslims. Many of these Thai Muslims have
enrolled themselves in the madrasas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)
and Baluchistan, which are the hotbeds of the activities of the Taliban and the
Wahhabi-Deobandi organizations of Pakistan. Some of them have also undergone
training in the jihadi training centres of the Taliban and Gulbuddin
Heckmatyar’s Hizbe Islami (HEI) and have been participating in the current
Taliban-HEI-Al Qaeda offensive in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the NWFP and Baluchistan.”
South Asia Analysis Group — Terrorism in Southern Thailand by B. Raman, Paper
No. 1501, 15/08/2005.
Thai authorities are investigating possible
links between separatist groups and Islamic terrorist organizations such as
Jemaah Islamiyah, which seeks a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia. It’s
blamed for attacks including the 2002 bombing in Bali that claimed 202 lives.
MALAYSIAN CONNECTION
Thailand’s Muslim youth often go to Malaysia
to study, especially in the northern state of Kelantan, where terrorists wanted
by Thai authorities have allegedly gone into hiding. Indeed, Malaysia hasn’t
just served as a safe haven for Thai religious warriors. Until the late 1990s,
Indonesian hate preacher Abu Bakar Bashir, now in detention in Jakarta on
charges of “planning to overthrow the government,” taught at a
Malaysian religious school, where he indoctrinated the members of terrorist
group Jemaah Islamiyah, who killed 202 people in the October 2002 nightclub
bombings on the resort island of Bali.
Terror is everywhere. Although Indonesia
recently reported the death of dangerous bomb-maker Azahari bin Husin a member
of the notorious Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah and the man
believed responsible for the 2002 attacks in Bali, among other acts of terror,
the whereabouts of the more than 40 suicide bombers he trained remain a
mystery.
Despite problems in Thailand and Malaysia,
international observers and Western intelligence experts are even more
concerned about Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country. With its 212
million inhabitants, including 185 million Muslims, the giant island nation is
the world’s most populous Islamic country.
Indonesian authorities have arrested more
than 200 members of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah in recent months, but acts
of terror committed by Muslim fanatics have not subsided. Six hooded men in
black staged an especially brutal attack in 2005 on the island of Sulawesi,
where they beheaded three Christian schoolgirls in their uniforms and placed
one of the severed heads in front of a church (MARCH OF THE
EXTREMISTS, Attacks Threaten Religious Harmony in Southeast Asia, By Jargen
Kremb ,Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan, November 21, 2005).
HATRED TOWARDS NON MUSLIMS
Extremist
Muslims in particular appear to dislike all ‘infidels’ – Buddhists,
Christians, Hindus and Jews. Also, there
is evidence that some Muslims hate each other and murder each other. Sunnis
slaughter Shias, Shias slaughter Sunnis, both Shias and Sunnis join
together to slaughter Ahamediyas. Bloodshed, mass murder, terrorism
and violence appear to be a part of
Muslim culture then and now (Islamic Terrorists Kill More Buddhists in Southern Thailand, Assyrian International News Agency – Posted 1-27-2011,
http://leejaywalker.wordpress.com).
The history of Islam is a story of constant war and suppression of other
peoples in the world. The constant inclination of Islam has been to wage war
and capture foreign lands. Prophet
Mohammad himself led military expeditions and killed people with his own hands.
The Arab Empire was won and consolidated by Islamizing its peoples using the
fury of its faith in god who desires everyone to submit to him.
Most of the Koran is replete with passages that call for war on
unbelievers and venomous hate of those who would not acknowledge its god. The
following quotation from the Koran will illustrate the mentality of Prophet
Mohammed. Let those who would exchange the life of this world for the
hereafter fight for the cause of god, whoever fights for the cause of god
whether he dies or triumphs, we shall richly reward him… The true believers
fight for the cause of god but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan…
NON-MUSLIMS ARE INFIDELS
The intention of Thailand’s radical Sunni
Islamists is to have a land with no Buddhists and to create an Islamic Sharia
state. The usual beheadings of innocents
is deemed to be justified on the grounds that non-Muslims are infidels in
accordance with the Koran and Hadiths. This applies to the Koran for 9:29
states “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day, nor hold
that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and his apostle nor
acknowledge the religion of truth of the people of the Book (Jews and
Christians) until they pay jizya (tax on non-Muslims) with willing submission
and feel themselves subdued.”
Verse 9:73 in the Koran also states “O
Prophet! Strive hard (wage war) against the unbelievers and the Hypocrites and
be firm against them. Their abode is Hell, — an evil refuge indeed.”
While the Hadith 9:4 says “Wherever you find infidels kill
them; for whoever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection.”
Zachary Abuza, the author of “Militant
Islam in Southeast Asia,” states that Buddhists have been forced to flee
in a “de facto ethnic cleansing.” He further continued by stating
that “The social fabric of the south has been irreparably damaged.” Meanwhile
Sunai Phasuk, a political analyst at Human Rights Watch, comments that
“Buddhist monks have been hacked to death, clubbed to death, bombed and
burned to death.” Therefore, it is clear that this Sunni Islamic
insurgency is following a path that involves the destruction of all non-Muslim
elements within society or the complete subjugation of all non-Muslims by the
rule of fear.
THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE
The most notable movement in the region is
Jemaah Islamiya which is often linked with Al Qaeda and this Sunni terrorist
Islamic organization desires to create more chaos and hatred in order to spread
its influence and obtain its ultimate objective. This objective, just like the
radical Sunni Islamic objective in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and other
nations, is to create an Islamic Sharia state and enforce the slavery of
non-Muslims by a policy of total subjugation based on fear. They have
threatened parents to not send their children to any school but the private
Islamic schools. They have forced businesses closed on Fridays. Suffis and
moderate Sha’afis have been routinely targeted. Also, it is noticeable that
more women are covering up in purdah.
Overall, it is clear that elements within
Southern Thailand desire a non-Buddhist land. The younger generation of Muslims
are being brainwashed against Buddhists. This hatred and alienation of the
younger generation began after many studied at international universities
throughout the Middle East. Funding from the Middle East is being used to
spread radical Sunni Islamic versions of Islam. Although the hidden war in
Southern Thailand by radical Sunni Islamists is being aimed at moderate Muslims
and Buddhists alike, the Buddhists it is
feared face complete annihilation and one day Southern Thailand may end up like
Afghanistan, Central Asia, and other areas which once had thriving Buddhist
communities.
A CHALLENGE TO THAI
MILITARY
Growing violence is proving a challenge to
the Thai military. “The most dangerous battle in Southeast Asia’s religious
melting pot”, says terrorism and al-Qaida expert Rohan Gunaratna, “is
currently being waged in Southern Thailand.” Not a day goes by here
without an attack. On some days, state-run schools are set on fire and teachers
murdered, and on others unknown attackers in pickup trucks target Muslim
teahouses in drive-by shootings. A train carrying military recruits was blown
from its tracks in 2005. Armed assailants armed with machine guns and hand
grenades wiped out a nine-member Muslim family because the father had worked as
a police informant.
INVOLVEMENT OF TAMIL
LTTE TERRORISTS
The
LTTE Tamil terrorists were involved with Muslim activists of Southern Thailand
during the latter part of the 20th century, especially in the Phuket
area of Southern Thailand. There LTTE Tamil terrorists were involved in heroin
smuggling with the assistance of Muslim activists. They used drug proceeds to
purchase weapons which were transported to Sri Lanka for terrorist activities.
In 2000, Thai government pledged to halt the use of Thailand as a logistics
base by the LTTE following the discovery in June 2000 of a partially completed submarine
at a shipyard in Phuket, in Southern Thailand, owned by an LTTE-sympathizer.
They also discovered an unclassified paper by Canadian intelligence published
in December 2000 that outlined the LTTE use of front companies to procure
weapons via Thailand.
DISRESPECT, DISREGARD AND
INDIFFERENCE
Why do Muslims battle all
societies they infiltrate? Also, why are Muslims not accommodative of non
Muslims living in Muslim countries, especially by not permitting them to freely
practice their religions? Why are there no Muslim democracies? These are relevant
questions for one to pose. The fact is that in general, Muslims are more
intransigent, belligerent and are notoriously
militarized, and thus are disproportionately involved in conflicts in the world
(http://www.thereligionofpeace.com). It is common knowledge that although Muslims speak of
brotherhood, there is strong disunity and dislike among the various Muslim
factions. Sunnis dislike Shias, Shias dislike
Sunnis, both Shias and Sunnis join together to harass the Ahamediyas.
All Muslims dislike all infidels – Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Sikhs and
Hindus. Buddhists, wherever in the world they live, are accommodative of other
religions. Also, unlike in the case with Muslims, Buddhists, whatever may be
the countries they belong to, whatever may be the schools of Buddhism they observe
–
Mahayana, Theravada, Vajrayana, Zen, there is no disharmony or animosity
at all among them.
History reveals vividly how Muslims invaded many former Buddhist
countries and subjugated their people subjecting them to extreme forms of
violence and untold misery unless people converted to Islam. There have been
problems of a varied nature in all countries where Muslims form a
minority. Indonesia and Malaysia were Buddhist countries at a certain time in
history. With Muslim invasions most of the Buddhists in these places were
either killed or converted to Islam. More recently in 2001, in the name of
Islam, the Taliban destroyed the world renowned monumental Bamiyan Buddha
statues built in the 6th century, citing that these were ‘idols’
which are forbidden under Sharia law in Islam. These
actions show disrespect, disregard and sheer indifference towards people of
other religions. Such attitudes do not allow any community to assimilate with
other communities, especially with mainstream communities in countries where
they live as a minority.
Dr. Daya Hewapathirane
Vancouver, Canada
Pictures of Muslim Violence against Buddhists in Thailand
