By Akitha Perera Courtesy The Island

UPFA MP Kumara Welgama, on Sunday, disputed President Maithripala Sirisena’s claim, at a Kalutara District Security Committee meeting, that the security situation was under control.

Welgama said that though the President had assured that normalcy had returned, his head of security had been informed by his superiors to ensure his safety. Thus, the statements the President made on the security situation were contradictory, Welgama said.

When Welgama made that statement, the President did not respond, according to sources.

The meeting was held at Kalutara District Secretariat with the participation of a large number of politicians and state officials. It was closed to media except the presidential media division.

The President told those present that the security situation was under control.

Welgama then criticized the President and the government, and at the end of his speech, those who were present applauded the MP.

Welgama added that he had been informed by his security, on April 21, the day of the Easter Bombings, of the impending attack, but he had not paid much attention to it. But as the Minister of Defence, the President should have informed the people, he said.

The president, ministers and other MPs should take the responsibility for the situation. All the politicians were aware of potential attacks and, therefore, neither they nor their family members had gone to church, Welgama said.

“We must go for elections only after solving the problem completely. All must extend their support for the security forces to bring the situation under control. The security forces can tackle the situation if there is no political interference.”

Several others including MP Jayantha Samaraweera also expressed their views. The President left, saying he had to attend the Cabinet meeting.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ආරංචි

සහරාන්ගේ සොහුරෙකුවන රිල්වාන් නැමැත්තා බෝම්බ නිෂ්පාදකයකු බව දැනටමත් ප්‍රසිද්ධ කරුණකි. ඔහු විසින් පවත්වාගෙන ගිය බෝම්බ පුහුණු කඳවුර කාත්තන්කුඩි ඔල්ලිකුලම් මෙහෙයුම් මූලස්ථානය වැටලූ බව පසුගිය දිනයන්හි ප්‍රවෘත්ති වාර්තා විය.

මෙම මෙහෙයුම් මූලස්ථානයේදී සහරාන්ගේ සහෝදරයකු වන මොහොමඞ් රිල්වාන් නමැත්තා 2018 වසරේදී තවුහිත් ජමාත් සංවිධානයේ අනුගාමිකයන් පිරිසකට බෝම්බ සෑදීම පිළිබඳව පුහුණුවක් ලබා දී තිබේ. ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී බෝම්බයක් පුපුරා ගොස් රිල්වාන්ට බරපතළ තුවාල සිදු වී තිබේ. මෙම සිදුවීම එම ස්ථානයේ බාරකරු විසින් සහරාන්ට දැනුම් දුන් පසු ඔහුගේ උපදෙස් මත රිල්වාන් නමැත්තාව කඩිනමින් බස්නාහිර පළාතේ රෝහලකට හොර රහසේ ඇතුළු කර ඇත. 

රිල්වාන් නමැත්තා මාස දෙකක පමණ කාලයක් එම රෝහලේ නේවාසිකව ප්‍රතිකාර ලබා ඇති බවත් ඔහුගේ සාත්තුවට ළඟ සිට ඇත්තේ සහරාන්ගේ රියැදුරා බවත් අප ප්‍රවෘත්තියෙහි සඳහන්ය. මෙම බෝම්බ පිපිරීමෙන් රිල්වාන්ගේ එක් ඇසක් අහිමි වී ඇති අතර ඇඟිලි ද අහිමිව ගොස් තිබේ. 

මෙම සිදුවීම් මාලාවේ බරපතළකම වන්නේ බෝම්බයක් පුපුරා බරපතළ ලෙස තුවාල ලැබූ අයකු රෝහලට ඇතුළත් කළ බව පොලිසියට දැනුම් දීමට රෝහල් පාලනාධිකාරිය කටයුතු නොකිරීමය. 

රෝහලක් තුළ එතරම්ම රහසිගත දේ සිදුවිය හැකි ද යන්න ද විමතිය දනවන සුළුය. එම රෝහල බොරැල්ල කොටා පාරේ පිහිටි පුද්ගලික රෝහලක් වන වෙස්ටන් හොස්පිට්ල් වේ. මෙහි අයිතිකරු වන්නේ වකුගඩු රෝග විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරයකු ලෙස ඉතාමත් කීර්තිමත් නාමයක් දිනා සිටින මහාචාර්ය රිශ්වි ෂෙරිෆ් මහතාය. ඔහු මෙම තත්වය නීතියෙන් ආවරණය කරගත්තේ රාජිත සේනාරත්න අමාත්‍යවරයා හරහා බව වාර්තාවේ. මේ වන විටත් බුද්ධිඅංශ විසින් හෙලිදරව් කර ඇති මෙම තොරතුරු මේ මොහොත වන විටත් ජනමාධ්‍ය තුල වසන් කිරීමට මහත් වෑයමක් දරමින් රාජිත ඇමතිවරයා කටයුතු යොදමින් සිටී… නැවත මාධ්‍ය සාකච්චාවක් තබා වෙනකෙකුගේ පිටමෙය පැටවීමට පෙර සැවොම දැනුවත් කරන්න.

By Winston de Valliere Courtesy Ceylon Today

A  Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the United States and an ally or partner, defines the legal status of any member of the U.S. armed services (land, sea or air) serving on active duty anywhere in such a country, excluding personnel of U.S. Armed Forces attached to the United States embassy in that country and such personnel who have been specifically mentioned as being outside the binding clauses of such agreement. They can include the civilian staff, being American citizens in the employ of, serving with or accompanying the U.S. Armed Forces personnel in the ally/partner country. Usually, a SOFA will not cover civilians ordinarily resident in the partner/ally country, occupying similar capacities with US Armed Forces personnel coming under the agreement.
Army Commander Lt. General Mahesh Senanayake is the latest aficionado of these hyped–up anti-SOFA elements. His take on it was, to put it mildly, very shocking: He is on record as having said that How can we sign such an agreement? That is like committing suicide after writing all my properties to someone else”. One presumes he knows what he is talking about because he has been privy to the contents of the pending agreement.

What is significant and to the point, however, is not anyone’s fear about the contents of the SOFA because on closer analysis one sees that the Commander has preceded his comments by observing that There are various regional and world powers trying to take advantage of the current situation due to the strategic and geographical (and geo-political?) importance of Sri Lanka’s location.

 When the Army Commander comes out with such a firm statement at this specific juncture , one may be excused for presuming that the Commander-in-Chief of the nation’s Armed Forces, President Maithripala Sirisena, might well heed his Army Commander’s advice to tear up the proposed SOFA with the U.S. That matters have been brought to the brink of the signing of this geo-politically defining landmark agreement mostly because of the accommodation by the UNP-led Government is seen in diplomatic and other political circles as the outer manifestation of America’s success in seducing Sri Lanka away from capitulating blindly to Beijing with whom this country may well be having a similar agreement.

Presidential election as an excuse

The political grapevine is abuzz with speculation whether this is the real reason behind President Sirisena’s trip to Beijing, ostensibly to attend a conference, but more importantly for a briefing with Xi Jinping on advice as to what position is to be now adopted with the Americans relating to the SOFA agreement. Xi Jinping can be trusted to have some tough things to say to the Sri Lankan President, not forgetting that he botched the plan to reinstate Rajapaksa in power and thereby put an end to Ranil Wickremesignhe’s cooperation with the U.S. to the detriment of China’s Belt and Road plans and the crunch plan to take total control of the South China Seas.

A positive nod from Sirisena to Xi Jinping, offering the imminent Presidential Election as an excuse for ‘postponement’ could totally jeopardise the SOFA signing in Colombo. That would be the best news Beijing has heard in several decades, especially ever since Xi Jinping lost out when Sirisena botched plans to reinstate Rajapaksa in power last September.

Coincidence or not, it’s interesting that the Army Commander’s opinions were voiced exactly at this specific juncture. Seducing Sirisena into the SOFA process began way back on 29.11.2016  at the Galle Dialogue at which President Sirisena met U.S. Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, since renamed the U.S. INDOPACOM  (broadened to include the entire Indian Ocean) at the Galle Dialogue 2016 Maritime Security Conference, at which Harris also met PM Wickremesinghe, and Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces Commanders. This led to the  USS Somerset arriving here to support the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit Exchange with Sri Lanka Marines and still later on had U.S. Marines, Sailors work with the Sri Lanka Navy’s newly-minted Marine Corps.  

Admiral Harris then stressed the importance of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region and expanding partnerships among like-minded nations TO UPHOLD THE RULES-BASED GLOBAL OPERATING SYSTEM. SRI LANKA IS A WELCOME AND SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTOR TO THE SYSTEM.

 Admiral Harris also met privately with Commanders of the Sri Lanka Navy, Army, and Air Force, along with discussions with Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, State Minister for Defence Ruwan Wijewardene, and other senior Government leaders.

Expanded cooperation with the United States – cooperation that benefits both countries in meaningful ways” was how Admiral Harris put it. SOFA is the plum in that scenario of cooperation. But those in the know will tell you that SOFA has absolutely nothing in it even remotely engendering Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity or sovereignty. The US-Korea SOFA has been inexistence for decades and it has in not in any way been negative for South Korea: Just the opposite in fact.

 The difference is that there was no way that Beijing could find broad political support in Korea of the nature found in Sri Lanka…and so the US-Korea went through  and persists to this day with no negative issue whatsoever emerging from it. Unfortunately for China, her support was across the border in North Korea. Not so in Sri Lanka pre-2015 and for Beijing, hopefully, post-2019!

 So, then the sudden recent spate of news taking up space in the print media against the SOFA is a manifestation of the pro-US and pro-China forces trying to hit, while the iron is hot with the staunchly pro-U.S., pro-SOFA Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at his weakest since getting ‘outside’ help in 2015 to send Beijing man, Mahinda Rajapaksa, out of power.

Commander Senanayake’s opinion, therefore, is the first hard indication of a split in opinion among leaders of the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka vis-a-vis the proposed SOFA.

 The contention that the current security situation in Sri Lanka is being exploited to hurry up the signing process however, is flawed. The fear is that any future Government reneging on such agreements, such as the SOFA with the U.S., can have nasty diplomatic and bilateral trade negatives emerging from it. Those negatives, as Iran well knows, can hurt extremely harmfully. They can destroy Sri Lanka economically and in affairs before the UNHRC.

 This is what is back of the sudden haste to drum up resistance to tear up the imminent SOFA threat that sends grave danger signals to China’s Lankan political stooges on one side and America’s friends in Colombo on the other.

 How very badly the U.S. wants SOFA to go through, will, I am afraid, also determine the outcome of the coming presidential and general elections.
For the U.S. and China, it’s now a winner takes all” prospect in Sri Lanka…and that’s fraught with all sorts of dangers. The U.S. plays very rough, China plays dirty.

That’s on the record. Will Sirisena now nix it?

Courtesy Ceylon Today

The National Sangha Council (NSC) will lodge a complaint with the Police Headquarters tomorrow (14) against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, calling for his arrest and that he be charged in Court over his involvement in the Easter Sunday (21 April) attacks.

The carnage, due to the suicide bomb attacks in churches, hotels and elsewhere, claimed the lives of over 250 and injured over 500 others.

The Council claimed that Wickremesinghe, among others, had prior knowledge about the attacks, but had not, as part of the Government, taken any action to prevent them. This constitutes negligent behaviour and conduct, the Council alleged.

The Council also claimed that the suppression of information about the crime and aiding and abetting in it too were grave offences.

Courtesy Mail Online

Sri Lankan security personnel stand guard at a checkpoint on a roadside in Colombo on May 13, 2019. A Muslim man was slashed to death in Sri Lanka, police said after imposing a nationwide curfew to contain a violent new backlash against Easter suicide bombings

A Muslim mas was slashed to death in Sri Lanka Monday, police said after imposing a nationwide curfew to contain a violent new backlash against Easter suicide bombings.

The 45-year-old man died shortly after admission to a hospital in Puttalam district during anti-Muslim rioting which began Sunday in the area, a police official told AFP.

“Mobs had attacked him with sharp weapons at his carpentry workshop,” the official said. “This is the first death from the riots.”

His death was reported after authorities ordered the entire country placed under a night curfew and police were ordered to use maximum force to deal with troublemakers.

Police will take stern action against rioters and constables have been issued with orders to use maximum force, Police Chief Chandana Wickramaratne warned in a televised address after rampaging mobs set fire to Muslim-owned shops and vehicles.

Homes and mosques were also vandalised by large groups of people armed with sticks and blunt weapons, police said.

The unrest was concentrated in three districts north of the capital, but a night curfew was imposed across the country to prevent the spread of violence, police said.

The latest rioting came three weeks after a string of suicide bomb attacks against three Christian churches and three luxury hotels, leaving 258 people dead and nearly 500 wounded.

– Army media

පාස්කු ඉරිදා දින කතෝලික පල්ලි කිහිපයක් සහ හෝටල් කිහිපයක් ඉලක්ක කර ගනිමින් මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදීන් පිරිසක් එල්ල කළ මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාර මාලාව නිසා මුස්ලිම් සමාජය පිළිඉඳව ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ ඇතිව තිබූ විශ්වාසය බිඳවැටී ඇති නිසා එම විශ්වාසය යළි ගොඩනඟා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් මුස්ලිම් සමාජය විසින්ම ක්‍රමවේදයක් සකස් කර ක්‍රියාවට නැංවිය යුතු බව බ්‍රිගේඩියර් අසාද් ඉසදීන් මහතා පැවසීය.

බ්‍රිගේඩියර්වරයා එසේ ප්‍රකාශ කරනු ලැබුවේ දෙහිවල ග්‍රෑන්ඩ් ජුම්මා මුස්ලිම් පල්ලියේ දී පැවැත්වූ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව දැනුම්වත් කිරීමේ වැඩසටනකදීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා යුද හමුදාව විසින් සංවිධානය කර තිබූ මෙම වැඩසටහනට කොළම දිස්ත්‍රීක් මස්ජිද් සම්මේලනයේ නිලධාරීන් මෙන්ම දෙහිවල ප්‍රදේශයේ මුස්ලිම් ප්‍රජාවද විශාල පිරිසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.
එහිදී බ්‍රිගේඩියර් අසාද් ඉසදීන් මහතා මෙසේද කීය.

මාත් එක්ක පැමිණි අනෙක් නිළධාරී ඔක්කෝම අපි අවුරුදු 25 ක් 30 ක් විතර සේවයක් තියෙන නිළධාරීන්. අපි ඇත්තටම මේකට එන්නේ දුකින්. මොකද අපි යුද හමුදාවට බැදිලා ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් එක්ක සටන් කළේ මෙම සමාජයට නැත්තන්ම් ශ‍්‍රි ලංකාවට සාමය ගේන්න. සාමය ගේන්න ලොකු කැපකිරීමක් කරා. ඉතින් මෙච්චර දුරක් ඇවිල්ලා මේ වගේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදචාදී ප‍්‍රහාරයක් මුස්ලිම් ජන සමාජය තුළින් පැමිණීම ගැන දුකයි. ඒක ඔයගොල්ලන්ට මං දන්නේ නෑ කොහොම තේරුණාද කියලා. නමුත් තේරුම් ගන්න කාලය ඇවිත්. අපි මෙච්චර වෙලා කතා කරපු ඒවා අහගෙන හිටියේ අපේ දුක විතරයි. නමුත් අපි අර මැරෙච්ච 250 දෙනොගේ  ඒගෝල්ලන්ගේ දූවරු අම්මලා තාත්තලාගේ දුක ඔයගොල්ල දන්නේ නැද්ද ඒක තමා මට තියෙන දුක.

ඉතින් මෙතන ඇවිල්ලා ඔයගොල්ලන්ගේ අමාරුකම් හිතන්න එපා. අර 250 දෙනා ගැන පොඩ්ඩක් හිතන්න. ඒගොල්ල ගැන දුක් වෙන්න. ඒගෝල්ල ගැන තැකීමක් තියන්න. මම මේ අවුරුදු 30 ගණනක් තිස්සේ  යුද්ධ කරලා වැඩක් නැහැනේ. මුස්ලිම් නිළධාරීන් වශයෙන් ඒ සාමය අපිට ගේන්න බැරිනම්. අපි ඇවිල්ලා මුස්ලිම් සමාජය මේ ලංකාවේ අවුරුදු 1000 කට විතර එහා ගිය සමාජයක්. ඒගොල්ලන් කරපු වැඩ කොටස මුස්ලිම් සමාජය විසින් මේ ලංකාවට කරපු වැඩ  කොටස ඉතාම විශාලයි. රජ කාලයේ පටන් රජ්ජ්රුවොත් එක්ක එකතුවෙලා මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් හොඳක් කරා. ඊට පස්සේ ආවා නිදහස වෙනුවෙන් අපේ කට්ටිය ලොකු වැඩ කොටසක් කරා.

ඊට පස්සේ අවුරුදු 30 ක් යුද්ධයක් ආවා. ඒක වෙනුවෙන් අපේ නිළධාරීන්, සොල්දාදුවන් සටන් කෙරුවා . විශාල සේවාවක් කරා. ඊට ප්සසේ මේ ඔක්කොම මේ අප්‍රේල් 21 දින සිදු වූ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරයෙන් මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදීන් විසින් එල්ල කරන ලද ප්‍රහාරයෙන් ඔක්කොම මැකිලා යනවා. දැන් අපේ විස්වාසයක් නෑ. මේ සමාජයේ අපි මුස්ලිම් කතා කරන්න. අපි කොච්චර සුදු ඇන්දත් අපි කොච්චර වැඩ කරත් අපිට මුස්ලිම් සමාජය කෙරෙහි විස්වාසයක් නෑ. ඉතින් ඒක දැන් විස්වාසය ගොඩ නගන්න ඕනෑ කාලයක් මේක. යුද්ධ හමුදාධිපතිතුමා කියන්නේ දැන් විස්වාසය ගොඩ නගන්න  ඔය ගොල්ලන් ගිහින් කථා කරන්න සමාජයත් එක්ක එකතු වෙන්න කියලා. අඩුපාඩු තියෙනවානම් ඒවා හදාගන්න කියලා. ඒකට තමයි අද මම මෙතනට ආවේ. ඒක විශාල රාජකාරීයක් මට ඒ වගේම ඔයගොල්ලන්ටත්. මේ ශ්‍රි ලංකාව කියන්නේ එක ජාතියක්.

මේ රටේ  ජන කොට්ඨාස රාශීයක් තියෙනවා. සිංහල,මුස්ලිම්,දෙමළ ඒ වගේම ක්‍රිස්තියානී අය වගේම තවත් විශාල ජන කොට්ඨාසයන් ඉන්නවා. ඒ ඔක්කොම අපි එක සහෝදරයෝ සහෝදරියෝ වගේ එක සමාජයක ඉන්නේ. ඉතින් මේක යාම්තාක් දුරකට අපෙන් ඈත් වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. ඉතින් ඒකට පිළියමක් යොදන්න ඕනේ ඉදිරියේදී .ඉතින් ඒකට තමයි යුද්ධ හමුදාධිපතිතුමා කිව්වේ කතා කරලා මේ ගැන දැනුවත් කරන්න කියලා. අපි ඔක්කෝටම වගකීමක් තියෙනවා මේ රට ගැන. මේ වෙච්ච මිලේච්චජ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරය මුස්ලිම් සමාජය විදිහට අපිට බැරි වුනා ඒක නවත්ත ගන්න. ඒක තමයි දුක.මම කාත්තන්කුඩි ගියා. ඒ ගියපු වේලාවේ ඔය සහාරන් කියන ත්‍රස්තවාදියා ගැන කතා කරා.එහේ කට්ටිය ඔහු ගැන කිව්වේ එයා පොඩි කාලේ ඉදලම රැඩිකල් අන්තවාදී අදහස් තිබුණ කෙනෙක් කියලයි. එයාගේ ලොකුම ප්‍රශ්නේ තිබුනේ රමනාන් මාසේ අවුරුද්ද කවද්ද තියන්න ඕනේ කියන එක තමයි එයාගේ ප්‍රශ්නේ හැමදාම ඇවිල්ලා එයා ප්‍රශ්න කරනවාලු පල්ලියේ.කවද්ද මේක තියෙන්න ඕනේ. මේක සවුදි අරාබියේ වාගේ තියෙන්න ඕනේ කියලා. ඒගොල්ලන් කියන්නෙත් නෑ මේ දවස තමයි ඒකට දීල තියෙන්නේ කියලා. ඒත් එයා කැමති වෙන දවසක තියන්න.

ඒකට එකඟ වුනේ නැති හින්ද තමයි එයා අන්තවාදයට ගිහිල්ලා එයාම එකක් හදා ගත්තේ. ඉතින් ඔයගොල්ල අපි මේ වගේ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරයක් අති වෙලත් මං දන්නෑ අපි ඔක්කොම එකතුවෙලා මේ ගැන කතා කරාද කියලා. එතන අපිට ප්‍රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා. මුස්ලිම් සමාජයේ ප්‍රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා. මේක ඇවිල්ලා අද හෙට වුණා, අප්‍රේල් 21 වුණා.තව මාස 2 කින් මේක ඉවර කරලා ඉන්න බෑ. මේක අවුරුදු දෙක තුන හතරක්වත් මේ ගැන සමාලෝචනයක් යනවා. මේක ගැන අපි කතා වෙන්න වෙනවා. අපේ විශ්වාසය දිනා ගන්න වෙනවා. ඒ කාලේ මුස්ලිම් සමාජය තමයි විස්වාසවන්තම සමාජය. අපේ ගම්වල මම ඇවිල්ලා නුවර ගම්පොල පැත්තේ. ඒ පැත්තේ මුස්ලිම් අය ගැන තියෙන්නේ හුග විස්වාසයක්. කොළඹත් එහෙමයි.ඒ කාලේ අපි ගත්තොත් එහෙම හැම දෙයක්ම මුස්ලිම් අය ගැන තමයි විස්වාසය තියෙන්නේ.

ඉතින් ඒ තිබුණ විස්වාසය අදවෙනකොට කැඩිලා තියෙන්නේ. ඒක ගොඩ නගන්න විශාල කාර්යය භාරයක් කරන්න ඕන. ඉතින් ඒ කාර්යය භාර්යය කරන්න පුළුවන් මේ අද මෙතන පැමිණිලා ඉන්න මේ උගතුන්, වැඩිහිටියන්, මට කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් නමුත් අපි කතා කරත් මේක ගිහිල්ලා යම්කිසි කෙනෙක් කළ යුතුයි. මේ සමාජය වෙනස් කළ යුතුයි. මොකද මේ අන්තවාදී හත් දෙනෙක් අට දෙනෙක් මැරුණා.තව අන්තවවාදී ඉදිරියට නොඑන්න අපි වග බලා ගන්න ඕනෑ. එක තමයි යුද හමුදාව පැත්තෙන් නැතිනම් අපේ ආරක්ෂක අංශය පැත්තෙන්  නැතිනම් ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව පැත්තෙන් බැලුවොත් එහෙම මින් ඉදිරියට මේක නොවෙන්න කේසේද වැඩ කළ යුත්තේ. කොහොමද අපි අපේ ළමයින් හදා ගත යුත්තේ. කොහොදම මෙවැනි අන්තවාදී අය අය ඇති නොවෙන්න මොකද්ද අපි ගත යුතු ක්‍රියාමාර්ගය . අපි කෙසේද වෙනස් විය යුත්තේ කොහොමද අපි අපේ පොඩි ළමයි අපේ සමාජයට ගන්නේ. කොහෙද ඒ අයට නැතිවුණේ.

දැන් අපි ගත්තොත් ත්‍රස්තවාදී හය හත් දෙනෙක් තව 10 ක් 12 ඇති.ඒ අයට සල්ලි තිබුණා.ඒ අයට යම් කිසි ප්‍රමාණයක දැනුමක් තිබුණා.නමුත් ඒ ඔක්කොම ඇතෑරලා යන්න ඒ අයට යම් හේතුවක් තියෙන්න ඇති. අන්න ඒ හේතුව අපි හොයා ගන්න ඕනෑ.ඒ හේතූව අපි සමාලෝචනය කරලා අපි ඒ ප්‍රශ්නය හරි මාර්ගයට ගන්න ඕනෑ විදියට අපි හදා ගන්න ඕනෑ.මේක අදින් ඉවර වෙයිද නැත්තම් තව කවුරුත් ඉන්නවාද කොහොමද අපි ඒ කට්ටියව හදා ගන්නේ. කියන එක අපි කවුරුත් සලකා බැලිය යුතු කරුණක්. ඉතින් අපි ඒ මිලේච්ජ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරය තරයේ හෙළි දකින අතරම අපි කවුරුත් ඒකට කැමති නෑ.

මට හරි දුකයි.නමුත් දැන් මේක වෙලා ඉවරයි.මේකෙන් පස්සේ අපි ගැන හොයන්න එපා.අපි කොහොමත් දැන් මේකට අහු වෙලා ඉවරයි.නමුත් අපේ තව පරාම්පරාවල් තියෙනවා.අපේ ළමයින් ඉන්නවා. ඒක මේ ඉදිරියට යන ගමනක්. ඒකේදී ඒ කට්ටිය හරි හරි මාර්ගයේ යන්නට හදන්න ඕන.අපේ අද ඉන්න පරම්පාරාව ඒ වැඩේ හරියට කරලා නෑ. නැත්තනම් මේ 250 දෙනෙක් මුස්ලිම් අයවළුන්නම් කමක් නෑ.අපිත් එක්ක තරහක් තියෙනවා කියලා හිතහදාගන්න තිබුණා. නමුත් මේ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරය එල්ල කළේ මුස්ලිම් සමාජයට කිසිම දේකට සම්බන්ධ නැති වෙනත් ආගමික වෙනත් ජන කොට්ඨාසයකට තමයි මේ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරය එල්ල කරේ.ඒකෙන් පේනවා ඒ කට්ටිය ගැන තියෙන අපේ අදහස් මොකද්ද කියලා ඒ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් ළග තියෙන අදහස් තමයි ඒකෙන් පෙනෙන්නේ.

ඒකෙන් අපි ඉගෙන ගතයුතු විශාල කරුණු තොගයක් තියෙනවා. ඉතින් ඒ කරුණු තොගය ඕගොල්ලන් වැඩිහිටියන් විසින් පල්ලියේ භාරකාරයන් විසින් මේ ගැන පොඩ්ඩක් හිතන්න. මේ සෑම දෙයක්ම සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ අපේ පල්ලියෙන් . මම හැම තැනටම පල්ලිවට ගිහිලා කිව්වේ ඒකයි.මෙතනින් තමයි අපි ඔක්කෝම හරි මාර්ගයට එන්නේ. එතනින් වැරදුනාම මේ වාගේ දේවල් වෙන්න පුළුවන්. ඉතින් සෑම කෙනෙක්ම මේකට අපි වැඩිහිටියන් වශයෙන් වගකීම භාර ගන්නවා වගේම ඉදිරියට එන පරම්පාරාව තරුණ පරම්පරාව අපි හදාගන්න ඕනෑ.

මේ වාගේ නැවත කිසිදිනක නොවෙන්න. මොකද ලෝක ත්‍රස්තවාදය යන එකක් නොවෙයි. ඒක ඉදිරියට තියෙන එකක්. ඉතින් ඒකට අපි සෑදී පැහැදි ඉන්න ඕනෑ ඒකෙන් බේරෙන්නේ කොහොමද කියලා. ඒකට අහු නොවී ඉන්නේ කොහොමද කියලා. ඉතින් ඒක තමයි ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව පැත්තෙන් සිදුවිය යුතු ලොකුම කරුණ.මේ එක දේකින් අපි මේ ප්‍රශ්නය මුස්ලිම් සමාජය විතරක් නෙවෙයි රටක් වශයෙන් අපි ඔක්කොම පස්සට ගියා.

ඉතින් ඔක්කොම අපි හුගක් දුරට ඒකට වග කියන්න ඕනෑ. ඉතින් ඕගොල්ල හිතල බලල මේක කථා කරන්න.මේක ඇත්තටම මම අපි හමුදාවේ හමුදාධිපති විසින් කිව යුතු කරුණු නොවෙයි. ඕගොල්ලන් එකතු වෙලා මේ වගේ ජන කොට්ඨාසයක් මේ වගේ සමති ටික එකතු වෙලා මේක කතා කරලා තියෙන්න ඕනෑ.මේ ගැන කතා කරලා මේකෙන් ගත යුතු කරුණු මොනවාද කියලා දැන ගන්න ඕනෑ.එතැනත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා .

බෙදීම් බලන්න.ඒ කට්ටිය අතරේ තියෙන බෙදීම් එතන තියෙනවා ෂියා කණ්ඩායම් සුන්නි කණ්ඩායම් ඉන්නවා, සුන්නි කණ්ඩායම් අතරෙත් ඉන්නවා උලමා එතකොට තවුහිත් ජමාත් , ජහිරා එතකොට ජිහාරම් පාට්ටි කියලා ඉන්නවා මේ ඔක්කොම තියෙන්නේ බෙදීම්.ඒකෙන් තමයි ඇතිවෙන්නේ, අර මනුෂ්‍යත් ඒ ත්‍රස්තවාදියාත් කරේ යම් කිසි තැනකින් බෙදීමක් ගත්තා . ඊට පස්සේ කඩාගෙන ගියා. ගිහිල්ලා එයාගේ ඒ අන්තවාදී අදහස් ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න පටන් ගත්තා.

ඉතින් මෙතනදී එකක් කිව යුත්තේ මම ඊයේ පෙරේදා දැක්කා පාකිස්ථානයේත් මේ ප්‍රශ්නේම තමයි තියෙන්නේ.පකිස්ථානයේත් ෂියා මිනිස්සන්ට ගහනවා ඒ පැත්තෙන් කාදියා අයට ගහනවා.ඔතන ඒ ප්‍රශ්නේ. අපි කොහොමද කියන්නේ ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ ඊමාන් එකේ තත්වේ මොකක්ද ඒගොල්ලන් මුස්ලිම් ද නැත්ද කියන්නේ මොකක්ද අන්ත් කට්ටිය කොහොමද කියන්නේ මෙයා වැරදියි මෙයා වැරදියි කියලා.මම ඉගන ගත්ත දේ තමයි යුද්ධෙදිත් ඉගෙනගත් දේ තමයි මගේ ඊමාන් (විශ්වාසය) එක තියෙන්නේ මගෙයි දෙවියන් අතරෙ විතරයි.අනිත් කට්ටි ඒකට අදාල නෑ.

තව කෙනෙක්ගෙ ඊමාන් එක මෙයාගේ හොදයි මෙයාගේ නරකයි කියලා කියන්න ගියාම තමයි මේ තත්වේ ඇති වෙන්නේ .ඉස්ලාම් කියන්නේ සාමයේ පණියවිඩය මුවසලසමතුමා ඇවිත් කිව්වේ සාමය හැම එක්කෙනාටම .හැම කෙනාම සාමයෙන් බලන්න කිව්වා නමුත් අපි ඒක කරනවද කියලා මේ පල්ලියේ ඉන්න හැම එක්කෙනාම හිතලා බලන්න.අපිට කාටවත් අත දික් කරන්න බෑ.

තව කෙනෙක් දිහා බලලා ප්‍රශ්න අහන්න නෙවි. ඉතින් පළවෙනි එක තමයි වෙනස් වෙන්න පුළුවන් කෙනෙක්ගෙ ඊමාන් එක එක එක මට්ටමට හිතලා එක එක විදිහට හදා ගන්න පුඵවන්.නමුත් එක් ඒ ගොල්ලන්ගේ අල්ලාහ් දෙවියන් එක්ක තියන සම්බන්ධතාවය .ඉතින් අපි පළවෙනියට හිතන් ඕනේ අපි මුස්ලිම් සමාජය එකමුතු වෙන් ඕනේ ඔක්කෝම .ඒඅනුව එකතු වුනාම අනිත් ප්‍රශ්න ඔක්කොම දෙවියන් බේර ගත්තදෙන්. ඉතින් ඒ එකමුතුකම තියෙන් ඕනේ.එතකොට ත්‍රස්තවාදි අන්තවාදීන්ට එන්න බෑ. මොකද දන්නවාද එතකොට දන්නවා අපි එකට කියලා .

ඒක පළවෙනි එක.මාත් ඉතින් පල්ලි ගියාම ජමාත් එකේ කියලා කියනවා.  ප්‍රශ්නෙවෙලා තියෙන්නේ ලංකාවේ ප්‍රශ්නෙ නෙවි. ප්‍රශ්නෙවෙලා තියෙන්නේ පලස්තීන ප්‍රශ්නයත් අපේ ප්‍රශ්නයක් සිරියානු ප්‍රශ්නයත් අපේ ප්‍රශ්නයක්.යේමනේ ප්‍රශ්නයත් අපේ ප්‍රශ්නයක්.ඉරාකෙත් අපේ ප්‍රශ්නයක් . මේ ප්‍රශ්නවලට උත්තරයක් තියනවා අල්ලාහ් දෙවියන් ළග.ඉතින් අපි දෙවියන්ට විශ්වාසය තිබ්බා නම් ඒ ඔක්කොම සමතයටකට පත් වෙනවා.මේක කළ යුතුයි. නැත්නම් මින් ඉදිරියටත් මේ වගේ පොඩි පොඩි ප්‍රශ්න වෙනවා. අපේ සමාජේ සිංහල ,දෙමළ, ක්‍රිස්තියානි මේ හැම එක්කෙනාම අපිට ආදරෙයි. මම අද මෙතෙන්ට ඇවිත් කතා කරන්නේ  මට මුස්ලිම් කවුරුත් හිටියේ නෑ මෙව්වර දුරක් අවුරුදු තිහක් යුධ හමුදාවේ ඉදලා මං යුද්ධ කරනකොට මාව බලා ගත්තේ මුස්ලිම් අය නෙවි.

සිංහල සොල්දාදුවො. අපේ මුස්ලිම් අය හුගාක් අඩුයි. අපේ සමාජේ වගකීම මොකක්ද කියලා අපිම බලා ගන්න ඕන. මේවගේ ප්‍රශ්නයකට එකට මූණ දෙන්න  ඕන .අපි ඊළග ප්‍රශ්නෙ දාන්නේ අපේ පල්ලිවල.අද පල්ලි ගත්තම තියෙන්නේ හරියට පාවිව්වි කරන්නේ දවස් හතරයි මාසෙටම. සිකුරාද දවසෙ පල්ලියම පිරිලා තියෙනවා ඊට පහුවෙනිදා බලන්න මුලු පල්ලියම හිස්.දැන් ඇමරිකාව වගේ රටක පල්ලියක් එහෙම හදන්න බෑ .එතැන්ට මිනිස්සු එන් ඕනේ.ඇවිත් එක පාවිව්වි කරන්න ඕන.මේ වගේ අවස්තාවකදීවත් එකතු වෙලා කතා කරන්න තැනැක් නෑ .

කවුරුත් එන්නෙත් නෑ. මේ වගේ තැනක් හදන්න කියන්නේ පාවිව්වි කරන්න.අපි ජන කොට්ටාශත් එක්ක හැසිරෙන්න ඕන.අපි  සිංහල අවුරුද්දට ගිහින් එගොල්ලෝ එක්ක සෙල්ලමක් කරන්න ඕන.මේවා හැදෙන්න ඕන මේවා තමයි යතාර්තය.ඔය ප්‍රශ්නෙම ආවා මූතුර්වලත් හමුදාවේ කට්ටිය බල්ලොත් එක්ක පල්ලිය ඇතුලට ඇවිත් මේවා කරා කියලා. මම ඒකට උත්තරයක් දුන්නා.ඕ ගොල්ලෝ මේ ගැන හොයලා බලන්න ඇයි මේක වෙයන්නේ කියලා. මේක පළවැනි එක නෙවෙයි. ග්‍රීස් යකාගෙන් පටන් ගත්ත ගමන් හැමදාම මොකක් හරි වෙනවා. මෙතනන් එහාට මොකක් වෙයිද  කියලා හොයලා බලන්න ඕන. අපි සමාජයත් එක්ක එකතු වෙන්න ඕන සමාජයත් එක්ක ගැවසෙන් ඕන.සමාජේ විස්වාසය දිනා ගන්න ඕන. මේ සමාජේ හැම එක්කෙනාම අපේ සහෝදරයෝ .ඒ නිසා මේ වගේ දෙයක් මින් ඉදිරියට වෙන්න බෑ.ඉතින් අපිට ලොකු වගකීමක් තියනවා මේ සමාජේ ගැන.ඉතින් ඒ වගකීම අපි ඉෂ්ඨ කරන්න ඕන මුස්ලිම් සමාජයක් හැටියට.  යැයි බ්‍රිගේඩියර් අසාද් ඉසඩීන් මහතා පැවසීය.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The Easter Sunday terror attacks done by Islamic terrorists in Sri Lanka consider as a barbaric aggression by Islamic terrorists against a peaceful nation and no religion in the world based on the concept of taweed (There is no God, but Allah himself) would not support for such a barbaric attack and many Islam devotees condemn the attacks.  After this barbaric attack, several significant issues emerged in Sri Lanka and they should be publicly discussed and debated without political alignments. I would like to present the issues point by point to consider.

• After the barbaric Islamic attack, security forces in Sri Lanka checked Islamic Mosques and houses, and found many swords and offensive weapons, which are banned in Sri Lanka in terms of the Offensive Weapons Act.  Legally it is very clear that no one can keep in hand such weapons and it is a criminal act if any person or an organization keep offensive weapons. The law indicates that such offensive weapons could be displayed in a shop but cannot keep such weapons in hands. I saw a statement of Mr. A.M. Ameen, the leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Council that offensive weapons were kept in Muslim Mosques and houses to safeguard girls. What was the legal provision he was talking about?  The criminal law of Sri Lanka clearly prohibits keeping offensive weapons for any reason and this law is effective in the country since independence.  In this environment, how the president of Sri Lanka considers this offense as a simple activity.   If any person in Sri Lanka needs a weapon for personal security, he or she can get a gun after obtaining a legally valid permit from the government.
• Could Sri Lanka allow only one religious group to violate the law of the country ignoring other religious groups? The law of a country provides justice to all citizens and why the government doesn’t consider giving justice to all citizens?  The law of Sri Lanka is applicable to all communities without except to any.
• Does Saudi Arabia or any other Muslim country allow to violate criminal law provisions in the name of religion or Allah?  The answer to these questions is no and why the Muslim community in Sri Lanka attempts to violate the law, which is not allowed in any Muslim country? In this connect it is quite important that many Muslim people condemn the terror attacks and attempted to express that terror attacks were not authenticated by the Islam religion in Sri Lanka.
• There are personal laws such as Muslim Law, Thesawalamai law, Buddhist Vihara and Property law and Kandyan Law. These laws are allowed in Sri Lanka considering human rights and the common law provisions in Sri Lanka clearly indicate that no personal laws in Sri Lanka can violate the rights of any citizen of the country.  However, it seems that legal provisions in relation to Muslim Marriage and divorce in Sri Lanka contradict with the common law and why the government wants to keep such laws discriminating other citizens of the country.  Many practices of Muslim law in Sri Lanka in relation to marriage and divorce are unacceptable to the international community and the government needs to change the Muslim personal law consistent to common law practices.  
• Personal laws of Muslim and Thesavalamai use to discriminates women, children and lower caste people in Sri Lanka. It is a violation of Human right convention of the United Nations.  Why the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations in Geneva did not question or focus on this issue.  Is this international organization playing politics in Sri Lanka than performing the role assigned by the United Nations?
• As Rt Rev Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith publicly stated some politicians and individuals have unduly enriched in the country.  Did these people pay a fair share of tax to the government? In terms of the Land Reform Commission Act in 1972, a person can hold only 50 acres, but it is reported that certain personnel hold more than 50 acres and how did such transactions legally register.  Why is the government not investigating the issues and punish responsible persons?
• Did the unduly enriched people engage in money laundering activities? Why the government is not engaging in the investigation?
• Education is a national activity of Sri Lanka.  The primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka is a government role or government supervised role. How can deviate from such role allowing Madrasa and other higher education institutions disregarding law and regulation of the country? The  Curriculum in primary and secondary education must be approved by the Department of Education and how private organizations offer different curriculum without government approval?

The national reconciliation process began after 2015 was mythical acting against the United Nations’ accepted universal human rights and advocates of the yahapalana regime didn’t question about the dishonest process.

As a religion Islam contains vital philosophical views such as sakaat (Muslims who have money give 1/40 to people, siyam (fasting during the Ramadan) and salaat (pray five times a day) etc. Any religion, which is peaceful has a right to exist and if Muslim devotees consider that non-believers should be killed, it is unacceptable philosophy and such a religion would not exist because it is discharging criminal acts, which are subject to prosecution and punishment.    

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

12.5.2019.

See how arrogant these Muslim leaders are. Isn’t it   a situation where the tail wagging the dog. I put the entire blame squarely on all Sinhala politicians who have miserably failed to build up the status of the Sinhala Nation and consolidate their dignity and rightful place on this land of the Sinhala race, in their crazy chase after minority votes  for power ever since 1948.

සෑම මුස්ලිම් නිවසකම කඩු තිබෙනවා.. ඒ ගැහැණු දරුවන් රකින්නයි.. ජමිතුල් උලමා කියයි..

සෑම මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයෙකුගෙන් නිවසකම කඩුවක් තිබෙන බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කවුන්සිලය නායක එන්.එම්. අමීන් මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

සමස්ථ ලංකා ජමියතුල් උලමා සංවිධානය විසින් කොළඹදී කැදවි තිබූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී ඔහු කියා සිටියේ එම කඩු ආදිය තබාගෙන සිටින්නේ ආත්මාරක්ෂාවට බවයි.

විශේෂයෙන්ම නිවෙස් වල සිටින ගැහැනු දරුවන් ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට මෙම කඩු තබාගෙන සිටින බවද ඔහු කියා සිටියේය.

කඩුවක් නිවසේ තිබූ පමණින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සාධාරණ නැතැයි කී ඔහු ජනාධිපතිතුමන් ද මේ බව දන්වා ඇතැයි සඳහන් කළේය.”

මේකනම් රටේ නියම තත්වය එතකොට කඩු  ලක්ස විස්සක් රට පුරාම මුන් එක රෑක සිහල දෙමල මිනිසු නිදාගෙන සිටිද්දි ඔක්කොම් උනත් කපලදාන්ට බෑරිද

එතකොට පල්ලියේ කඩු ගෝනියින්ගනන් තිබ්බේ කාගේ ගෑනුලමඉ රකින්ටද?උලමාගේ ගෑනුලමයින්ද නෙතිනම්  අල්ලාගෙ ගෑනුලමයින් රකින්ටද?

මේක නිකන් අර කිතුල්ගහේ ගිය මිනිහාගේ කතාව වගේම නේද?මටනම් පෙනෙන විදියට නම් මුන් මේ සුදානම් උනේ මුලු රටම අල්ලන්ට.එහෙම කරලා මුලු රටටම උලමා අන්ඩලවන්ටනේද  බලාපොරුත්තු උනේ.

Doesn’t this clearly shows that the danger is beyond comprehension

Why doesn’t this stupid Government declare possessing these swords, axes, mallets, mattocks  and knives and all similar weapons by any Muslim as illegal and take over all of them and charge them for possessing illegal weapons and whatever other crimes for which they could be charged. If on the other hand this government is not going to ban and declare that it is a serious offence to possess them and take them over and charge them  or else give at least one gun to every Sinhala and Tamil house and immediately in this country for them to protect their lives.

Although ජමිතුල් උලමා ‘s version is this, according to Abdul Saleem of Harispattuwa the Minister of Muslim affairs  these swords are stocked for grass cutting and according to Asad Sali Sirisena’s Governor WP every Muslim house has a sward to protect girls. His bulla again Sirisena’s Governor EP does not say either of these purpose though he also justifies possession of swards by Muslims, because he knows they are meant to slaughter  Sinhala people.

In this backdrop it is crystal clear that all these fellows are one well organized gang of criminals. As such their elimination is a must to bring this country back to normalcy. In order to reach this target the president should immediately sack his two Muslim Governor, (Hisbulla and Asad Sali), the Minister of Muslim Affairs and arrest them along with ජමිතුල් උලමා and fully disarm all Muslims who are planning a massive jihard all over the country and initiate action against all culprits. If Ranil obstructs it then sack him as well and initiate action against his as well in the same manner.

Looking at the way the President has failed even to issue the gazette banning Muslim terror organization Thahith Jamad for two weeks, and the Presidential order issued on April 29^th under sec 5 of the Public Security Ordinance the order banning Thavhith Jamad is not included. Also I read that in another gazette issued there were 23 mistakes. We know there is no point in asking the President to do this as he will never do anything to dissatisfy Muslims as he is dreaming of their votes although he will never get a single vote from them.

Whether he likes it or not the whole country wants him to take penal action against these Muslim terrorist immediately lest it escalate any further. O All Sri Lankans know our President is only a talking machine confined to his own world of self- delusion and as Sarath De Alwis  (Colombo Telegraph 12 5 2019) has quite correctly said he has got reduced to a Dead Man Walking.

The general public is asking the most pertinent question as to how you justify keeping Rev Galabodaatte Hammuduruvo in jail so long for a trifle issue while Ulamas and Muslim Ministers and Governors who have taken to arms and openly justify for keeping them with them and admit they have swards in all Muslim houses and Mosques and waged war against the State and the Sinhala nation who are the real Bhumiputras of this country are left free. They even write to you challenging right of the government to take them over and take action against them. They claim they have a right to keep such weapons with them and ask for permission permission to keep them where they are.

Mr President and PM if you duo fail to take action against all Muslims involved in this well organized massacre with many more to follow and try to protect them to get their votes, please remember the Sinhala voters will put you to the dust bin of history at the next election, if they are fortunate live to vote.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

The Lankaweb  published the first part of this series on February 8, 2019.  In its last para we identified ” Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe  by far the most shrewd  and intelligent politician of Sri Lanka.” 

MINISTRY OF LAW AND ORDER- UNDER RANIL

Since the formation of the Government, Ranil Wickremasinghe or his UNP colleagues held the role of Law and Order.  Ranil himself held it for couple of months and then relegated to his erstwhile friend Sagala Ratnayake and then to Ranjith Madduma Bandara.

During this period Ranil dismantled the intelligence network, downgraded its manpower, experienced Officers were transferred to other Divisions in addition to arresting  and jailing them.  Most of them are still behind bars, with no sign of legal action being instituted. 

Ranil did all this ground work to satisfy LTTE diaspora, the West, the Indian political mafia and Muslim minorities.  At the time the Ministry was removed from him, the Ministry was virtually defunct.

MINISTRY OF LAW AND ORDER-UNDER MAITHREE:

Maithreepala took over the Ministry on 1 November 2018. Just couple of days before taking over the Ministry, the President appointed Mr Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister.

RANIL’S ANGER:

The loss of powerful Ministry of Law and Order and the appointment of Mahinda Rajapakse, did not go down well in the books of Master Mind Ranil Wickremasinghe.  He became the Prime Minister again, yet without the Ministry of Law and Order.

ATTACK ON CHURCHES:

On 21 April 2019, the Churches were attacked, whilst President Sirisena was holidaying and shopping for his son’s wedding.  Ranil escaped to Nuwaraeliya for a holiday, instead of going to his famous downsouth destinations off Baddegama. 

MOTIVES:

I.                    Since the attack on Churches and killing hundreds of innocent worshippers, Ranil used the opportunity to blame the President  as he was the Minister. 

II.                  Advocating that President is incapable of holding the role of Ministry of Law and Order, Ranil, his kiths and kins are now gearing up for a political promotion for convicted criminal Sarath Fonseka.

III.                Without Tamils and Muslims support, Ranil is a political pedestrian.  Therefore, he will use his skills of political manoeuvre to retain the position of Prime Minister and destroy Maithreepala politically. 

The Bond Scam, the failure to bring back Arjun Mahendran, the alleged coup to assassinate the President Maithreepala and the former Defence Secretary, the 21 April attack on Churches by Muslim Terrorists  may not be mere coincidences.

Dilrook Kannangara

Fighting Tamil terrorists and Muslim terrorists are two different things.

1. (During the war) Tamils were a net economic burden to the nation.

Over 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils lived in the north and the east but a very small amount of tax was paid by them. Their expenses were enormous. A massive number of taxpayer funded schools, a large number of Tamil university students (far more than 12.8% their ethnic percentage then), very high free medical cost, free fertilizer, free food, etc.

The more the dead and emigrated, the lesser the recurring economic burden on the economy as tax payers were extremely few in the north. (Sorry, economic realities don’t play catch-up with morality).

This is not the case with Muslims. They make a net positive contribution to the economy and less tax money is drawn by them for education, healthcare, higher education, etc. (for whatever reason). Therefore inevitable disruption of Muslims’ economy in a conflict has an adverse impact on the nation.

2. India (the main sponsor of Tamils) doesn’t provide any economic benefit to Sri Lanka. In fact, India is a net economic drain on Sri Lanka. So if India imposed sanctions, etc. It would have benefited Sri Lanka! Even in India only 6% of the population is Tamil. So whatever happened in Sri Lanka to Tamils mattered a little to India.

However, OIC countries are providing Sri Lanka over $7 billion net gains. They are at the heart of this conflict and they stand up for each other of the Muslim community. If Sri Lanka gets them off side, that is the end of the nation and the economy of the Sinhala community. Almost 100% of these countries’ population is Muslim.

3. The distribution is another factor. Over 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils live/d in the north and east. The north is/was almost 100% Tamil only. The collapse of the northern economy didn’t impact Sinhalese and Muslims. But Muslims are everywhere. The collapse of their economy affects all.

4. Although Tamil terrorists maintained links with other terrorist groups and nations, it was limited. Muslim terrorists are very tightly linked to at least 50 similar terrorist groups around the world.

5. Muslims are far more integrated to the Sri Lankan society than Tamils economically and politically. No Tamil politician is voted by Sinhalese but plenty of Muslim politicians are voted into parliament by Sinhalese. e.g. Imitiyas, Marikkar, Cader, Fowzi, Aboosally, Hameed, MH Mohammad, Hasheem, Musammil.

Muslim businessmen sponsor many community events benefiting all.

Uprooting Muslim terrorists has collateral damage and the impact seeps into the entire Lankan community. Self-isolated Tamil community didn’t have any such impact.

For these reasons we must be extra careful in handling this. We cannot exterminate Muslim terrorists as easily (and as least costly) as we exterminated Tamil terrorists.  

However, it must be done. That’s why a very clever strategy is needed that saves the economy and the nation both at the same time.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 12: Ven.Athuraliye Rathana Thera, Jathika Hela Urumaya leader and a National List Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, has brought out a document on a comprehensive plan to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is believed to have inspired or directed the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on April 21.

Produced in the name of Sri Lanka National Council (SLNC), the document was released late last week in the presence of religious leaders including Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.

It begins by saying that it is important to realize, first and foremost, that the ISIS is not similar to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and that the methods developed to fight the LTTE cannot be blindly applied to the fight against the ISIS.

The LTTE was fighting for a piece of territory where the Tamils would rule themselves, but the ISIS is a global organization aimed at converting the entire world to Islam by force of arms. It tentacles are spread across the world and it strikes in various parts of the world.

The roots of the ISIS are in global oil politics and not in Sri Lanka per se. The scope of the ISIS being global, Sri Lanka will have to join the global war against the ISIS.

While this calls for Sri Lanka’s cooperation with the West it should do so without surrendering its national independence, the document says. Intelligence should be shared with the West and other countries involved in the fight, but prudently without giving the recipient country a foothold in Sri Lanka.

To gain the confidence of the West and India, Sri Lanka should have prudent and measured relations with China. According to the document, Sri Lanka is in danger of being dominated by China economically. At the same time, Sri Lanka should see that it does not come under the political domination of India and the military domination of the West, it adds.

The SLNC urges the government to opt for sustainable development rather than just development measured in terms of the GDP. The latter strategy has landed Sri Lanka in debt.

There should be less dependence on imported oil and coal and more on renewable sources of energy. This will obviate the need for excessive dependence on foreign investments and foreign funding, the document says.

To secure Sri Lanka from the stranglehold of foreign countries, ports and airports should not be handed over to foreign entities and the plan to build a corridor between Colombo and Trincomalee with foreign assistance should be abandoned.

The document cautions against going overboard in accepting international help to fight the ISIS as that would only further weaken the country and erode its independence in the long run.

The document said that while in the case of the LTTE, the then opposition supported it, in the case of the ISIS, support is coming from a section of the government itself.

This is because of electoral alliances and sharing of power with some pro-extremist parties necessitated by the proportional representation system. The SNC proposes a new electoral system which will obviate the need for such alliances with minor communal parties and enable a single party to form a stable government.

Apart from taking stringent action against persons involved in extremist activities, the government should promote national unity and moderation in civil and religious thought and action.

Towards this end, denominational schools should be replaced by multi-religious schools. Co-education should be insisted upon. Extremist and fundamental teachings should be banned. On the other hand there should a compulsory course of study in inter-religious harmony.

There should be no religion based uniforms in schools or religion-based banking. And there should be no religion-based laws or religion based enclaves, the document says.

(The featured image at the top is that of Ven.Athuraliye Rathana Thera, MP and leader of Jathika Hela Urumaya )

GAGANI WEERAKOON Courtesy Ceylon Today

While noting that there are various regional and world powers trying to take advantage of the current situation, due to the strategic and geographical importance of Sri Lanka’s location, Army Commander Lt. General Mahesh Senanayake vouched that he will not agree to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States of America.

How can we sign such an agreement? We can’t agree to what is stated in it. That is like committing suicide after writing all my properties to someone else,” he said.

The alleged plans by the Government to sign the SOFA agreement with the USA has drawn much criticism from various political parties and interested groups, who opined that it poses a severe threat to the country’s sovereignty.

SOFA agreement allegedly contains clauses which undermines domestic rule of law and tax and there was no reciprocity.

The US had requested that US military personnel be subject to US law when they are in Sri Lanka, several Opposition Parliamentarians alleged earlier.
There is also a request to exempt US military personnel from taxes in Sri Lanka,” JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake said.

Sri Lanka’s Customs cannot inspect them or their baggage. When Sri Lanka’s President goes to the US, is he exempt from US Customs?” he asked.
US military personnel would also be allowed to export goods purchased in Sri Lanka without questions being asked

Trip Pisso

Confession by EX-Muslim in Sri Lanka _____________________________________ ලෝකයේ ගොඩක් රටවල් වල තරුණ තරුණියන් මේ වන විට ඉස්ලාම් ආගමෙන් ඉවත් වන ප්‍රවණතාවක් දැකිය හැකිය. පහත දැක්වෙන්නේ ඉන් සමහරක් සංවිධාන වේ. Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), Council of Ex-Muslims of Bangladesh, Ex-Muslims of North America, Council of Ex-Muslims of New Zealand, ExMuslim Support Network of Australia Ex-Muslims of India Council of Ex-Muslims of Morocco CEMM مجلس المسلمين السابقين بالمغرب මෙම වීඩියෝවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලැබුවේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ Council of Ex-Muslims of Sri Lanka සංගමයේ මුස්ලිම් සහෝදරයෙකුගේ පෞද්ගලික මත සහ අදහස් බවත්, ට්‍රිප් පිස්සෝ චැනලය වන අප මේ ප්‍රකාශ වල කිසිදු වගකීමක් භාර නොගන්නා බවද කරුණාවෙන් දන්වා සිටිමු. Council of Ex-Muslims of Sri Lanka – https://www.facebook.com/groups/CEMSL… Like us on FB : https://www.facebook.com/trippisso Follow us on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/trippisso/

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

Every day we read and hear about the way tourism has suffered and how not only airlines ,hotels ,and eating houses and even tuk tuk drivers are suffering .

During one of the meeting hosted by EDB I mentioned about the problem we are facing to get insurance policies for industries .Industires are facing problems in the port,customs ,transport of raw materials and delays everywhere.We cannot get workers to report to work.Productivity at rock bottom and people are suffering due to drastic reduction of income.

Countries like Vietnam ,Cambodia ,Laos and even Indonesia had such downturns and yet they bounced back.

These countries just forgot tourism and concentrated on local production and their agriculture .

(The knives recovered should be used to make sickles and hammers ?)

Let us try to create more blue economy related industries in fishery etc .

Let us us create marinas and get local tourism in the forefront.

Government should get the bureaucracy back to work.

Install a strong minister of Local Government who can make all local state institutions get back in action.

It is time to open our eyes and look for other avenues to carry on with the life of people without talking about tourism knives swords and Facebook postings.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 11 (Reuters/News18/newsin.asia): Sri Lankan Security Forces are looking for terror-leader Zahran’s successors.

A madrassah teacher and a firebrand preacher of the Wahabi and Salafi brands of Islam in Kattankudi in Eastern Sri Lanka, Zahran Hashim had led the group of suicide bombers on April 21 and perished in the attack on Shangri-La hotel. There could be some aspirants for the leadership of the group led vacant by his death.

Lankan Army chief Lt.Gen.Mahesh Senanayake told Reuters here on Friday that there may be people who are seeking the leadership of Zahran’s group, the National Tawheed Jamaat (NTJ), and that the forces are on the look-out for these.

Our understanding is that Zahran who commanded and orchestrated the bombings. However there may be other important players linked to the militant ideology and seeking leadership,” the General said.

Trips To India

Gen.Senanayake further said the bombers had mostly used local explosives but may have also sourced some from southern India, likely Tamil Nadu.”

He said some suspects had gone to India, mainly to Kerala, Bengaluru and Kashmir for training. However, there is no reliable information on this. Investigators are still trying to determine more details around their travels, he added.

He ruled out pilgrimages as the reason for their visits to India.

Senanayake said that investigators had established that the plotters had links to Islamic State, but added that the authorities were still trying to establish how deep those contacts were.

We don’t have to worry about the situation; it is controllable, it is contained. We are quietly confident that normalcy is brought back without any second round of militant attacks.”

The attacks in churches and hotels across the Indian Ocean island on April 21 killed more than 266 people, including 44 foreign nationals.

Sri Lankan authorities have said the bombings were believed to have been carried out by two little-known domestic Islamist groups, the National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI).

Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

Definitely there is an IS link. That doesn’t mean it was a direct IS hit. But we are trying to establish how deep it is in order to plan our (military) operations,” the General said.

Offshore Links

The focus of the probe is on the plotting, funding and planning of the attacks, as well as the precise nature of the offshore links – including whether any of the explosives came from southern India, Senanayake said.

Investigators from eight countries, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, are helping Sri Lanka with the investigation.

Senanayake further said that India, China, United States, Israel, Australia and the United Arab Emirates were looking to provide high-grade military technology, including communication and surveillance equipment, to deal with future threats.

Asked to comment on a report that India’s National Security Guard commandoes were at the ready to join in any security operations in Sri Lanka, Gen.Senanayake said while respecting India’s offer of help, Sri Lanka itself has a fund of experience in tackling terrorists which it has been sharing with other countries.

By Asiff Hussein/Daily Mirror

Colombo, April 29: As recent events have shown, religious extremism is going to be the biggest challenge of our times. In every part of the world, extremists hijack religion to push their evil agendas, be it ISIS in the Middle East, Shiv Sena in India or the Bodu Bala Sena in Sri Lanka. Nor is the danger localized, as the Easter Sunday carnage showed, extremism is insidious and far-reaching with groups like ISIS spreading their menacing tentacles to other parts of the world including our island.

Extremism very often leads to terrorism because it knows no love or compassion for the other. It is a cult based purely on hate for the other and extreme pride in one’s race or religion at the expense of the other. It flourishes because it has a foolish flock willing to follow it and is fed by extremists from the other.

What we can do about it?

Extremism is incompatible with the Islamic faith, and many were the occasions when the Prophet (PBUH) spoke against it. But there are Muslims who are certainly extremists. There is a saying that you shall know a faith by its fruit, but the truth is there are rotten fruit as well, and the fringe extremists in our community belong to this lot. The majority don’t.

However there is a big problem they have. They don’t speak out their mind in public or in social media forums. They are very reluctant to confront a firebrand hate preacher even if he engages in an utterly nonsensical, ear-splitting cacophonic verbal barrage like many of them do from the all important position of the mimbar or pulpit of the mosque during Friday service. Well surely, you don’t have to shout at him when he’s at it in the pulpit, but you can speak your mind to him after it’s over and you can tell the trustees he’s a misfit and need not be there.

The fact is that our religious scholars have not educated themselves enough to pass on the message to their flock and those of other faiths – that Islam is a religion of love and compassion that even values the life of a tiny ant. Nor can they handle the many questions that need answers today, with the result that a few lay persons have had to fill that lacuna. Thus, it is high time Muslims understood that we have a problem in the community and addressed it. Even one extremist preacher is enough to do all the damage it takes to destroy a community or nation.

For starters we need to:

1) Promote broad-minded religious teachers

Believe it or not, good religious teachers are few and far between. This holds true of Islamic preachers more than those of other faiths.

Ever heard a preacher saying how our beloved Prophet welcomed Christians to his mosque in Medina and allowed them to lodge and pray there, or how he let women visit mosques and even shortened his prayer because he heard an infant crying so as to not inconvenience its mother? Chances are you haven’t.

As such it’s imperative to breed a new generation of preachers who understand Islam in its true spirit, who can win the hearts and minds of people including those of other faiths by just talking to them. By the way, ever heard a Christian priest speak? Visit a church and listen to him, he’s following the Prophet to the word, speaking the language of mercy and humility, so soft and soothing and so very pleasing to the ear. This is exactly what we should look for in our preachers. But why look to the priest when the Prophet showed us the way!

2) Eliminate hate preachers

Just as we need to promote good preachers, we need to eliminate the bad ones. There are certainly misguided preachers among us. One has only to attend our Friday sermons to realize this. Chances are you’ll find at least one in ten, probably more, ranting and raving against people who don’t measure up to their warped ideal of a religious person, speaking ill of other faiths or busy commenting about how women are not covered up nowadays, stressing on the mundane, rather than the spiritual aspects of Islam. The state through the Ministry of Muslim Affairs must ensure that such preachers don’t have a say in the first place. Monitor them and if they overstep the bounds prohibit them from giving sermons.

The fact is that our madrasas have become breeding grounds for extremist ideas and as such need to be controlled”

3) Supervise madrasas strictly

Bad preachers are of course the product of bad madrasas, usually half-baked ones who believe that teaching students to simply recite the Qur’an or that women should go out fully covering their faces is all they need to know about Islam. I have on more than one occasion interviewed the products of these seminaries to find one suitable for outreach work for an organization I serve, only to have them say that they believed the niqab or face veil is compulsory for women, despite so much evidence in both the Qur’an and hadith literature to the contrary.

Yes, the fact is that our madrasas have become breeding grounds for extremist ideas and as such need to be controlled. It is only the strong arm of state authority that can do this. After all, how can one expect the religious authority to do this when they themselves are largely the products of such madrasas? The state must not only supervise the teachers but also draft a new set of curricula incorporating all positive teachings of Islam and eliminating sectarian and misogynist interpretations.

4) Ensure the weak-minded don’t get into our madrasas

Yes, sad to say, this is another grave problem we in the Muslim world face. Parents are only too happy to put their weak-minded offspring into these madrasas which don’t require much intelligence. Their bright ones they induce to go out to the world and make it big in lucrative, well paying jobs. This is the kind of shabby treatment we give our faith. Why not put our best minds to the madrasas, like the Christians do theirs. Did you know that the churches, both Catholic and Protestant admit only their best minds, while we persist in putting our worst to these sacred institutions.

5) Give young people the tools to think

But hold on, it’s not only the weak-minded who are the problem. As the Easter Sunday massacre showed, youth from educated, well-to-do families were also involved. What is surprising is how these boys who should have known better, were induced into joining a hate cult led by uneducated, ill-bred bumpkins. The problem is, whatever formal education one receives, there is no use if one does not have a proper family environment where true religious values are taught. We find many such people hailing from new rich families that have no proper grounding in the true spirit of Islam but rather obsessed with an overkill of ritual.

Young people also need to be encouraged to think for themselves and not be misled by extremist scholars. They need to understand that Islam is written not by the talks and doings of extremists, but already revealed to us in the Qur’an, which is the Word of God, and the exemplary conduct of His Messenger Muhammad. They need to study these sources of the faith rather than depend on preachers for their religious knowledge.

6) Don’t let extremism evolve into terrorism

The problem with extremism is it can evolve into terrorism. This is its natural course if allowed to go unchecked. So what do we do about it? Simple, we discourage extremism in its all its forms. As we all know, terrorism has no basis in Islam, but still we have extremists twisting certain Quranic verses to suit their agenda, like the so-called verse of the sword. Verses such as this are actually contextual, revealed at a time when the Pagan enemies of Islam were all out to annihilate the new faith and were revealed only as a means of accommodating a war situation. Even then, in subsequent verses toleration, security and protection of non-believers is stressed. Further, these verses can come nowhere near those verses that speak of tolerance of others and are not contextual, but perpetual.

However, extremist preachers often quote such verses out of context to propagate their evil designs, notwithstanding the fact that the Prophet of Islam and the rightly guided caliphs who followed him never forced Islam with the sword and even gave people of other faiths covenants guaranteeing their right to life, liberty and freedom of religion. So what’s important is to muzzle any preacher who shows signs of hate against others.

7) Crush terrorism ruthlessly

Terrorism has no religion and no terrorist follows a particular religion because every religion preaches against terror and harming our fellow beings. Even animals kill for a reason, but terrorists kill only for the joy of it. Therefore they cannot be human, human rights should certainly not apply to them. To put it simply, those who show no mercy should be shown no mercy.

Government must do everything in its power to wipe out this scourge, knowing well that the vast majority of Muslims, well over 99% are with them. Anybody having membership in any terror outfit or collaborating with these should be given the harshest possible sentence bearing in mind that even a simple death by hanging is too good for them. Their families if found complicit should also be penalized, given harsh jail sentences and deprived of their properties.

To start with, our authorities do have a list of names of terror suspects. These radicalised youth had been freely moving about in the community, but have now probably gone into hiding. Everything must now be done to take them into custody, interrogate them and if needs be incarcerate them and penalize them if found guilty of aiding or abetting terror. Some might say that such a course of action might ruin their future and prevent any hope of rehabilitation. However, one could counter argue that their future is already over as they have been radicalized beyond redemption and what is important now is not their future, but the future of the country as a whole.

Our image suffered badly in how we handled the Easter Sunday carnage. The past cannot be undone but we can learn lessons from it, and we can do something about it. Sri Lanka can prove to the world how the international war on terror can be won now that it has come to our shores. We won our civil war, now we can show how to win the bigger war against international terrorism.

8) Don’t ostracize Muslims, play the blame game

Last, but not least, members of other communities need to be told not to look at Muslims with a jaundiced eye or discriminate against them. This is exactly what the extremists want. They want to brainwash Muslims into believing that they have no place in a multi-cultural nation such as ours, and isolate and marginalize them, so they can easily feed our youth with their poison.

As I said earlier, one extremism feeds the other and this is what we always have to bear in mind. Muslims too are only human and have feelings and very sensitive in these times. They are angry about a crime which they had nothing to do with and are vehemently angry about it. The last thing we need to do is drive an innocent and impressionable boy or girl to the arms of a hate preacher.

(The article had originally appeared in Daily Mirror under the title: Extremism: What can we do about it?)

By Ameen Izzadeen/Daily Mirror

Colombo, May 10: The Easter Sunday terror attacks have opened the Pandora’s Box of questions on various aspects of Islam, its teachings and commands, amid an avalanche of Islamophobia, hate speech, distrust and scorn.

When the 9/11 terror attacks happened, a similar wave of Islamophobia swept the United States and the Americans began to ask questions about Islam and its alleged association with violence. Some white supremacists went to the extent of promoting nuking the Muslims.

In Sri Lanka’s mainstream and social media, a topic that was being discussed with much interest and the ridicule it rightly deserved is the reward of 72 virgins for the killers of hundreds of innocent people, including children. Does Islam preach this? Religious scholars will not be able to answer this question.

The best they could say is that the Quran, the primary source of Islamic teachings, does not say anything about 72 virgins.

True, it is not found in the Quran, which, the Muslims believe, is a compilation of the messages the Prophet received from God throughout his 23-year ministry, during which he and his followers suffered persecution, ostracisation, attacks and exile.

But the promise of 72 virgins is found in a book of Hadeeth, a term that refers to the sayings of the prophet and his traditions. Some Ulemas or religious preachers will not have the intellectual courage to admit this. This is because they still believe that Sunni Islam’s six main Hadeeth books were compiled by ‘infallible’ imams, even after modern-day Hadeeth scholars have dismissed thousands of ahadeeth — plural of hadeeth — as fake or falsely attributed to the prophet.

The so-called reward of 72 virgins is found in a hadeeth book called Jami’ al-Tirmidhi, also known as Sunan al-Tirmidhi.

Notwithstanding the presence of fake ahadeeth, both the Sunni and Shiite streams have their own canons. The Sunnis have six and the Shiites two.

It must be said here that in Islamic history, one of the biggest scandals is hadeeth literature. Islam’s first four Caliphs, who assumed leadership of the Muslim community after the prophet’s death, opposed attempts to compile the sayings of the prophet.

The first to compile a book of hadeeth was Imam Bukhari, who was born in Bukhara in Uzbekistan some 200 years after the prophet had passed away. By this time, Islam had been highly politicized with rulers misusing and misinterpreting religious teachings to consolidate their hold on power.

From the people who he met, during his 16-year travel through the Arab-Persian region, Imam Bukhari began collecting the sayings correctly or falsely attributed to the prophet. The process began when he was only 16. He collected some 600,000 ahadeeth and, sifting through this large volume, he selected only about 7,000. His students claimed the selection was made on strict criteria such as the reliability of the chain of narrators or Isnad which usually goes all the way to the time of the prophet. Imam Bukhari’s compilation came to the public domain through a disciple’s disciple, after his death.

Following Imam Bukhari, several Hadeeth collectors appeared. They claimed they adopted a similar method to select or reject the sayings attributed to the prophet.

Today, the hadeeth literature is analysed by intellectuals who say some ahadeeth are fake and incompatible with the Quran.

An enlightened and famous hadeeth scholar was Sheik Muhammad Nasir-ud-Dīn al-Albani , who died in 1999 in Jordan. He opposed extremism and did not associate himself with any school of thought. He spent his scholarly life identifying thousands of fake ahadeeth found in the so-called canons.

The learned sheikh had classified the hadeeth on 72 virgins as ‘Munkar’ which means it needs to be denounced. Hadeeth scholars acknowledge that fake ahadeeth were the creation of the Zanadiqah or the heretics, sectarian fanatics, favor seekers, storytellers, ignorant ascetics and hyper-zealous preachers.

Using modern research methodology, Muslim academics have deducted that some ahadeeth do not conform to the text and the spirit of the Quran while some contradict each other. For instance, they point out that hadeeth literature about the punishment in the grave after one’s death was contrary to the Quranic teachings, just as the carnal claim of 72 houris for the martyr.

It needs to be stressed here that, according to the Quran, those who kill innocent people while killing themselves are not martyrs, but serial killers of humanity as a whole.

Suicide bombing is a late 20th century innovation or bid’a and it needs to be rooted out from Islam, though a handful of theologians have taken pains to endorse it strictly in the context of a fight against an occupying force or an invading army.

Given the damage ISIS and its followers have caused to Islam by their un-Islamic acts, the priority for Muslim theologians today is to gear Islamic learning towards intellectualism and rational thinking.

Intellectualism demands respect for opposing views and ideas, while reason or rational thinking will enable to weed out false ahadeeth, such as the myth about the 72 virgins.

Rational thinking and intellectualism are not new to Islam. Described as the Mutazila or the rational school of Islamic theology, it flourished from the 8th to the 10th century in Iraq, the seat of the Abbasid caliphate. It was during this period that the Muslim world reached the peak of learning, making major strides in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, law, philosophy and literature.

The fall began with the emergence of the Ash’ari theology, named after its founder Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari. It grew as a counterforce to the Mutazila and soon dominated Sunni Islam, producing in its wake Jihadi Imams such as Ibn Taymiyyah, Abdul Wahab and Syed Kutub.

These imams’ teachings have become a manual for modern-day terror groups such as ISIS.

To address the multiple problems the Muslims of this country face, mainstream Muslim scholars, both religious and academic, representing different groups, need to unite to bring about a progressive Islamic theology based on the rationalist and traditionalist foundations.

This is perfectly in tune with the spirit of Islam.

In the wake of the Easter Sunday massacres, the need to de-radicalize those who are romanticizing with a dangerous and inhuman suicide ideology has become not only a security priority but also a religious responsibility upon every right-minded Muslim theologian and civic-conscious Muslim in Sri Lanka.

In Singapore, I understand, the de-radicalization process is carried out with the help of local Muslim scholars. Singapore’s state policy and surveillance systems aimed at communal harmony have also helped that nation to curb hate speech, inflammatory preaching and avert terror attacks.

(The article had appeared in Daily Mirror under the title: Mainstream Muslims must unite to about a progressive Islam)

lanka C news

2015 වසරේ සිට ඉස්ලාම් අන්තවාදය ආයුධ රැස් කිරීම් සිදු කරද්දී මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලඥයන්ට බියෙන් ආණ්ඩුව ඊට විරුද්ධ වූයේ නැති බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පූජ්‍ය අතුරලියේ රතන හිමියෝ සඳහන් කරති.

බුද්ධි අංශ විසින් මේ බව 2015 ට පෙර පටන් ම දන්වා තිබූ බව උන්වහන්සේ කොළඹදී පැවති උත්සව සභාවක් අමතමින් සඳහන් කළේය.

2016 ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉදිරියේදීම බුද්ධි අංශ මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉතා දීර්ඝ සහ පැහැදිලි විස්තරයක් කළ බවද රත්න හිමියෝ සඳහන් කළහ.

ඇමරිකාවට ඉඩම් දීම සදහා ප්‍රතිපත්ති සකස් නොකරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටින බවද කී උන්වහන්සේ ඇමරිකානු කඳවුරක් හෝ ඇමරිකානු බල කේන්ද්‍රයක් බවට ලංකාව පත් වුවොත් ඉදිරියේ දී ඉස්ලාම්අන්තවාදීන්ගෙන් දරුණු ප්‍රහාරයක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට එල්ල වෙතැයි ද තවදුරටත් කියා සිටියේය.

ALI SUKHANVER

Some people might be of opinion that the present government of Pakistan has yet not succeeded in coming up to the expectations of the people but facts and figures say that things would get better in the days to come. The Imran Khan government is neither inefficient nor incompetent; the actual problem seems the promised time-frame. People were expecting that everything shall come to the normal; there would be a lot of job-opportunities, ceaseless foreign investment, end of energy-crisis, reduction in the prices of fuel and electricity, a better law and order situation and so many other things ; just in twinkling of an eye. People were right in all their expectations, their dreams and desires were not unnatural in any way but things take time. We can never upgrade any social system by pushing an imaginary button. Up-gradation, reformation, renovation are the terms pointing towards the process of overhauling; certainly a long and time-taking process. In Pakistan, things are not as disappointing and depressing as portrayed by some of our media-men and social media activists. The situation could soon reach a better destination if we don’t let disappointment and depression hurdle our way.

Certainly the responsibility of keeping the flame of hope alive goes onto the shoulders of all those who are blessed with the power of using words in written and spoken form. Such people include teachers, religious scholars, writers, speakers, and journalists belonging to the print and electronic media. The social media activists can also play a very vibrant role in this context.  Spreading of depression and disappointment along with spreading of disinformation among the people is now-a-days being used as one of the most fatal weapons all over the world. Everywhere the hostile forces have their own specific targets and to hit these targets they adopt all fair and foul means; most frequently used of all such means is the media. Recent exploitation of a statement by Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa is the worst example of spreading disinformation.

The Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, a few days back, went to Peshawar and there he had a meeting at Corps Auditorium with students from various universities of KPK. He said talking about the negative role played by the PTM, A few individuals playing in foreign hands are by design exploiting sentiments of the people who have actually suffered at the hands of terrorism and now need care. He further said that both government and the security forces are working to address genuine issues of the tribals regardless of where they come from. One of the participants was a Sikh student from FATA who requested that he should be allowed to put a picture of Ranjit Singh in Qila Balahisar as Sikhs have ruled Peshawar during his time. Just to honour the Sikh minority, the Chief of the Army Staff acceded to that request. The students present at the moment sincerely appreciated the good-will gesture of the Army Chief and promised that they all would provide all possible moral support to the Pakistan Armed Forces. They also expressed their determination that they would never be swayed by detractors of any type. One of the students present there said, We promise to be the contributors and not by standers to bright future of Pakistan.” Certainly it was a heart-winning speech of the Army Chief but at the same time it pinched and pained a lot of groups hostile to Pakistan. On Face Book and in various Watsapp groups, these hostile forces started levying baseless allegations on the Army Chief. It was blamed that the Army Chief is promoting Punjabi culture in KPK as Ranjit Singh was a Punjabi. It was also blamed that by giving importance to a non-Muslim character of the regional history, the Army Chief is trying to protect and promote secularism in the country. The fact of the matter is that by allowing the placement of a picture of Ranjit Singh in Qila Balahisar the Army Chief meant nothing but wanted to tell the world that all minorities enjoy equal rights in Pakistan. His was a massage to the world that Pakistan is a safe land for the minorities where their desires and wishes are valued and honoured at every level. His objective was neither to promote any regional culture nor to project secularism. Pakistan Army is a uniting force for the whole nation.

There is no discrimination on the basis of any caste, creed or language in the Army as its soldiers and officers represent different linguistic and religious backgrounds. The only priority of all soldiers and of all officers of Pakistan Army is Pakistan; the Land of the Pure. The propaganda move against the Army Chief is just a childish reaction of those who didn’t like Army Chief’s remarks on the anti-state activities of the PTM. Whatever said the Army Chief with particular reference to the anti-state activities of the PTM is in fact the voice of all Pakistanis including the Pashtuns; such activities, if allowed to flourish, would simply push the country towards a hell of disintegration and degeneration. Such activities of the PTM type organizations would give birth to political instability, social anarchy and economic chaos which in no way could be affordable at this crucial juncture of our history. The nation will have to be vigilant in this regard. As far as the countries worried about Pakistan are concerned; the only suggestion for them is; just wait and see please.

By Norman Plaihawadana Courtesy The Island

All officials who received prior information about the Easter Sunday bombings but did not take any action to prevent them should be removed along with the country’s leadership, Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said at the Sunday mass at St. Lucia’s Cathedral, Kotahena, yesterday.

This mass was held to commemorate those killed in the Easter Sunday attacks and invoke blessings on the injured.

The prelate said that the Easter Sunday bombings had come as a shock to him and he was still grief-stricken like millions of others. Not only the officials who had not acted on an intelligence warning of terror attacks but also the rulers were responsible for the tragic incidents.

The cardinal added that a large number of people had been killed and injured in the attack not because of God’s will but because of the evil of men.

Those who were incapable of taking responsibility must be removed from their positions and from the leadership of the country, the Cardinal said.

He said some terrorists were still at large and they thought they could escape punishment. If they were not punished by courts, there would be divine justice. Those who failed to punish those involved in acts of terror would be punished by God.

The cardinal added that those who were trying to use the tragedy to fulfill personal gains and political agendas would also be punished by God.

The Cardinal said that he was aware that some leements were after him, too, but he was not scared. “My life belongs to the people and God and I am ready to die anytime,” he said.

A large number of relatives of the victims of the bombings attended the mass under heavy security.

Courtesy India Today

Mohamed Aliyar, 60, is the founder of the Centre for Islamic Guidance, which boasts a mosque, a religious school and a library in Zahran’s hometown of Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated city on Sri Lanka’s eastern shores.

Sources said Aliyar’s hardline views were shaped by ultra-conservative Salafi-Wahhabi texts he picked up at the Centre for Islamic Guidance’s library. (Photo: IANS)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Wahhabi Islam has its roots in Saudi Arabia and is backed by its rulers
• Salafism has often been criticised as the ideology of radical Islamists worldwide
• Aliyar was “involved” in training suicide bombers who attacked hotels, churches on Easter: Police statement

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a Saudi-educated scholar for what they claim are links with Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings, throwing a spotlight on the rising influence of Salafi-Wahhabi Islam on the island’s Muslims.

Mohamed Aliyar, 60, is the founder of the Centre for Islamic Guidance, which boasts a mosque, a religious school and a library in Zahran’s hometown of Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated city on Sri Lanka’s eastern shores.

“Information has been revealed that the suspect arrested had a close relationship with … Zahran and had been operating financial transactions,” said a police statement late on Friday.

The statement said Aliyar was “involved” with training in the southern town of Hambantota for the group of suicide bombers who attacked hotels and churches on Easter, killing over 250 people.

A police spokesman declined to provide details on the accusations.

Calls to Aliyar and his associates went unanswered. Reuters was unable to find contact details for a lawyer.

The government says Zahran, a radical Tamil-speaking preacher, was a leader of the group.

Two Muslim community sources in Kattankudy told Reuters his hardline views were partly shaped by ultra-conservative Salafi-Wahhabi texts that he picked up at the Centre for Islamic Guidance’s library around 2-3 years ago. The sources are not affiliated with the centre.

“I used to always run into him at the centre, reading Saudi journals and literature,” said one of the sources.

During that time, Zahran started criticising the practice of asking God for help, for instance, arguing that such pleas were an affront to pure Islam.

“That kind of teaching was not in Sri Lanka in 2016, unless you read it in Salafi literature,” the source added, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions in Kattankudy.

Salafism, a puritanical interpretation of Islam that advocates a return to the values of the first three generations of Muslims and is closely linked to Wahhabism, has often been criticised as the ideology of radical Islamists worldwide.

Wahhabi Islam has its roots in Saudi Arabia and is backed by its rulers, although Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has committed the kingdom to a more moderate form of Islam.

Other than the fact that Zahran visited the centre, the sources in Kattankudy said they did not know of any personal ties between him and Aliyar.

Aliyar founded the centre in 1990, a year after he graduated from the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, in what one resident said marked a key moment in the spread of Salafi doctrine in Kattankudy. The centre was partly funded by Saudi and Kuwaiti donors, according to a plaque outside.

TROUBLEMAKER

Reuters spoke to three members of the centre’s board before Aliyar’s arrest. They asked to remain anonymous, citing security concerns amid a backlash against some Muslims.

They said Zahran was a troublemaker and that they had warned authorities about his extremist views. The members said they thought Zahran frequented the library around a decade ago, but had no recollection of him visiting recently and denied that any of its books were to blame for his views.

Funding for the centre came from local donations, student fees, and private donors who were classmates of Aliyar’s in Riyadh, the centre’s sources said. Reuters was unable to immediately determine further details about the funding of the centre.Also read | Sri Lanka bombings aftermath: Public urged to surrender swords, knivesAlso read | Could Islamic State attack India?Watch | Islamic preachers visit Hyderabad church to express solidarity

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/saudi-educated-religious-scholar-arrested-for-links-to-sri-lanka-easter-bombings-1523154-2019-05-12

Courtesy Reuters

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Several dozen people threw stones at mosques and Muslim-owned stores and a local man was beaten in the town of Chilaw on Sri Lanka’s west coast on Sunday in a dispute that started on Facebook, sources told Reuters.

Three weeks ago in Sri Lanka Islamist bombers blew themselves up in four hotels and three churches, killing more than 250 people. Since then Muslim groups say they have received dozens of complaints from across the country about people being harassed.

A police curfew has been imposed in Chilaw Police area with immediate effect until 6 a.m. tomorrow to control the tense situation,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told Reuters. The police later said the curfew would be lifted at 4 a.m.

A screenshot of the alleged Facebook exchange seen by Reuters showed a user had written in Sinhalese It is difficult to make us cry” and added a local slur against Muslim men.

A Facebook user identified as Hasmar Hameed, whom two locals said was the man later arrested, replied in English: Dont laugh more 1 day u will cry.”

Authorities said they arrested the author of a Facebook post, identifying him as 38-year-old Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hasmar. Locals in Chilaw, a majority Christian town, said Hasmar’s post was interpreted as menacing and an angry crowd beat him.

Reuters was unable to determine what the original conversation was about or to contact Hasmar for comment.

Later they pelted stones at three mosques and some Muslim-owned shops. Now the situation has calmed down, but we are scared of the night,” said one local Muslim man who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

One mosque suffered extensive damage, he said. Video footage circulating online shows several dozen young men shouting and throwing stones at a clothes store called New Hasmars, which locals said belonged to Hasmar.

Some communities say they are fearful that the government, which failed to act on successive warnings about looming Islamist attacks, has not caught all potential militants.

A week ago in Negombo, where more than 100 people were killed during Easter prayers, a violent clash erupted between local Muslims and Christians after a traffic dispute.

Unlike after the Negombo clashes, the Sri Lankan government did not impose a ban on social media platforms on Sunday.

Courtesy  The South China Morning Post 

• Ultraconservative Salafi-Wahhabi Islam, which has its roots in the Middle Eastern kingdom, has been taking root among the South Asian island’s Muslims

The flag of Saudi Arabia. Photo: APSri Lankan authorities have arrested a Saudi-educated scholar for what they claim are links with Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings, throwing a spotlight on the rising influence of Salafi-Wahhabi Islam on the island’s Muslims.Mohamed Aliyar, 60, is the founder of the Centre for Islamic Guidance, which boasts a mosque, a religious school and a library in Zahran’s hometown of Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated city on Sri Lanka’s eastern shores.

Information has been revealed that the suspect arrested had a close relationship with … Zahran and had been operating financial transactions,” said a police statement late on Friday.

The statement said Aliyar was involved” with training in the southern town of Hambantota for the group of suicide bombers who attacked hotels and churches on Easter, killing more than 250 people.

Officials inspect the site of an explosion at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo on April 21. Photo: ReutersShare:

A police spokesman declined to provide details on the accusations. Calls to Aliyar and his associates went unanswered.

The government says Zahran, a radical Tamil-speaking preacher, was a leader of the group.SUBSCRIBE TO THIS WEEK IN ASIAGet updates direct to your inboxSUBMITBy registering for these newsletters you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy

Two Muslim community sources in Kattankudy said his hardline views were partly shaped by ultraconservative Salafi-Wahhabi texts that he picked up at the Centre for Islamic Guidance’s library around two to three years ago. The sources are not affiliated with the centre.

I used to always run into him at the centre, reading Saudi journals and literature,” said one of the sources.

In Sri Lanka, rising Islamic militancy was the proverbial elephant in the room

During that time, Zahran started criticising the practice of asking God for help, for instance, arguing that such pleas were an affront to pure Islam.  TOP ARTICLES1/5READ MOREActress Alyssa Milano calls for‘sex strike’ over abortion bans in Republican states  TOP ARTICLES1/5READ MOREActress Alyssa Milano calls for‘sex strike’ over abortion bans in Republican states  TOP ARTICLES1/5READ MOREActress Alyssa Milano calls for‘sex strike’ over abortion bans in Republican states

That kind of teaching was not in Sri Lanka in 2016, unless you read it in Salafi literature,” the source added, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions in Kattankudy.

Salafism, a puritanical interpretation of Islam that advocates a return to the values of the first three generations of Muslims and is closely linked to Wahhabism, has often been criticised as the ideology of radical Islamists worldwide.Wahhabi Islam has its roots in Saudi Arabia and is backed by its rulers, although Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has committed the kingdom to a more moderate form of Islam.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: AFPShare:

Other than the fact that Zahran visited the centre, the sources in Kattankudy said they did not know of any personal ties between him and Aliyar.

Aliyar founded the centre in 1990, a year after he graduated from the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, in what one resident said marked a key moment in the spread of Salafi doctrine in Kattankudy. The centre was partly funded by Saudi and Kuwaiti donors, according to a plaque outside.

TROUBLEMAKER

Three members of the centre’s board spoken to before Aliyar’s arrest said Zahran was a troublemaker and that they had warned authorities about his extremist views. The members, who asked to remain anonymous, citing security concerns amid a backlash against some Muslims, said they thought Zahran frequented the library around a decade ago, but had no recollection of him visiting recently and denied that any of its books were to blame for his views.

Funding for the centre came from local donations, student fees, and private donors who were classmates of Aliyar’s in Riyadh, the centre’s sources said. Further details about the funding of the centre were unavailable.

The Saudi government communications office in Riyadh did not respond to requests for comment on the funding of the centre.

T.K.G. Kapila Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A 47-year-old moulavi was arrested by the CID at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on charges of using social media platform to air extremist views.

The suspect, a resident of Vavuniya, was arrested yesterday morning at the BIA on his arrival from Mecca after performing Hajj.

It was reported that the suspect had been organising pilgrimage tours to Mecca.

The moulavi was remanded till May 14 after being produced in the Negombo Magistrate’s Court. (

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

Three weeks have passed since the Easter Sunday massacres. Normalcy is slowly returning. However, there is a perceptible sense of uncertainty, bewilderment, and bitterness amongst people. Muslims are complaining of being estranged by others. When the entire economy took a catastrophic hit, it is hard to determine if the Muslim businesses are affected because of the general situation or due to a boycott.

There are messages to the effect to avoid Muslim enterprises on social media making its rounds. These posts are being shared by both Sinhalese and Tamils. While people are not openly hostile, they are clearly very upset with the Muslims.

Even before the Government swung into action, it was the people who banned the hijab and niqab. From the next day of the carnage itself, women thus attired were turned away from premises and not allowed to use even public transport. This intolerance is a new phenomenon in Sri Lanka that was not seen once during the 30 years of terrorism inflicted by the LTTE. Though the LTTE was on a mission to carve out a homeland exclusive to Northern and Eastern Tamils, Sri Lankans always managed to distinguish Tamils from terrorists.

Therefore, no one worried when they saw a woman with a pottuwa or dressed in a manner distinct with the Tamil identity. No one advocated a boycott on Tamil businesses. It was not only the Tamils, but everyone were subjected to be searched and their identity verified.

In contrast, the suspicions are wholly on the Muslims. Their mosques all over the Island are subject to thorough search operations. Even the men with long, unruly beards are not welcome. In almost in the blink of an eye, Muslims who were the kingmakers lost their political clout. Since the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord, the Muslims have been voting for the Muslim political parties. Thus these politicians have been able to garner the entire Muslim vote block. This block vote was to manipulate the Government of the day.
Until now, not a single government dared to antagonise these Muslim politicians and risk losing the entire Muslim block vote. However, today the Government or any of the other main political parties cannot afford to be associated with any of these Muslim politicians, especially Rishard Bathiudeen, Mujibur Rahuman, Abdul Haleem, Hizbullah and Azath Salley who represent exclusive Muslim political parties.

However, UNP will not lose any votes on account of Kabir Hashim. He is a staunch UNP member and plays a decisive role in that political party. If UNP loses any votes in the upcoming elections, it is not because of Hashim, but because of their abysmal performance as a government. In fact, given that it was one of his secretaries that provided vital information to the authorities regarding Muslim extremist activities and in turn was rewarded with a bullet by these elements, Hashim might actually attract few sympathy votes that the UNP otherwise would have lost.

This distinction is an important to understand that the Sri Lankans have not suddenly turned into bigotry. One may choose to disagree with Hashim’s politics, but all must agree that he is a very moderate man who has always lived well within the framework of Islamism. Therefore, what Sri Lankans have turned against is not Islamism or its followers, but the radicals and the extremists in the name of Islamism.

The aforementioned politicians may well get into Parliament in the next round as well for they need only five (5) per cent as the district cut-off point. However, on their own, without the ability to latch on to the Government, they will be rendered toothless for they will be without the power to influence the Government. With such small numbers in the Parliament, they might as well not be in existence. They understand this fact all too well. Therefore, they are trying their best to smooth the ruffled feathers of the non-Muslims.

To the non-Muslims, they heartily endorse the ban on the niqab and hijab. To the Muslims, they ask for patience until the others calm down. Once people come to terms with the tragedy, they have pledged to talk about it ‘leisurely.’

However, some Muslims do not seem to understand the situation’s severity. They have taken to wearing facemasks and oversized sunglasses. Alternative to posts advocating a boycott on Muslim businesses, posts encouraging Muslims to patronise only Muslim businesses are also circulating. They argue that a large percentage of Muslims constitute established supermarkets’ market share. Thus, this ban will not be enforced when a drop in market share is noted.

Whether such logic holds water or not remains to be seen. Supermarkets and other enterprises would not want to lose Muslim customers; nor their other customers who would be too afraid to come. Overriding market share would be the risk of ignoring the ban and then been held accountable if an incident should occur.

Some Muslims have questioned the rational of imposing a ban on the niqab and the hijab that was not worn by the terrorists. However, the point is that this attire is a recent addition to the Muslim wardrobe. Until very recently, Muslim girls and young women followed more or less the conservative fashions as the other Sri Lankan girls. The shalwar kameez is still popular among the non-Muslims. The matured women wore soft saris in different and often gentle colours and used the fall as a loose headscarf.

Until the Easter Sunday massacres, the increasing trend was becoming for Muslim women to cover their whole body including face in black, shapeless robes. Then they started moving in groups of at least four or five, where as earlier they moved with girls of all communities. They were fast becoming a sector apart from the rest of the community. This growing trend was confusing and alarming.

Perhaps, not all those who sport long, unruly beards or those wearing the full-face mask cover are radicalised. However, for the rest of Sri Lanka, this is an indication of being radicalised. The exclusivity they propagated by dress code is very much in line with the ISIS ideology that refuses to tolerate anyone who does not conform to their beliefs. Even the Muslims who continue to be moderate citizens have publicly questioned the rational of introducing an extreme Arabic culture to Sri Lanka.

However, it took a tragedy of the Easter Sunday massacre magnitude for Sri Lanka to acknowledge that allowing this radicalisation to exist is presenting a threat to Sri Lanka. Yet, certain some without trying to empathise with the concerns of the larger population is brazenly flouting the law. This in turn is agitating rest of Sri Lanka. No one is fooled that they are wearing masks for health reasons.

Some Muslims highlight that the clues of the existence of a violent group were there, but were not followed. Some others remind us that they had forewarned us and it was not heeded. True as it is, they must also understand that the hands of a majority are tied when it comes to minority matters.

Muslim youth, especially in the East, have been disrespectful of the law. Some did not even wear a helmet whilst travelling on motorcycles. Today, the Police can take appropriate action because of the changed perceptions. The educated Muslim community should have addressed the alien dress code, especially when it was making others uncomfortable. They may have highlighted it, but their failure to effectively address it has led to the point where the law had to intervene.

Likewise, the educated Muslims must hold their clergy responsible for allowing weapons of the crudest form to be stored in their places of worship. They must not keep quiet as they did when an university exclusively for Muslims in the East was coming up, when the State cannot accommodate many of those eligible to a tertiary education. If the Muslim community fails to effectively integrate with the Sri Lankan society, the consequences could be dire for all.

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Colombo Crimes Division, in a joint search operation conducted with the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) at the Colombo office of a leading US-owned multinational software company, outsourcing services to global companies, have apprehended five of its employees on suspected connection to Islamist extremism and the Easter Sunday combined bomb attacks.

According to a top defence official, one suspect is still missing. According to sources, at least three suspects have gone missing since the Easter Sunday bomb blasts and the company was unable to contact them or find their location till two days ago.

However, when contacted, Police Media Spokesman, SP Ruwan Gunasekara confirmed that only one suspect named Mohamed Akram was arrested at his residence in Dehiwela. He was reluctant to reveal more details.

He said that the suspect is closely linked to the Easter Sunday bombings carried out by eight locals who were connected to the Islamic State (IS) ideologies.

The Police, armed forces and sniffer dogs conducted a search operation at the office in Dematagoda on 8 May and there was a massive traffic jam when the car park and the entire building of the company were searched.

Police said that there were no more, arrests but further investigations are in progress.

METHMALIE DISSANAYAKE  Courtesy Ceylon Today

An investigation has been launched to determine as to how the son of Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.M. Hizbullah secured shares worth Rs 500 million in the controversial ‘Batticaloa Campus’ aka ‘Sharia University,’ State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardena yesterday (9) told Parliament.

This educational institute had been given to Sri Lanka as a grant from Saudi Arabia. Wijewardena made this remark in response to a question raised by UNP’s Parliamentarian, Heshan Withanage.

Withanage noted that suspicion had arisen as to how Governor Hizbullah’s son had got shares from a fund received by the country.

Withanage: This Sharia University is making news headlines these days. People are very curious about this particular institute which is being built in Batticaloa. But the most suspicious thing is how Governor Hizbullah’s son has got shares in this institute worth of Rs 500 million. How can a Governor’s son obtain shares from a project which the country received as a grant? This is a project which is being built from foreign funds. This is dubious. The public does not favour this institute too. What action would the Government take on this matter?”

Wijewardena replied that according to his knowledge, an investigation has already been launched into the controversial institute.

Both the Premier and the Speaker also inquired about this particular project. Right now, the institute is under the purview of the Higher Education Ministry. I am of the view that there should be an investigation into the concerns regarding this institute.”

Joining the discussion UPFA MP Dr. Bandula Gunawardena noted that Higher Education Minister Rauff Hakeem was in the Chamber. He requested Hakeem to make a clarification on the matter on the institute.

Hakeem: We have not taken any decision as to whether we should grant Degree awarding status to this particular institute yet. It should be done after a thorough study. I know that there are fears and doubts about it. If we are going to continue this project, first we should address these doubts. I will give the House a proper explanation at a future date.”

UNP MP Chaminda Wijesiri also said what they wanted to know was how Hizbullah’s son secured shares in the institute.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that the government should provide a guarantee regarding the security of the country especially in a background where the schools will be starting again from tomorrow (13).

Stating that the past government commenced the missions in search of extremists, he claimed that the current situation arose as a result of destroying the system where they had sent spies into these extremist organizations.

He says that the government needs to think twice on opening the schools tomorrow when there are warnings of a possible attack.

Rajapaksa says that there needs to have one voice between the President and the Prime Minister guaranteeing the security of the country.

Additionally, the Opposition Leader stated that Vesak should be celebrated with much more enthusiasm than usual, at the temples.

Courtesy Adaderana

Police curfew has been imposed within Kuliyapitiya, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya Police division with immediate effect, stated the Police Media Spokesperson.

The curfew has been imposed to diffuse a tense situation in the relevant area, the Police said.

Accordingly, the police curfew will in effect until 6 am tomorrow (13).

Meanwhile, police curfew is currently imposed within Chilaw city limits and is set to be lifted at 4 am tomorrow.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The attitude of Yahapalana government to the bomb blast threat raises many questions. Yahapalana had known that something was going on, but had not taken action.

President Sirisena was asked whether the Government was aware that there were local Muslims with ISIS links, prior to the attacks. The President said that there was information about several individuals, but not enough evidence to apprehend them or to confirm that they were attached to the ISIS.

 For the last four years, these names came up at the National Security Council meetings. However, there were no revelations that they possessed weapons or bombs or planned attacks. They had been going out of the country frequently. We cannot remand anybody without proper evidence,” he added. Another excuse offered was that the Emergency Laws were not in place.

The government had known that Sri Lankan nationals who had joined the Islamic State had returned to the country, but they could not be arrested, because   joining a foreign terrorist organization is not against the law,   said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, blandly.

“We have no laws which enable us take into custody people who join foreign terrorist group,” he told Sky News UK.”Sri Lanka has a very narrow definition of aiding terrorism. Therefore, we find that our existing laws are insufficient to deal with the extraordinary situation we are faced with. In our country to go abroad and return or to take part in a foreign armed uprising is not an offence .

This explanation is both false and silly, said Kishali Pinto Jayawardene, who is herself a lawyer.’  I do not propose to enumerate the laws that could be used for this purpose , but amendments to existing laws could have been brought in, if the Government wanted to, she said.’ “The existing laws are good enough to act against those with terror links,” said Mahinda Rajapaksa. The laws that cover involvement with foreign terrorists: are the Penal Code (Section 2), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Section 11) and the April 2019 Emergency regulations 2120/5 (Sections 26 and 27) said Lasanda Kurukulasuriya.

Yahapalana also    turned a blind eye to the   insurgent activity that was taking place under their noses. There was evidence that Zahran was an ISIS sympathizer and had given sermons against the government and non-Muslims. This information was readily available on social platforms. The Intelligence branch should have immediately infiltrated the organization, also tapped the phones of the leaders of NTJ, said an analyst. Yahapalana did nothing of the sort.

Instead, Yahapalana blocked the intelligence and military from taking action, though these agencies had all the information needed.   Intelligence said, when questioned after the bomb blast, that they had gathered information on 160 National Thowheed Jamath members who had been trained by terrorists. But it had not been possible to arrest them as the higher authorities would not give them the necessary permission.  Army Commander Senanayake also said that the military had very good intelligence but could not act as it lacked the authority to do so.

Yahapalana did nothing to stop the Easter Sunday bomb blasts from taking place, though the opportunity to do so presented itself on a plate. Several Buddha statues in Mawanella were defaced in December 2018. Investigations   led to a raid on a 75-acre coconut plantation in Wanatavilluwa, Puttalam in January. Explosives and detonators were found there. Valuable information on NTJ was obtained from those arrested. If this had been followed up, the Easter Sunday carnage could have been avoided, said DEW Gunasekera.

Instead  the investigators were not allowed by higher authorities to make arrests  during  the Wanathavilluwa  investigation, though the Defence Ministry and the police had been informed that these were terrorists reported the media. Law enforcement authorities did not pursue the matter even after the detection of a safe house at Wanathavilluwa operated by the NTJ in January this year, critics complained.

Two key suspects were captured in the raid at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa. But due to the intervention of a powerful politician, they had been released and one of them had been involved in Sunday’s attacks, the media reported. The Vanathavillu raid pointed directly at spice trader Mohammad Yusuf Ibrahim, and his three sons. But the family escaped scrutiny and succeeded in carrying out the bomb plot.

Security was reduced to nothing, by Yahapalana. Security Council had not met for 6 months prior to the bomb blast. During the past four years there was a significant relaxation in overall security measures to the point that they did not seem to exist at all, said Malinda Seneviratne.  Access to government ministries and to hotels was possible without security checks. Road blocks by the security forces became a thing of the past. The freedom of movement and access to buildings became taken for granted. Yahapalana turned Sri Lanka into the softest of targets.

Yahapalana had appointed persons who did not know the subject of defense to key positions in the defense sector, including the two posts of Secretary, Defence and Chief of Intelligence. Under President Sirisena, there have been four Secretaries of Defence, B.M.U.D. Basnayake, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, Kapila Waidyaratne and Hemasiri Fernando. None of them had any experience in defense and security. Basnayake was a SLAS officer, Hettiarachchi was an engineer, Waidyaratne was formerly senior Additional Solicitor General and Fernando has been the Chairman of various institutions such as Telecom, ITN and    Peoples Bank.

Fernando was not the only Secretary who bungled the insurgency issue. Defense Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi had also been evasive on the question of Muslim insurgency. When asked whether Sri Lankan Muslims had gone to Syria to join the ISIS.  He said ‘we    shouldn’t to discuss the matter’. Asked about a threat from Islamic radicals, he said, Let the government and the Security look after the matter. I think the media should keep away from these things.” (News in Asia 31.7.16)

Persons without any experience of intelligence work were appointed to the post of Chief of National Intelligence. The present Chief, Sisira Mendis has little or no knowledge in intelligence gathering, said Merril Guneratne, former senior DIG. Mendis was a former Deputy inspector General of Police . His term was extended annually. The State Intelligence Agency is the main intelligence agency of the country and should be headed by a professional.  

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna said that the Inspector General of Police, Pujitha Jayasundara, had on 18 April, authorized the transfer of 12 officials attached to the State Intelligence Service, just days prior to the Easter Sunday attacks. These 12 Intelligence officers were those who tipped off the authorities regarding the Easter Sunday attacks.

The Directorate of Military Intelligence was a highly professional entity. It had systematically built a treasure trove” of intelligence information. The DMI was a major contributor to the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. Yahapalana reduced its position.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the bomb attacks could have been prevented if Yahapalana had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on. Gotabhaya said that he had set up a military intelligence cell in 2011 of 5,000 people, some of them with Arabic language skills and that was tracking the extremist ideology in eastern Sri Lanka. This cell was disbanded by Yahapalana government.

Gotabhaya has set up two intelligence units to monitor security, at Giritale and Kurunegala army camps. “The 7th military intelligence unit, set up in Giritale army camp did a lot to destroy terrorism in the east. The unit was   sealed by the CID, in 2016, despite resistance from the army. Extremist groups benefited by the dismantling of this unit, said National Freedom Front .

Col. Shammi Kumararatna, head of that Giritale unit and Col.Prabodha Siriwardana, two of the best intelligence officers in the army, were arrested in August 2015. They were then sent to secondary level jobs. Kumararatna is at the Ranawiru Sewa Authority, while Siriwardana works at a welfare shop. .  Intelligence officer Erantha Pieris was also in a welfare unit. Officer Rajapaksa was in the Women’s unit. This is the fate of a number of others as well, said analysts.

Yahapalana tried to strangle the Intelligence service. 244 intelligence officers were finger printed by the CID.  124 intelligence officers were arrested.  These arrests were made on flimsy evidence. 44 of them are still in prison said Wijedasa Rajapaksa. (Derana 6.55 news 23.4.2019.) Some intelligence officers left the country and some, such as Suresh Sallay, got appointments overseas. No other country in the world has persecuted and weakened their own armed forces and intelligence services in this manner said Mahinda Rajapaksa.  

Yahapalana was slow to act after the event. MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka said it took him 48 hours to get an appointment to meet the Prime Minister after the bomb blasts. I am the most senior military official in the country and the most experienced in defense matters, but no one sought my advice in this situation.”

At the time of writing Yahapalana was still holding back on investigations. The military was awaiting permission from the government to question suspects. At the moment the army hands over suspects it takes into custody to the police. “We have sought powers to question the suspect because we think it’s better to record statements immediately after arrests. We hope the government will grant us permission, Army Commander said on 6.5.19.

Yahapalana government had offered Cardinal Malcolm Joseph a bullet proof vehicle. The Cardinal had firmly rejected the offer. He was displeased with Yahapalana.  Instead he strongly criticized Yahapalana for inaction.

A joint media briefing of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and Dr. Ittapana Dhammalankara Maha Nayake, Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura was held at Bishop’s House in Colombo on 29.4.19. The Cardinal said the clergy and the people are not happy about the manner in which the government is conducting investigations into the Easter Sunday bombings. I see neither direction nor coordination in the efforts that have been taken. Security forces tend to go to places on tip-offs but much more needs to be done.

“The entire Negombo area needs to be searched to prevent further disasters. When the authorities question some people and release them, they can flee the country. At least, their passports should be impounded. We will take to streets if these issues are not addressed, he concluded.

Dr. Ittapana Dhammalankara said the people had so far not taken the law into their own hands, but warned the government not to test the patience of the people.If another incident occurs, then the country will be plunged into chaos. Therefore, I urge the government to not allow the situation to get out of hand.

On the 1^st of May, 2019, at another media conference, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith again expressed dissatisfaction at the rate the investigations and search operations are proceeding, reported the media.

He said the Army has still not been given the required powers to search arrest and interrogate the suspects. Although the government claims that the military has been given the power to act, they have only been given the authority to carry out search operations but they don’t have the authority to interrogate the suspects. Then what’s the point in engaging the army? They must be given the power to search arrest and interrogate and extract information.

 He wanted the army to carry out an extensive search operation in Negombo, especially the Periyamulla area. However, during the search operations in the Periyamulla area, the houses that had been closed had not been inspected. They have just gone to selected areas only. That won’t do. They must search every house, especially the ones that are closed up.

Shamindra Ferdinando thought security measures when he attended President Sirisena’s meeting with the journalists were insufficient. The security measures were wholly inadequate, he said.  (Continued)