{"id":101111,"date":"2020-04-15T00:24:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T06:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101111"},"modified":"2020-04-13T23:34:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T06:34:45","slug":"sri-lanka-covid-19-open-letter-to-ahmed-shaheed-special-rapporteur-on-freedom-of-religion-or-belief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/15\/sri-lanka-covid-19-open-letter-to-ahmed-shaheed-special-rapporteur-on-freedom-of-religion-or-belief\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka COVID-19: Open Letter to Ahmed Shaheed Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This\nrefers to your letter addressed to the Sri Lankan President H E Gotabaya\nRajapakse. It is unfortunate that you have been misinformed leading to you\nwriting to a country\u2019s President and exposing your ignorance. In Sri Lanka 7\nCOVID-19 deaths of which 3 are Muslim. Other than these 3 Muslims, all other\nMuslims have been burying their dead and are continuing to do so. You are\nwriting to a country\u2019s President on behalf of 3 COVID-19 Muslims completely\nignoring the rest of the victims. This is not what is expected of a Special\nRapporteur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedoms\nand Rights of one stops where freedoms and rights of others are violated. This\nis the golden rule. If demands for rights or special privileges violates the\nrights of others, it cannot be allowed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\nSpecial Rapporteur can only address minority issues ignoring or compromising on\nnational issues. Promotion & protection of human rights and fundamental\nfreedoms cannot come at the sacrifice or compromise of others. Special\nprivileges are not rights or freedoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCOVID-19 virus is nothing anyone can firmly make final conclusions about. All\nare testing or experimenting and making adverse, contradictory or confusing\nstatements across the globe. This confusion and uncertainty cannot impact on\nthe general population and cause greater chaos by ignorance. In such scenarios\nit is prudent to take the worst case scenario & adopt the most extreme\nmeasures. The Government is beholden to ensure the safety of the living and\nfuture which cannot and should not be interpreted or promoted as disrespecting\nthe dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwhole world is in chaos. The Western world inspite of all its infrastructure\n& technology is overwhelmed to handle the situation. The health authorities\nand staff in these countries cannot be questioned on how they are handling the\nabnormal situation they find themselves in. Anyone who is not facing the\npressure are free to comment and criticize but only those in the thick of\nthings know the ordeal they are going through. So, let us not patronize the\nhealth services of any country & their decision making at this juncture.\nThey are spending sleepless nights fighting to save lives and they are not able\nto follow any book at this juncture except to do the right thing and no one can\nreprimand them for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou listen to the first Sri Lankan COVID-19 patient who recovered and has\nreturned home, he will reveal how well he was looked after with the hospital doctor\neven bringing him porridge made at his home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials\nin the UN can throw all the dictums and terms on the table because they are not\nfacing any of the pressures that doctors, nurses and others facing the COVID-19\nare undergoing. They can preach you should have done it this way, should have\nnot done it this way\u201d which is all that UN officials generally like to\npatronize countries with. But would they handle the situation any better?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So,\ntell us if the tube wells, water systems, agriculture etc in Sri Lanka get\ncontaminated from burying dead covid-19 bodies \u2013 what is your solution, what\ncan you personally do to address this? WHO has given only general guidelines.\nIt is not a rule that all countries have to follow. In Ecuador covid-19 dead\nbodies are lying on the roads, what is UN\/WHO guideline for this and what is\nyour solution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\na national crisis none of individual or community freedoms come to play. The\nnation must face the problem as One Nation and One People. Therefore, in a\nnational crisis it is no time to be thinking exclusively as a majority or\nminority or making demands of a minority or majority or demanding rights as an\nexclusive community. Privileges are not rights. In a national crisis the\ncountry\u2019s decision makers take decisions considering every person as ONE AND\nTHE SAME CITIZEN and not compartmentalizing them. Therefore, it is very strange\nthat people who refer to themselves as Special Rapporteurs are writing to\npromote the interests of only one community. This is very wrong and unfair by\nothers who are no less victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nthe Government declares a lockdown or curfew \u2013 it doesn\u2019t say the lockdown is\napplicable to majority, minority or a community. It says the curfew is\napplicable to ALL and when it is applicable to ALL \u2013 ALL must obey and follow\nthe orders given. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nthe Government sets up quarantine centres or hospitals \u2013 the government is not\ntreating anyone or any community differently. All are patients, all are given\nthe same food, all are given medication equally and free too. This is nothing\nthat the Western world is even doing. Patients who have no insurance or cannot\npay or are old are not even admitted to hospital. Sri Lanka, though a third\nworld stands way above in terms of delivery for covid-19 situation than most\ncountries of the first world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\ncan quote all the Articles under the Conventions but can you handle a COVID-19\nsituation simply quoting clauses? Can you protect people from contamination and\ndisease by quoting Articles & Conventions? Please be realistic and\npractical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nseem to be confused in your hurry to address a Country\u2019s President  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims have been burying their dead in the past and Muslims are continuing to bury their dead. How? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any Muslim who has died other than from\nCOVID-19 are having their dead buried. EVEN NOW. Did you not know this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT IS ONLY the 3 COVID-19 DEAD MUSLIMS\nwho were cremated. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you are writing to the President of\nSri Lanka representing 3 COVID-19 dead when all other dead Muslims are getting\nburied. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope\nyou are not embarrassed by this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nyou should seriously take stock of facts before addressing a letter to the\nPresident of a country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nthe other factor is that you are totally ignoring the fact that all of the 7 COVID-19\ndead had the same method adopted in disposing of their dead bodies. Therefore,\nif you as Special Rapporteur speaking on behalf of the 3 Muslims, you should\nalso be speaking on behalf of the other 4 COVID-19 dead too. Out of this 4 \u2013 2 are\nCatholics and Catholics also bury their dead. So why are you not speaking a\nword on behalf of the Catholics? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last\nof all, in noticing your name \u2013 Ahmed Shaheed, it is prudent to remind you that\nyou cannot be the judge of your own case. As a Muslim there is a major conflict\nof interest arising clearly evident by the nature of your reply. In such a\nsituation, it is only fair that you recuse yourself from making statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nnow that you have gone so far as to even write to a country\u2019s President, please\nnote that Muslims have buried their dead and are continuing to bury their dead\nand only exception is COVID-19 dead which is applicable to not only Muslims but\nall citizens of Sri Lanka. The Government is making no exceptions to the rule\nof cremating all COVID-19 dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have written on behalf of 3 dead\nCOVID-19 Muslim victims ignoring the sensitivities of the families of the other\n4 COVID-19 dead who were also denied fulfilling the funeral rites for their\ndead. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it fair for you to be sending a letter to the head of State on behalf of only 3 victims of Sri Lanka\u2019s COVID-19 deaths COMPLETELY ignoring the sensitivities of the other 4 COVID-19 dead victims without realizing that non-Covid-19 dead Muslims are burying their dead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/respect-burial-rights-stop-hate-speech-against-muslims-un-tells-gota\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This refers to your letter addressed to the Sri Lankan President H E Gotabaya Rajapakse. It is unfortunate that you have been misinformed leading to you writing to a country\u2019s President and exposing your ignorance. In Sri Lanka 7 COVID-19 deaths of which 3 are Muslim. Other than these 3 Muslims, all other Muslims have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}