{"id":107177,"date":"2020-10-02T01:04:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T07:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107177"},"modified":"2020-10-01T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T00:44:58","slug":"multi-culturalism-breeds-conflict-sometimes-leading-to-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/02\/multi-culturalism-breeds-conflict-sometimes-leading-to-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi – culturalism breeds conflict, sometimes leading to terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The fundamental duty of all people\nliving in Sri Lanka is to live in harmony with each other and particularly in\nharmony with the pre- dominant religious culture and beliefs and not hurt the\nmoral sensitivities of the majority, which has made the biggest contribution\nthroughout history to the building of the country and moreover to the\ncivilization that sustains the national ethos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This requirement prevails in all\nCountries influenced by Abrahamic religions, especially in Islamic\ncountries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This situation also prevailed in Sri\nLanka prior to 1505.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018When in Rome do as the Romans do\u2019\nis a wise way to avoid conflict between communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thisis a proverb<\/a> attributed to\nSaint Augustine. The phrase means that it is advisable to follow the\nconventions of the area in which you are residing or visiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is said that Saint\nMonica<\/a> and\nher son, Saint\nAugustine<\/a>,\nhad found out that Saturday was observed as a fast\nday<\/a> in Rome<\/a>, where they had planned to visit. However, it was not a fast\nday where they lived in Milan<\/a>. They had\nconsulted Saint\nAmbrose<\/a> who\nhad then said “When I am here (in Milan) I do not fast on Saturday, when\nin Rome I do fast on Saturday.” That reply is said to have led to the\nsaying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Romans are no more neither are\nwe in Sri Lanka related to the ancient Romans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, this saying looms\nlarge in a country which is grappling with trying to find a solution to a\nseemingly intractable problem of who should prevail or which community should\nhave the final word or say in recommending standards of conduct for the rest of\nthe country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ancient Rome the majority view\nprevailed as it should be in any democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was accompanied by the\npresumption that the minority and any foreigner or visitor would heed the\nconventions of the area or the country in which they are living or visiting and\nnot challenge them or try to replace them, which would invariably develop into\na conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Easter Sunday attack and the\nunderlying reasons shown in the attempt to blow up the Buddha statues in\nMawanella clearly demonstrate the threat to the entire community when one group\nsmaller in number (a minority) try to override the belief system of the group\ngreater in number (the majority).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of conduct has to be\nprevented or avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is when the proverb ‘ When\nin Rome, do as the Romans do’ <\/strong>becomes doubly applicable.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no other better way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This requirement of not trying to\ndisplace the prevailing ethos by a later introduced system of religious beliefs\nunder the flag of ‘ multiculturalism’ needs\nto be stressed to the public by the State in Schools, Media, Public Relations,\nand be made part of public policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, in Sri Lanka, can no longer\nafford to take chances with failed models and so called ‘Human Rights’\nexperiments, not of our own making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna The fundamental duty of all people living in Sri Lanka is to live in harmony with each other and particularly in harmony with the pre- dominant religious culture and beliefs and not hurt the moral sensitivities of the majority, which has made the biggest contribution throughout history to the building of the country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107177","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}