{"id":151897,"date":"2025-09-10T16:10:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=151897"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:10:31","slug":"the-root-of-all-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/09\/10\/the-root-of-all-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Professor Michael K. Jerryson of Youngstown State University, Ohio, USA,  testified on the subject of \u2018Human Rights Concerns in Sri Lanka\u2019 before the \u2018Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, House Committee on Foreign Affairs (of the U.S. House of Representatives) on June 20, 2018. While delivering his statement, Jerryson submitted a written testimony into the record. He thanked Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and other Members of the Committee  for \u2018addressing a very important issue facing Sri Lanka, which is also a larger issue of peace and stability for South and South Asia today\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witness described himself as \u2018a professor of religious studies at Youngstown State University\u2019 who had \u2018worked on Buddhism and violence for over 20 years\u2019 from 1998 until then (2018). He claimed that he had travelled, and done his fieldwork, in Asia. His work involved \u2018living and interviewing Buddhist civilians and monks involved in Buddhist-supported violence\u2019 (!). Then he mentioned a list of his then recent publications including his \u2018Mongolian Buddhism: The Rise and Fall of the Sangha (Silk Worm, 2008)……….., and \u2018Violence and the world\u2019s Religious Traditions (Oxford, 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerryson explained that his \u2018position\u2019 as a scholar of religion was \u2018not to judge a religion or its adherents, but rather to illuminate the ways in which religious values motivate or influence people and social patterns\u2019. He said that, in his work, he \u2018found that religion is one of the most undervalued and misunderstood causes for violence and for reconciliation in the contemporary world\u2019. Moving towards his central topic, he identified \u2018strong pervasive identifications\u2019 as the basic cause of the current problems in Sri Lanka. Jerryson asserted that for many Sri Lankan Buddhists \u2018a true Sri Lankan is a Sinhala Buddhist\u2019.  He arbitrarily concluded that this was \u2018a powerful normative influence throughout Sri Lanka\u2019, and that the same social conformity inducing Buddhist influence was found within the larger South and Southeast Asian societies at present. So he avers that \u2018the change necessary in Sri Lanka\u2026\u2026\u2026 requires a systemic shift in the way Sri Lankans identify themselves and their concept of the nation (and, concurrently, patriotism)\u2019. He told the Committee that, while drawing on the information that he gathered from scholars, journalists and NGO workers, he expressed his own (independent) views in his testimony.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I (RRW) was surprised to find that he mentions my name in a footnote with an extract from an article of mine published in the online news forum Lankaweb<\/em>\/June 17, 2018, that he uses as an example of what he alleges to be \u2018Buddhist propaganda\u2019 (something that I would have confidently challenged, had I known it at that time); but I came across Jerryson\u2019s statement quite by chance only a couple of months ago while scouring the internet for any information about a possible letup in the strong bias against Sri Lanka that still persists in Western countries for no other reason than successfully overcoming mindless separatist terrorism in 2009 against their domestic votebank based unholy expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footnote number 8 pertains to the following paragraph in the section of the written testimony under the heading \u2018The power of Buddhist monks\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The power behind Buddhist propaganda are Sri Lankan Buddhist monks. The more public and vocal conservative monks have stroked (sic) Sinhala Buddhist fears and angers of minority and marginalized identities. This behavior is distinctly modern. Prior to British colonialism (1815 1948), Buddhist monks legitimated Sri Lankan governments; however, they did not directly participate in any political system. This historic role explains the Sri Lankan Buddhist monk\u2019s  symbol as society\u2019s moral foundation. When Buddhist monks publicly speak, they do so not only as religious voices, but also as political moral authorities.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footnote (8) is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A recent editorial by Rohana R. Wasala exemplifies this. Rohana writes, Buddhist monks feel compelled to respond to what they perceive as aggressive acts by non-Buddhist religious extremists that adversely affect the rights of the exceptionally tolerant, accommodative Buddhists. Anti-Buddhist propaganda with an academic veneer \u2013 III,\u201d LankaWeb, June 11, 2018,…….\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u2018this\u2019 at the end of the first sentence here refers to what is said in the paragraph above, beginning \u2018The power behind\u2026\u2026\u2019 quoted from Jerryson\u2019s attestation. He says there  that Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, through their \u2018Buddhist propaganda\u2019, spread fears among Buddhists while at the same time infuriating \u2018minority and marginalized identities\u2019. But he argues that this behaviour of the monks is a new development. Jerryson takes a sweeping view of the Buddhist monks\u2019 relationship with the Lankan state before the period of British colonial rule (1815-1948) as one of \u2018legitimating\u2019 governments without participating in any political systems. So the alleged new element in Sri Lankan Buddhist monk\u2019s conduct is that they have started interfering in politics fomenting social unrest to the detriment of so-called minorities and marginalised groups. (This implicit allegation is totally false.) He refers to my Lankaweb<\/em> article cited above, which he erroneously calls \u2018an editorial\u2019 (implying misleadingly that I was the Editor of Lankaweb that he probably saw as a pro-Buddhist website carrying out \u2018Buddhist propaganda\u2019). The truth about me is that I am not a professional journalist. I can\u2019t be called a freelancer either, for I don\u2019t write for money. It\u2019s only a post-retirement hobby for me. I write about these things purely  because I love my Motherland. Jerryson has arbitrarily let me be taken for the Editor of Lankaweb. I don\u2019t know why he did that. Further, I abandoned religion at age 15 or 16, when I realised that Buddhism is not a religion at all, except in a cultural sense. I may be called a cultural Buddhist. I don\u2019t subscribe to any particular political or economic ideology. But I believe that the secular democratic system of government is most compatible with Buddhist moral and ethical values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must say at this point that everything that Jerryson maintains against Buddhist monks is false. He relies almost exclusively on questionable sources\/biased non-Buddhist informants, while taking casual remarks made by persons like Piyadassi Thera and Dilanthe Vithanage who are highly knowledgeable about the issue involving Buddhist monks vs minority religious extremists as serious but false assertions. It is incredible that a professor who claimed to have done over twenty years\u2019 research about the ridiculously implausible subject of \u2018Buddhism and violence\u2019 occurring in many Buddhist countries including Sri Lanka, showed so little knowledge of Buddhism, its history in Sri Lanka, and its vital importance for the majority Buddhist Sri Lanka. Shouldn\u2019t the Sinhalese Buddhist community also enjoy the basic human right of freedom of religion. Buddhism co-exists with any other religion provided that extremist adherents of  other religions do not tread on Buddhists\u2019 toes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Jerryson mentions in his affidavit that, in 2013, he participated in a panel discussion with A.R.M. Imtiaz at the Association for Asian Studies (I found that this is a Michigan\/USA based academic NGO, and that Imtiaz, a researcher with an impressive array of academic qualifications acquired in the West, had been teaching in the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, but is currently, in 2025, serving as a professor at Delaware Valley University, Pennsylvania, USA). At that discussion, Imtiaz read a paper on \u2018the persecution of Sri Lankan Muslims in the post-civil war era\u2019, where he argued that \u2018the Sri Lankan flag serves as a harbinger for the Sri Lankan ethno-religious strife throughout the last four decades\u2019 (that is, since 1972, the year that Sri Lanka declared itself an independent sovereign republic completely free from British colonial influence, an epoch making event for all Sri Lankans). \u2018In his conference presentation, Imtiyaz explained that the Sinhala Buddhists first turned their sword\u201d to the Sri Lankan Tamils during the 26-year civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, 1983-2009). After the Sinhala Buddhist government conquered the last strongholds of the LTTE, they turned their sword\u201d to the next largest minority in their country: the Sri Lankan Muslims.1 For the last five years,….\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quoted this piece of Imtiaz\u2019s academic brilliance to prove that Jerryson\u2019s testimony about alleged Buddhist propaganda and violence against \u2018minority and marginalised identifications\u2019 (there has never been any such problem in Sri Lanka) was not worthy of that august body in America, which claims to the only superpower in the world. Imtiaz\u2019s argument was not original, though probably he didn\u2019t tell Jerryson about it. \u2018The lion turning its sword menacingly towards Tamils and Muslims\u2019 meme  was popularly known in Sri Lanka before 2013. When an ordinary Muslim articulated this argument to his Sinhalese friend, the latter retorted: \u2018Then let\u2019s ask the government to reverse the picture of the lion, but then, won\u2019t you grumble, saying that the lion is turning its tail-raised backside to Tamils and Muslims?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally, before I conclude, let me point out a very real form of discrimination or even harassment that the majority Sinhala speakers were or probably still are being subjected to by the powers that be, due to anti- Sinhalese Buddhist prejudice (apparently repeated in Jerryson\u2019s own thesis): the appointment of a local office to keep tabs on Sinhala language FB content during the Yahapalanaya of 2015-2019. The Island<\/em> newspaper published (Thursday, May 3, 2018) an article by me criticizing this anomaly under the title \u2018A local office to monitor FB content: Is it a wise move?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this, I wrote a long article about \u2018Anti-Buddhist propaganda with an academic veneer\u2019, which was carried in the online Lankaweb <\/em>in three installments I, II, and III, respectively on June 5, 8, and 11, 2018. It was prompted by the writing of a similarly ill informed Swedish intellectual<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mentioned in the opening paragraph of my \u2018Anti-Buddhist propaganda with an academic veneer – I\u2019 published on June 5, 2018, thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A recent  article titled \u2018Why Violent Buddhist Extremists Are Targeting Muslims in Sri Lanka\u2019 by Andreas Johansson of Lund University in Sweden available at \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 is a classic example of the relentless anti-Buddhist propaganda carried on by the Western and allied media outlets for a long time now. Johansson\u2019s inexplicable antipathy towards the Sinhalese Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka is clearly reflected in both the title and the opening paragraph \u2026\u2026\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s as if Michael K. Jerryson of Youngstown State University, USA, responded to my reply to Andreas Johanson of Lund University in Sweden with a better example of anti-Buddhist propaganda with an academic veneer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever social unrest took place in the past in the field of interreligious relations in Sri Lanka, it was not initiated by Buddhists; it was always triggered by non-Buddhist extremists bent on proselytising and on encroaching on the traditional Buddhist religious space. The Tamil Hindu minority faces the same threat from those extremists, who promote separatism and proselytisation, pampered and manipulated by the global geopolitical puppet masters in the Indo-Pacific Ocean region where Sri Lanka is located at such a geostrategically sensitive point. It goes without saying that unity between the religiously nonrigid Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the similarly religiously nonrigid Tamil Hindu minority joined by the non extremist majority of mainstream Christian and Muslim communities is the eminently feasible ideal solution to Sri Lanka\u2019s existing problems, if only our pan-Sri Lankan national political leaders develop the collective will to do so without  unnecessarily succumbing to the temporary regional and global hegemonies that try to exploit our internal divisions and rivalries to their advantage and to our detriment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Professor Michael K. Jerryson of Youngstown State University, Ohio, USA,  testified on the subject of \u2018Human Rights Concerns in Sri Lanka\u2019 before the \u2018Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, House Committee on Foreign Affairs (of the U.S. House of Representatives) on June 20, 2018. While delivering his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151897","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=151897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151898,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151897\/revisions\/151898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}