{"id":52666,"date":"2016-03-06T22:16:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T04:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=52666"},"modified":"2016-03-06T06:42:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T13:42:54","slug":"name-a-single-country-that-has-given-ethno-religious-minorities-privileges-as-sri-lanka-has-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/03\/06\/name-a-single-country-that-has-given-ethno-religious-minorities-privileges-as-sri-lanka-has-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Name a single country that has given ethno-religious minorities privileges as Sri Lanka has done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

When global powers are in the hands of Christian West and their media, human rights and other spokesmen come out in a chorus to say that Sri Lanka\u2019s majority Sinhala Buddhists are the wrong doers, the world believes them without looking at the facts. For the majority Sinhala Buddhists to accept guilt they must know the allegations with evidence. So far other than a tirade of name calling there is nothing to show that legally, constitutionally & legislatively minorities suffer grievances because they are a minority. Will countries entertain demands to change national anthem, national song, national flag, insidious campaigns of baseless allegations, demands for homelands when minorities show no indigenous roots and now even the demand to change the country\u2019s constitution to fulfil their aspirations?<\/p>\n

Name a country that has given status to minorities in the country\u2019s national flag as Sri Lanka has with orange symbolizing Tamils and green symbolizing Muslims. The original national flag did not have the two strips and these were incorporated as an act of good will. How have minorities reciprocated?<\/p>\n

Name a country that has violated the constitution to sing the national anthem in Tamil instead of the language it is to be sung in? Those that said singing the anthem in Tamil ushered unity cannot explain why Tamils created a party seeking separatism in 1949 and are now asking for a separate state in 2016 via a new constitution even after singing in Tamil.<\/p>\n

Name anything legally, constitutionally and legislatively denied to minorities which legally, constitutionally and legislatively is allocated to only Sinhalese.<\/p>\n

Name any insistence where the law and the judgment has been changed because a person was a minority<\/p>\n

Tamils came from Tamil Nadu. Muslims came from Middle East & the Christians\/Catholics of both Sinhalese & Tamils arose after forced conversion following the arrival of the 3 colonial invaders. Globally there are 76million Tamils, 1.3billion Muslims and 2.2billion Christians. Their institutions are rich and expansionism of their faith is the job of their religious institutions through their religious heads. Inspite of this minorities of Sri Lanka have freedom to practice their religion. They cannot expect individual religious freedom to be entangled with the global mission of conversion through their religious institutions.<\/p>\n

There are only 14.8million Sinhalese. They built the nation as is evident from archaeological and historical data. They built the civilization and developed the nation to what it was when colonials arrived to take over it.<\/p>\n

Name any country that has reciprocated Sinhala Buddhists in their countries by giving a similar place to Sinhala Buddhists in the same manner that the ethno-religious minorities are enjoying in Sri Lanka? Isn\u2019t it legally accepted that one cannot demand what one is not prepared to give?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is it not because Abrahamic religions use minorities to demand rights of religion so that their institutions can influence society incrementally to eventually replace Dharmic faiths with theirs?<\/p>\n

Did Singapore Hindus not object to hijacking pongal by Christians in 2004? Were Christian missionaries not accused of hijacking yoga, Bharatanatyam in 2006?\u00a0 http:\/\/www.asiantribune.com\/index.php?q=node\/4959<\/a> Are Churches not setting up Hindu type of buildings and calling them \u2018ashrams\u2019 run by \u2018saffron robed padres\u2019 who project themselves as swamijis\u2019 with the intent to project that there is no difference in Hinduism and Christianity so it is easy to convert masses? Have Christians not gone to the extent of creating statues of Jesus in \u2018meditating posture siting cross-legged on a lotus like Buddha? Are these initiatives not with evil motive?<\/p>\n

When Hindus or Buddhists react they are bashed by the Christian media as intolerant, racists, fascists and radicals.<\/p>\n

Name a country that has given refuge to Maldivians because for over 3 decades they have been saying their islands are going under water and now over 300,000 Maldivians are living, working, studying and even marrying and thereby owning land in Sri Lanka. How have Maldives reciprocated? They have removed the Buddhist history of Maldives from their history, they attempt to destroy whatever Buddhist archaeological artifacts remain in their museums, they deny Sinhalese Buddhists visiting Maldives to even carry a Buddhist statue.<\/p>\n

When countries have strict moratoriums on religious structures especially in Islamic and Christian countries just travel from Colombo to Ja-Ela, or Colombo to Beruwela and to the North and East to see how freely Islamic mosques, Churches, Evangelical churches, madrassas and all sorts of new religious faiths have set up shop. Even residential areas have been turned into prayer centres disturbing residents.<\/p>\n

Name any country that has given key cabinet level portfolios concerning national policy to minority leaders representing\u00a0ethno-political parties as Sri Lanka has. Many countries are very specific about positions that minority leaders hold in governance.<\/p>\n

What Tamil Hindus enjoy<\/strong><\/p>\n