{"id":88256,"date":"2019-05-06T13:20:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T20:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88256"},"modified":"2019-05-06T13:20:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T20:20:43","slug":"sri-lankas-catholic-church-urges-calm-following-christian-muslim-clashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/06\/sri-lankas-catholic-church-urges-calm-following-christian-muslim-clashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church urges calm following Christian-Muslim clashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The New Arab<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka<\/a>‘s Roman Catholic Church appealed for calm and an alcohol ban Monday after clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town scarred by Easter Day’s suicide attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of security forces entered Negombo to impose a curfew after dozens of Muslim-owned shops, homes and vehicles were attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Sebastian’s church in the town 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of capital Colombo was one of three churches and three hotels hit by Islamic State group-linked suicide bombers on 21 April killing 257 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I appeal to all Catholic<\/a> and Christian brothers and sisters not to hurt even a single Muslim person because they are our brothers, because they are part of our religious culture,” said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Therefore please avoid hurting them and try to create a better spirit of understanding and good relations between all the communities of Sri Lanka,” he said in a video message to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cardinal visited Negombo, held talks with clerics at a mosque and appealed to the government to shut bars in the Catholic-dominated town known as “Little Rome”, said his spokesman Father Edmund Tilakaratne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a temporary measure, the cardinal asked the government to order the ban on liquor sales in Negombo area,” Tilakaratne told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another televised appeal, Ranjith appealed to Christians, Buddhists and Muslims to show restraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negombo suffered the highest death toll in the Easter Sunday attacks that were claimed by the Islamic State group. The bomb at St. Sebastian’s killed more than 100 worshippers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A top police officer said two arrests were made after the latest clashes and more suspects had been identified through CCTV footage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officer said all will be prosecuted under emergency laws approved after the Easter attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At least three people were injured in the clashes,” the officer told AFP<\/em>. “Although we have arrested only two suspects at the moment, many more have been identified and we will go after them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officer said an alcohol-fuelled dispute between two groups degenerated into the clashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement the government will compensate those who lost property in the night-time clashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unverified video circulating on social media showed mobs throwing stones at Muslim businesses, destroyed furniture inside homes, shattered windows and overturned vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few hundred extra troops and police were deployed late Sunday as authorities imposed a night-time curfew in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government blocked access to WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms for several hours to prevent what it called the spread of rumours and videos aimed at instigating unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curfew was lifted on Monday morning and social media was working again by noon the same day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka’s main international airport is located in the area, but police said there was no disruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims make up around 10 percent of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka’s 21 million population and Christians about 7.6 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country has been under a state of emergency since the Easter bombings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has blamed the Easter bombings on a local jihadist organisation which had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The New Arab Sri Lanka‘s Roman Catholic Church appealed for calm and an alcohol ban Monday after clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town scarred by Easter Day’s suicide attacks. Hundreds of security forces entered Negombo to impose a curfew after dozens of Muslim-owned shops, homes and vehicles were attacked. St. Sebastian’s church in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88256","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=88256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}