{"id":95903,"date":"2019-12-01T17:43:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T00:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95903"},"modified":"2019-12-01T17:51:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T00:51:57","slug":"muslims-expect-positive-overtures-from-president-a-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/01\/muslims-expect-positive-overtures-from-president-a-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslims expect positive overtures from President \u2013 a response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ratanapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

1\nDec 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muslim overtures in a\nBuddhist land!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr\nLatheef Farook on the Island Newspaper \u2013 26 Nov 2019, says, all what they\nexpect from the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is to create an environment\nwith new overtures where they could live in peace. What the Muslims need is for\nthe new government to understand their plight, stop violence against them, and\nattend to their grievances.\u201d <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It\nwas the short-sighted racist politics of the two main national parties that\nforced Muslim to support when some ambitious individuals decided to exploit the\nhelplessness of the community by forming a separate political party.\u201d<\/em> So, this too is the fault of\nthe Sinhalese belonging to the two main political parties! In other words,\nMuslims are mere children who have been misled by very bad Sinhalese!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally,\nit was the arrogant dismissal of Muslims by the late President J. R.\nJayewardene when he said that Muslims could remain in the government or leave\nwhen a delegation led by All Ceylon Muslim League leader Dr M.C.M Kaleel met\nhim and appealed not to allow Israelis into the country in view of their century\u2019s\nold hostility and crime records against Muslims.\u201d<\/em> There we go again and now on\nan entirely different tack \u2013 Two communities that sprang from two brothers \u2018one\nlegit and the other not\u2019 have been fighting over a piece of desert for\nmillennia and suddenly this has become Sri Lanka\u2019s problem! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe end, for Jayewardene\u2019s arrogance and Indian conspiracies to divide Tamil\nand Muslim communities, Sri Lankans must suffer!\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe aftermath of Easer Sunday bombings and killings, while Muslims were\nsubjected to violence, dogs were taken into mosques by soldiers wearing shoes\nand hundreds of Muslims were taken into custody for no valid reason, shameless\nMuslim politicians invited Maithri and Ranil   for their family\nfunctions.\u201d<\/em> After\nhaving \u2018painted\u2019 the Easter Sunday bombings to a corner what irks the bleeding\nhearts is not so much the killings, but soldiers in boots and sniffer dogs\nentering suspect mosques looking terrorist paraphernalia \u2013 suicide vests,\nswords, knifes, bombs and explosives and the \u2018hurt\u2019 in the Muslim community\nwhen many Muslims were taken into custody on suspicion. How can the Good\nMuslims feign innocence after a dastardly crime has been committed by their\nbrethren? What about the Good Muslims climbing on top of Stupas with their\nshoes on and elsewhere defacing Buddhist statues? Does hurt only apply to\nMuslims with special \u2018hurt\u2019 nerves that the rest of the Sri Lankans do not have\nor just a case of selective amnesia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nwhat they expect from the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is to create an\nenvironment with new overtures where they could live in peace.They are eagerly\nexpecting positive signs from President Gotabaya and his government though it\nincludes many known for their hatred towards Muslims.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwriter wants positive overtures from the President. For what we may ask? For\nhaving bombed several churches and hotels, killed and maimed hundreds of\ninnocents they want positive overtures! Or are they for positive overtures from\nthe government and if not for more of the same! May we ask what harm all\nthose innocent victims of the Easter Bombings have done to the Muslim community\nin Sri Lanka? Has there been a single UNPROVOKED attack on the Muslims by the\nSinhala Community?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Defaced Buddha Statue in Mawanella just days prior to Easter\nSunday attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well\nif the Muslims are fed up with their politicians and even their mullahs are\nthey not their own domestic problems? Wahabbism, Sharia, Halal, child marriages,\nFMG are all their religious and domestic problems. Nobody asked them to send\ntheir children to Madraasa Schools where foreign mullahs came and\nradicalised them. All Muslim parents know what their children are being put\nthrough. They do this wittingly with heaven and all that entails in mind. This\nis how one finds in the same family, old Sufis, middle-aged Salafis and\nyoung Wahabbis. Old Sufis of 1915 and Salafis and Wahabbis of today read from\nthe same holy book and act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a change,\nit is the Muslim Community who should make amends and make positive overtures\ntowards the Sinhalese and Tamils, both Buddhist and Christian who have been at\nthe receiving end of Islamic excesses.  When there was an attack on the\nMuslims in Christchurch it was the Christians, Hindus and Buddhists and the\ngovernment in power who took upon themselves the burden of the dastardly deed\nby a deranged non-Muslim. The spontaneous outpouring of grief sometimes over\nshadowed those of the victims! The parallels of the same has not happened in\nSri Lanka over the attacks by the Muslims. There was no admittance of \u2018mia culpa\u2019\nfrom the Islamic Muslim brotherhood who are responsible being a highly knit and\norganized community through their mosques. Instead of what happened was the\nreverse. Within a week of the Easter Sunday attacks the situation reversed and\nthe Muslim community became the aggrieved party. Even at the Parliamentary\nSelect Committee the main issue was niqabs, hijabs and burqas and the slights\nfelt by those wearing them. This was while swords, knives, guns, explosives\nwere being found inside mosques and in the houses and lands surrounding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka cannot go back to before the Easter Sunday attacks as if nothing\nhappened. What happened on Easter Sunday was just the tip of the iceberg and\nthe symptoms of a greater malady that is taking place 24\/7 in Sri Lanka and\nelsewhere in the world. The writer’s continuing theme is about ‘innocent’ and\n‘peaceful’ Muslims be allowed to live in ‘peace’ \u2013 problem is Muslim Peace\naccording to Sharia does not necessarily translate into peace for the rest of\nthe world! Just two days ago attacks that killed two innocent civilians in the\nenvirons of the London Bridge show the savagery of the Islamic Terrorist!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEaster Sunday attacks brought into limelight many underlying dangerous currents\nthat are in motion to ‘unmake’ Sri Lanka and make it a Muslim State. All those\ncurrents should be investigated deep into their constituent parts and agendas.\nI am talking about Sharia, Halal, Encroachment on land \u2013 Willpattu and\nelsewhere, outright purchase of entire streets in Capital Territory Colombo \u2013\nmost government tax invested city in the country, the real estate changing\nhands and the demographics are changing rapidly. Elsewhere Islamaisation, desecration\nof Buddhist places of worship and of archaeological value, large scale and\nunimpeded building of mosques all over Sri Lanka making us and anybody\nvisiting Sri Lanka wonder whether Sri Lanka is still a Buddhist Country. When a\nmosque built on temple land try to outsmart Dalada Maligawa they are making a\nvery loud statement of their intentions. Will they allow\nsimilar constructions in an Islamic Country?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every\nMuslim leader that had the privilege of bargaining with a ruling party, exacted\nthe utmost on behalf of their community, although the writer tries to show\notherwise. It is the economic war that they are waging in Sri Lanka that the\nordinary Sinhalese and Tamil must be vary of more so than the bombs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nthat the majority Sinhala Buddhist community expects of the new President is\nnot to take minority Shylocks who are only interested in ‘the exact pound of\nflesh’ into his confidence. They did not collect swords, knives, guns and\nexplosives to go hunting or fishing! Their war is multi-pronged \u2013  the womb bomb, economy bomb or the terrorist\nbomb. What the non-Muslims of Sri Lanka want are not overtures but firm commitments\nfrom the Muslims that they will not resort to downright lowly actions and violence\nagain; that they are mindful of the majority community, the Sinhalese their\nculture and land and live peacefully under a one set of rules in one civilized\ncommunity as Sri Lankans. By all means no special status for Muslims!     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ratanapala 1 Dec 2019 Muslim overtures in a Buddhist land! Mr Latheef Farook on the Island Newspaper \u2013 26 Nov 2019, says, all what they expect from the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is to create an environment with new overtures where they could live in peace. What the Muslims need is for the new government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ratanapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95903","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=95903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}