Call for Muslim Parliamentarians to Resign from the Government
By Latheef Farook
The
speech of Ven. Galagodatte Gnanasara Thera at a public meeting in
Kandy on March 17 shamed the nation and sent shudders over the spines of
the island’s Muslim community.
Addressing the gathering Bodu Bala Sena Secretary Ven. Galagodatte Gnanasara Thera
asked the Sinhalese to rise against the island’s Muslims, whom he described in very derogatory terms not worthy of a
monk, besides accusing Muslims of converting Buddhists into Islam and
treating Sinhalese girls and boys in their establishments as slaves.
Inciting
them he also asked all Sinhalese girls working for Muslim owned
establishments to leave. However he had conveniently forgotten to ask
Sinhalese working in the Gulf to return home!
The
manner in which he expressed his hatred in his drive to provoke the
Sinhalese against Muslims made one to ask whether we are living in the
medieval era or in the globalized era in 2013. The irony is that this
hate campaign is taking place in a country where Buddhist civilization,
known for its teaching of peace, harmony and tolerance, flourished for
more than 2550 years.
The
tragedy is that this fascism is unfolding four years after ending the
thirty year ethnic carnage which was the direct outcome of the racist
policies of misguided politicians of the two major communities-
Sinhalese and Tamils. Although the Muslims were not direct parties to
the conflict they too suffered as a result of the war which was the
direct outcome of racist policies.
It
was against these very same Muslims the Jathika Hela Uruma, Bodu Bala
Sena, Sinhala Ravaya, JHU-BBS-SR BBS, combine started inciting
Sinhalese not realizing the inherent dangers involved to the whole
country.
The
disgusting state of affairs was such that Muslims in and around Kandy
remained in doors on March 17 and most of them observed a day long fast.
Realizing the seriousness of this unwarranted provocation by a small
but very well organized heavily funded and government backed group of
few hundreds, large number of Sinhalese met their Muslim neighbors and
friends in and around Kandy to assure them that they have nothing to do
with the BBS. Some even said that “BBS which appeared from nowhere has
become a source of embarrassment to Sinhalese”.
Today
Muslims living in small numbers amidst predominantly Sinhalese areas
spend sleepless nights fearing a July 1983 type attack on them. The
deafening silence among the Sinhalese and the government’s refusal to
bring these lawless elements to book is deeply disturbing and
frightening.
All
what the Muslims are asking the government is to stop this hooliganism
and stop poisoning the minds of innocent people including children.
However the government has been silent which was exploited by the
JHU-BBS-SR combine to carry out their destructive campaign.
Under
such circumstance inevitably the mood among the Muslim community is
that of gloom with many young families asking “where are we heading and
what is the future of our children?
The
JHU-BBS-SR threat remains the common topic of discussions at every
Muslim gathering including funerals. With one voice they criticize
Muslim politicians for their failure to raise this issue. Muslims now
openly call their politicians to either stop this rising fascism which
could set ablaze the nation or resign from the government.
Muslim
community has lost confidence in their parliamentarians long before
the JHU-BBS SR hate Muslim campaign began in view of their failure to
stand up to Muslim rights on many issues. However today the mood is
nothing but anger.
Muslims
fear that the present hate campaign is a conspiracy to provoke them to
react to justify a violent attack on them to commemorate the centenary
of 1915 Sinhala- Muslim riot perhaps also to please their suspected
Israeli-Norwegian masters .
They
are least bothered about the harm they are causing to the image of the
Sinhala community and the destruction to their own country. As rightly
pointed out by Ven Dhambara Amila Thero, Senior Lecturer at Sri
Jayawardanapura University,” these people think that the world is inside
Sri Lanka though Sri Lanka is part of the world
This
fear is justified by the manner in which the JHU-BBS SR combine had
taken the law into their hands and become a government within government
committing actions in violation of the very same Buddhist principles
which they claim to profess and protect.
They
openly attack mosques, destroy shrines, go on street demonstrations
with posters of pigs with the Arabic word Allah on its face, posters of
Holy Ka’ba with a dog on it ,doctors trying to sterilize women who went
for delivery, attacking girls wearing hijab and abaya and many more.
Muslim minister of justice cannot ensure justice to his own community
and the country has descended to such low ebb that a Muslim woman cannot
walk freely without the fear of being attacked.
This
hooliganism was perpetrated under the watchful eyes of the police which
refuses to arrest them stating that THERE ARE “orders from the top not
to interfere”.
In
this dark hour the disturbed Muslim community was given a clear message
by the government. The message was that they are not wanted when state
patronage was given to the inaugural ceremony of a cultural center at
Galle gifted to BBS by a German, alleged to be a Jew. Perhaps the Jewish
methods of saying “thank you” to BBS for successfully pitting the
Sinhalese against Muslims
This
reminds the country of late President J.R.Jayawardene’s arrogant
dismissal of Muslims when he said “Muslim can stay or leave the
government” when he brought the Israelis to fight the LTTE. However it
didn’t take long for the country to realize that the very Israelis
brought to fight LTTE trained the very same LTTE while training Sri
Lankan soldiers too.
Perhaps no lessons learnt yet.
The
outcome of Jayewardene’s arrogance was the emergence of Sri Lanka
Muslim Congress which further divided the communities and contributed to
where the country is today though the mistake was realized later and
the National Unity Alliance was formed. Time alone will tell the
political implications of the current government’s policy towards
Israelis, turning blind eye to BBS hooliganism, overall Sinhalisation
and the systematic sidelining of Muslims.
In
fact the current unfolding disaster is not something unexpected
especially with the presence of Israelis who, many suspects, have picked
up the JHU-BBS-SR combine to do their dirty job of pitting Sinhalese
against Muslims in Sri Lanka
Right
now the Muslim community feels that it was abandoned by the government
and betrayed by their own politicians. Their appeal to the government is
to contain this ethno religious fascism to avert any potential disaster
which the country can ill afford. Their appeal to Muslim
parliamentarians is to leave the government and stop humiliating the
Muslim community.
What the JHU-BBS-SR combine refuse to understand is that the world, especially Muslims worldwide, is watching us.
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