Monks Put Religious Freedom At Risk

• Muslim MPs in urgent talks with President

By Easwaran Rutnam- Thursday, January 31, 2013

Muslim government parliamentarians had an urgent meeting last week with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other top officials in the government.
The meeting was to raise concerns over threats faced by Muslims in the country after a campaign was launched by a group of monks targeting who they claim are “extremist” Muslims.
The ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ mostly made up of Buddhist monks, was among those groups believed to have been involved in the campaign against Muslims in the country. However the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ said it had nothing to do with the hate campaign against Muslims.
Despite the denial, the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ had late last year urged the government to mediate and stop the issuance of halal certification on the island.
The monks had given the impression that the money collected by the local institution issuing the certification was channeling it to Hamas and Al-Qaeda.
Last week the Bodu Bala Sena insisted at a press conference that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist nation and there was no room for a multi religious concept.
The hate campaign against Muslims got ugly last week when a group staged a protest in Kuliyapitiya carrying placards, which degraded Islam. Last weekend a group of monks threatened the management of a clothing store in Maharagama and staged a protest outside the store saying the management was Muslim.
The hate campaign then spread fast on the Internet with Muslims in Sri Lanka being targeted on Facebook, blogs and Twitter.
Chairman of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL), N. M. Ameen told The Sunday Leader that they were concerned with the developments. He said that while the monks claimed the protests were against the so called “Muslim extremists” it was affecting ordinary Muslims as well. Ameen said that the Muslim Council had sought the immediate intervention of the President and the government on the issue.
JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake also raised the issue in Parliament last week and sough a response from the government. The response the government gave was that a Parliament Select Committee would be appointed soon to look at the issue.
However UNP MP Kabir Hashim told The Sunday Leader that response was not enough. He says he was surprised at the response when the first thing the government should do is stop the unrest. “There is a breakdown of the established law and order. There is a group purposely creating discord among communities. First the government must stop this. There is no need for a Parliament Select Committee to do that. The government seems to be trying to deviate from facing the problem,” the MP said.
He also noted that during the protest in Kuliyapitiya the police had failed to act. MP Hashim said that the UNP would be having meetings with religious leaders over the next few days to discuss the issue. Hashim also warned that various conspiracy theories would spread if the government fails to address the issue soon.
However the government insists it is not taking the issue lightly. Deputy Minister of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs M. K. A. D. S Gunawardena said President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed a committee to look into the issue.
“The government will not allow any religion to be abused. If something happens we will take legal action. All religions have equal rights.
We will deal with the issue based on the recommendations of the committee,” the Deputy Minister told The Sunday Leader.
Meanwhile, the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ issued a statement on its website urging the public not to use Facebook or the Internet as a whole to create discord among religions.
The ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ says its fight is against “terrorism” and the fight will continue. The ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ has scheduled public meetings early next month where the issue is likely to get aggravated further.
The Sri Lankan Constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom.
The Constitution states, “Every person is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice”.
The Constitution gives a citizen, “the right either by himself or in association with others, and either in public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice, or teaching”. The Constitution accords Buddhism the “foremost place” and commits the government to protecting it, but does not recognize it as the state religion.
The US State Department report released last year on religious freedom noted that there were reports of abuses of religious freedom in Sri Lanka. The report said that although the government publicly endorsed religious freedom, in practice there were problems in some areas.

Hakeem slams hate campaign against Muslims

Leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Minister of Justice Rauff Hakeem has slammed the hate campaign being carried out by some Buddhist monks against Muslims and also expressed dismay over the inability of the police to contain a protest staged by monks in Maharagama last Saturday.
Hakeem said that the derogatory references to the Muslims as a community, and the related isolated incidents that have taken place in different parts of the country in the recent past, are also a disturbing trend that ought to be reversed.
Hakeem said that law and order must be enforced to nip it in the bud and that the government is duty-bound to protect all communities equally including the weak and the vulnerable.

“At a time the country is recovering from a protracted thirty-years’ war, it is distressing to note that the conflict between ethnic communities are showing signs of flaring up again, aided and abetted by certain groups trying to discredit the government and the Sri Lankan State. We must act with restraint and tolerance, by not falling prey to vested interests that spread hate and religious bigotry and thereby inviting unwanted external interference. I believe that this could also be part of a conspiracy to isolate Sri Lanka in the international arena. As intelligent citizens who love our motherland we must not pay heed to those promoting religious disharmony,” he said in a statement.

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We are not against Muslims - Bodu Bala Sena
The ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ says it has lodged a complaint with the police saying some groups were using the name of the organization to create a rift between Buddhists and Muslims.
Executive Committee member of the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ Dilantha Withanage told The Sunday Leader that the logo of the organization had been used in Kuliyapitiya during a protest by a group.
“We condemn any attempt to degrade any religion. We have nothing against Muslims. We were not involved in the Maharagama incident or in Kuliyapitiya. Our fight is only against unethical elements,” he said.
Withanage said that the main goal of the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ is to strengthen the Singhalese and Buddhism and not attack a religion.
He said that even if Singhalese Buddhists take part in unethical activities the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ would strongly oppose it.
“We will not promote anti-religious activities and that is why even on our website we put a statement against the campaign using Facebook,” he said.