Call For Muslim Parliamentarians To Resign From The Government
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 suspect, 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.
