Muslims & The Country Suffered Due To Racist Politics
Latheef Farook
Has the collapsing Maithri-Ranil government joined the anti-Muslim United States, Israeli and Indian war mongers axis to implement their evil designs on innocent Muslims in the island?
This is the question arises in view of the refusal of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to take timely precautionary measures to protect Muslims from the senseless attacks and the damage to the country by racist elements.
These well planned and executed carnage on the Muslims have all the hallmarks of Rastriya Seva Sangh (RSS) attacks in India since partition in 1947.
Time and again RSS gangs unleash violence on Indian Muslims especially in the north. They desecrate mosques, burn Holy Quran, residential, commercial and industrial units and turn Muslims into penniless. This has been common occurrences and were incidents when Muslim women were stripped naked, paraded in streets and video filmed.
Culprits were rarely brought to book even under congress governments.
This has been happening to Sri Lankan Muslims ever since violent attacks were unleashed under the defeated President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Sick of this carnage more than 95 percent of Muslims voted for President Maithripala Sirisena who pledged to bring to book all criminals and those who caused communal disharmony.
However Muslim hopes were dashed as Maithri-Ranil government dismissed their interests and sentiments from the very inception. For example President Sirisena visited Holocaust Museum during his visit to Germany dismissing the sentiments of Muslims. This was followed by the official invitation to British war criminal Tony Blair who, together with US war criminal George Bush, invaded Iraq and destroyed that country besides killing five percent of the Iraqi population.
President Sirisena’s government also refused to condemn the recent genocide of Rohingya Muslims. Meanwhile there began sporadic attacks on Muslims and the perpetrators were not brought to justice.
The result was growing frustration among Muslims.
It is common knowledge that Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero, General Secretary of Bodu Bala Sena, a violent anti-Muslim outfit, flourished under Rajapaksa government. He is a man of violence and openly displays his hatred towards Muslims .There are numerous police cases against him. Yet he was seen meeting President Sirisena who promised the nation to bring such people to books. This was an insult to justice and Muslims.
As time went on the number of attacks on Muslim continue to increase while the government continued to turned blind eye.
Muslims took up the matter with President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and even the IGP. A delegation comprising Professor Sarath Jayasuriya, Gamini Viyangoda and Janarangana together with National Shoora Council members met President Sirisena last year and urged him to stop attacks on Muslims.
His response was “this is Mahinda Rajapaksa’s conspiracy to topple the government” and never uttered a word about enforcing law and order and punish the culprits.
This attitude continued until the attacks on Muslims in Gintota, Ampara and areas in and around Digana, Teledeniya, Pallekelle, Akurana, Ambatenne and other places causing billions of rupees worth of destruction depriving livelihood of thousands of families who were forced to live in fear and misery.
On the other hand Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, known for his pro-western mindset, too adopted a lukewarm policy. As prime ministers he supported former US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in their invasion of Iraq. When Muslim parliamentarians tried to condemn he told them to leave the government and do so.
Days after the attacks on Ampara Prime Minister Wickremesinghe left to Singapore to attend a seminar while days after the attack on Digana President Sirisena left to India and Japan while curfew was still in force.
