‘The Face of Buddhist Terror’ stokes discord in Sri Lanka
Cii News | 17 October 2014/24 Dhul Hijjah 1435
Anti-Islam sentiment reared its ugly head again in Sri Lanka, home to an estimated 2 million Muslims, following extremist monk Ashin Wirathu’s latest visit to this island nation. Wirathu, a Myanmar citizen, heads the 969 Movement – a racist outfit that not only seeks to entrench the Buddhism hegemony at any cost but also metes out violence against the already-marginalised Muslim community in this part of Asia.
“It’s really bad now in Sri Lanka,” Iyas Hanif, community activist and businessman, said in a telephonic interview with Cii this morning. Not long ago, he explained, anti-Islam extremists torched 50 shops and killed four people (including an infant). “We’re being targeted by the extreme racist political party organised by a Buddhist Monk. This organisation is supported by high-ranking government bureaucrats.”
The organisation Hanif is referring to is Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), an outfit packed with Sri Lanka’s right-wingers. Alongside other extremist groupings, BBS is accused of a protracted campaign to terrorise and exterminate from the island nation Muslims – who make up around 10% of the population. Pleas – from the likes of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime – to tackle terror and violence meted against minority communities, have fallen on deaf ears, according to Hanif. For a country fresh from a civil war, which plunged the country into utter mess in 2009, the BBS campaign coupled with the fascist monk’s visit and Rajapaksa’s inaction raise concerns.
There are also questions about how Colombo allowed extremist movement’s Wirathu to visit the island nation, not least since, as Hanif reminded Sabahul Khair, the Burmese monk’s terrorist group slaughtered 1,200 Muslims in the Indian Ocean region.
“This person has close links with our Bodu Bala Sena,” the activist said, explaining the covert ties between the racist Buddhist monk and Rajapaksa’s regime. “He himself, said it’s time to eradicate Muslims bit by bit, from the Sri Lankan border,” he said lamenting Sri Lanka’s political landscape (ruling party and opposition) unity in silence in this respect. The 969 terrorist grouping, which is also rejected by the United Nations among other world bodies as well as governments, has openly said that the south Asian region has to be “saved” from Islam.
It is not just violence that Sri Lanka’s Muslim community is facing but other aspects of Islam are under threat. This, explained Hanif, spans halaal food product on supermarket shelves to dress code (including hijab) as well as the beard. What is Colombo doing about all of this? “Government is shedding crocodile tears – this is politics. Our big man, President Rajapaksa, goes to Middle East countries and sheds crocodile tears for the Muslims,” the community activist observed. “He comes to Sri Lanka and he supports BBS.”
