‘Gnanasara’ And Sinhaley Alt-Right Antics – ‘Alu Yata Gini’
Lukman Harees
Listening to the video recording of Galagoda Atte Gnanasara (Thero)’s anti Muslim hate speech in South Korea, I began to realize how well he fits into the title of a ‘Modern Devadatta’. Devadatta tried to assassinate his cousin Buddha . However this modern Devadatta version in saffron robes has already killed the spirit of the message of peace enunciated by the Buddha. This racist bigot and lunatic suffers from a delusion of putting an end to the rise of Islam and the Muslims, even by being a Prabakaran and with political support. A wishful thinking indeed! Islam and Muslims have been part and parcel of the history of Sri Lanka for well over 1000 years and they will remain so despite the dubious attempts of these hate groups to make them aliens. However, the hate he spits out is indicative more of the looming danger of another religious based War rather than his evil character.
Islam has been spreading fast particularly in the West, at a crucial time, despite a well-orchestrated Islamophobic campaign to demonise Islam spreading globally , not because of the efforts of the Muslims as such, but because of the vibrancy, pragmatism and dynamism embedded in the message of Islam itself, as the Quran says : ‘They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it’. It is therefore important for Muslims in Sri Lanka to show by example to other communities that Islam indeed is a religion which stresses on peaceful co-existence , respect for life, spiritual integrity, social justice and economic probity, which has promoted great flowerings of human civilization in many parts of the world.
One of the biggest challenges for Sri Lanka in the Post-Independence era in general and Post-War period in particular has been the imperative need to defeat the majoritarian and racist hate groups led by rogue Pseudo Buddhist monks and to promote national reconciliation , as bedrock for national progress. It was unfortunate that the MR tried to assume a Macho Dutugemunu Maharajanoo image for short term benefits rather than using the Post War gains to build up an all-inclusive multi-ethnic Sri Lanka. These hate groups thus acted without fear or sanction with State patronage. After the Yahapalana government was voted to office in 2015 by the people of Sri Lanka, BBS and the sister groups however avoided being so vocal and visible on the streets as they were during the previous regime, as prominent Media coverage and State patronage which were oxygen to their hate campaigns was mostly denied to them. One of the main themes of the Yahapalana election campaign was incidentally national reconciliation. Precisely why Gnanassara has been seeking political support to put an end to the rise of Muslims!
