Significance of Aluthgama

Editorial Tamil Guardian 08 July 2014

Almost at the centenary of the first anti-Muslim riots by Sinhala mobs in 1915, the violence unleashed against Muslims in the Aluthgama last month marks a new step in the advance of Sinhala-Buddhist hegemony in Sri Lanka. While the active complicity of the military and police in the organised attacks by Sinhala nationalists on Muslim businesses and homes is well recognised, what is striking is not only the government’s open contempt for Muslim leaders’ frantic protests and appeals, but the wider demonstrable support for the nationalist BBS (Buddhist Power Force) movement. Much of the analysis and commentary since the riots however, underplays the significance of Aluthgama, portraying the violence and the racism that informed it as the preserve of a small and extremist few. This ignores, and even denies, the wider legitimacy enjoyed by the BBS, within Sinhala polity, media and public pointedly refusing to condemn the group's ideological goals. Far from being an extremist fringe, the BBS is the latest vanguard of a long-running, deeply entrenched and widely supported project of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist order making that has shaped Sri Lanka since independence.  The echoes of the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983 are immediately apparent in the latest Sinhala rioting. As the Tamil economy was then targeted, albeit in a much more expansive fashion, Aluthgama was intended to break the economic backbone of the local Muslim community, whilst sending a clear message to all Muslims and their leaders that the terms of their hitherto accommodation within Sinhala-Buddhist hegemony have changed. The cause is clear: as Tamils had long predicted, rather than enabling the flourishing of repressed liberal values, the defeat of the LTTE removed the most serious obstacle to Sinhala-Buddhist project and paved the way for an intensification of state-facilitated majoritarian terror. While the links between state leaders, in particular Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and the BBS are widely acknowledged, what is notable though, is the much muted, qualified criticism of the BBS' campaign that is arguably implicit endorsement, by the wider Sinhala polity, clergy and public. Indeed despite routine claims that ‘most Sinhalese do not support’ the BBS, the aftermath of Aluthgama suggests otherwise. The opposition UNP, often touted as the liberal alternative to President Rajapaksa’s violent and authoritarian rule, has been careful not to criticise the BBS’ ideological values. Instead, framing Aluthgama as a law-and-order problem, the UNP has focused its criticism solely on the government. Indeed, the words of UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe are indistinguishable from those of President Rajapaksa: calling for restraint on ‘both sides’, they both portray the violence as lawlessness in which both the Sinhala mobs and the Muslim victims are equally culpable, with neither leader expressing solidarity with the Muslim community or rejection of ethnic majoritarianism. The responses of the Sinhala polity reflects that of wider Sinhala society. Large numbers have publicly rejoiced at the violence, with anti-Muslim hate speech proliferating across social media sites. Any criticism, albeit expressed by a vocal minority, limits itself to the violent methods adopted by the BBS in pursuit of Sinhala Buddhist supremacy, not the chauvinist ideology itself. Meanwhile, as the rioting unfolded, all but two of the country’s media sites maintained a news blackout for over 24 hours. Sri Lankan doctors were later accused of colluding with security forces and falsifying post-mortem reports. What is striking is that these actions required no instruction or coercion - that Sinhala-Buddhist violence against Muslims ought to be censored was the instinctive conclusion. Aluthgama and its aftermath mark an important step in the Sinhala-Buddhist project. While Sinhala violence against Muslims is not new – the 1915 riots were the first, with regular eruptions since - the expanding challenge posed by the Tamils to Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist order prompted a temporary accommodation that endured so long as the LTTE remained a potent threat. For decades, rather than resist the Sinhala Buddhist project, Sri Lankan Muslim leaders responded with accommodation and acquiescence, in exchange for a degree of space within it. This suited successive Sinhala regimes who, focused on crushing Tamil resistance, actively encouraged Tamil-Muslim enmity, with devastating consequences: actively supporting the government’s military onslaught against the Tamils, including forming paramilitary (‘Home Guard’) forces, Muslims were subject to Tamil militant attacks including the mass expulsion from Jaffna by the LTTE, while Tamils endured Muslim violence in the island’s east. The tacit Sinhala-Muslim agreement of accommodation however, has been rendered void with the defeat of the LTTE. Confident of having eliminating the Tamil challenge, the Sinhala-Buddhist project is now ruthlessly redrawing the terms of its tolerance for the Muslims, as exemplified by the humiliating and racist responses Muslim leaders within the ruling coalition received when they demanded government action against the BBS, as well as the cold shoulders and openly chauvinist reactions from other Sinhala parties. Aluthgama and its aftermath occurs within a wider context where Sri Lankan state leaders no longer feel any compulsion to even pretend to adhere to liberal principles. This is not without good reason.  The wider legitimacy of Sinhala nationalist values, whilst routinely denied by many Sri Lankan liberals, underpins much public support for the state leaders' actions. Consequently, it is crucial those committed to an inclusive and liberal future for Sri Lanka recognise Aluthgama for what it is: a microcosm of surging and deeply entrenched Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism, rather than a chance episode of violence by an extremist fringe.

Dy. Minister Gunasekera to be charged today

Using vehicle with false number plate

By Madura Ranwala-July 7, 2014

The Police will file a plaint today against Deputy Minister of Internal Trade and Cooperatives, Hemal Gunasekera for using a vehicle with a false number plate.

The politician was stopped by the police on the Southern Highway on May 20 while travelling in that vehicle.

Police constable Suminda Saman, who stopped the deputy minister’s vehicle has complained to the police that he was attacked and his car burnt by a gang a few days later.

PC Suminda has recently tendered his resignation to the Police Department, claiming that he had no faith in the police investigations into the incident and his life was in danger.

‘Sri Lanka Under Al-Qaeda Threat’; Muslims Condemn Ceylon Today’s Inflammatory Marketing Techniques

July 8, 2014

Ceylon Today – one of the mainstream English newspapers in Sri Lanka, has come under heavy criticism following a poster campaign carried out by the company to promote its July 6th issue titled ‘Sri Lanka underAl-Qaeda threat’ bearing the image of a masked, black-clad terrorist wielding a gun.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Council (SLMC) in a letter to the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief, Hana Ibrahim yesterday have expressed their concern and objection to the subject matter chosen to promote the newspaper, pointing out the content is lacking ‘sensitivity and concern to the recent anti-Muslim violence and the ongoing hate-campaigns against Muslims’ in the country.

SLMC Vice President Hilmy Ahamed in his letter has described the poster campaign as an ‘insensitive, unethical and opportunistic marketing technique’.

He has pointed out that such campaigns coupled with the provocative stories that have concurrently been published by certain other media institutions have contributed to fuelling unsubstantiated rumours of Islamic terrorists operating on Lankan soil, which is in turn systematically helping gain grounds for hate campaign against Muslims.

Ahamed has gone on to state that against the backdrop of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa denying the existence of such armed Islamic groups in Sri Lanka, it is of vital importance that the media refrains from sensationalising issues.

Furthermore, he has called upon Ibrahim to ensure that responsible and ethical business practises are adopted by Ceylon Today, that would not further endanger the social relations between Sinhala and Muslim communities that are presently in a fragile state.

We publish below the letter in full;                              Read More

BJP government’s nuclear policy should Defend democracy - PMANE

 Tuesday, 08 July 2014 

BJP government’s nuclear policy should defend  democracy and not criminalize dissent said by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy in their press statement.

The full text of press statement as follows

There were speculations in some sections of the press that the new BJP government may put on the back-burner the previous UPA government's plan to install 20 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity by 2020, and instead would focus on wind and solar to achieve energy security at least for the next two years. But the Modi government’s leaking an IB report on “development,” their signing the IAEA Additional Protocol, the high profile visits of John Kerry and John McCain, and Prime Minister Modi’s planned visits to Japan and the United States indicate that the above speculation may, after all, be our wishful thinking.

Although India does need more energy, we need to consider the issues of exorbitant cost, need for more land and fresh water, polluting our seas and hurting people’s food and nutrition security, dealing with nuclear waste and so forth. Most importantly, nuclear power plants put our people’s lives at great risk in our highly and densely populated country. It is high time we broke out of the UPA’s ‘nuclear slaves’ mentality and assert that Indians are indeed leaders in the international political arena and Indian life does have worth, meaning and value that cannot be compromised for the profit of the nuclear companies of the United States, Russia, France, Japan, South Korea and so on. Quite evidently, these countries want to sell us their nuclear technology but are not ready and willing to respect our life and honor our liability act and other regulations.

Indeed the BJP had opposed certain measures taken by the UPA government with regards to our nuclear policy, especially the dilution of the Nuclear Liability Act. It is our earnest hope and expectation that the Modi government does not duplicate the previous UPA government’s nuclear policy and put foreigners’ interests ahead of the interests of India and Indian citizens.

Just like any other department under the corrupt UPA government, the nuclear sector was also rampant with corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement. The Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) is a case in point. The KKNPP administration bought approximately 48 lakh liters of High Speed Diesel (HSD) for Rs. 26.6 crores) in just 11 months in 2013. In November 2013 alone, they bought HSD for 4.4 crores. Our queries and RTI petitions on the need for this much HSD for a nuclear power plant have gone unanswered. Similarly, the KKNPP administration has spent a whopping sum of 5.2 crores for medical treatment of their employees for just 17 months (from January 2013 to May 17, 2014). The KKNPP authorities are still spending enormous amounts of money on diesel purchase and medical treatment of their employees. This is only a tip of the iceberg and the BJP government would do well for the country if they could institute an inquiry into the corruption,

 inefficiency and wastefulness of the Department of Atomic Energy.

On May 14, 2014, there was an accident at the KKNPP Unit 1 and some six men were badly injured with 70 degree burns. The local people have been expressing our fears and concerns about having used shoddy and substandard equipment and parts in the KKNPP 1 and 2, demanding copies of the basic reports on the project and asking many more relevant safety-related questions. We have not received any of this information but have only invited charges of sedition and ‘waging war on the Indian State’ instead. The IB has leaked recently a “classified” document to the press in order to malign the names of a few leaders of people’s movements and public-spirited NGOs, and to intimidate those who would stand up and speak up against the government’s anti-Indian policies, programs and “development’ projects.

If our country is still a democratic republic and Indian life is deemed to have any worth and value, the Modi government should put a moratorium on all the new and planned nuclear power projects such as Koodankulam, Kalpakkam, Kovvada, Jaitapur, Mithi Virdi, Chutka, Banswada etc., and carry out an honest and thorough review of these projects including financial, environmental and social costs. They should also share all the basic reports on all of these projects with our people and have a national debate before we decide the future of nuclear energy in our country. Instead of carrying out a witch-hunt of the honest and well-meaning nuclear whistle-blowers, the BJP government should try to listen to the fears and concerns of our people and anti-nuclear protestors all over the country. Upholding our people’s democratic rights and entitlements, the BJP government should be sincere to our people’s interests, give them what they actually want and not
 dilute our national laws and regulations in order to placate the foreigners and their profiteering corporations.

The Press Meet is chaired by Chitranjan Singh, National Secretary, PUCL; S. P. Udayakumar, Coordinator of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE); Dayamani Barla, Adivasi leader from Jharkhand, Mi. Pa. Jesuraj, P. K. Sundaram, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Mildred, Malar, Avila, Initha, Pon Chandran and others.

The US Sledgehammer Worldview

| by Noam Chomsky

( July 8, 2014, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) The front page of The New York Times on June 26 featured a photo of women mourning a murdered Iraqi.

The US Sledgehammer Worldview by Maria Anderson

Why the French are so strict about Islamic head coverings

The Economist explains-Jul 6th 2014,

Note: Join the author of this explainer here on July 10th, from 16:30 to 18:00 BST, when she will answer your questions on the rights and wrongs of France's "burqa ban". Leave your questions now in the comments section below.

THE FRENCH breathed a collective sigh of relief on July 1st when the European Court of Human Rights upheld the country's 2010 ban on the wearing of full-faced veils in public places. It followed a separate ruling in June by a top French appeals court that a private day-care nursery was within its rights when it sacked an employee who refused to take off her Muslim headscarf at work. In France, such rules generate relatively little controversy. Yet they are often misunderstood in countries where liberal multiculturalism is the established creed. Why are the French so strict about Islamic head coverings?

France adheres to a strict form of secularism, known as laïcité, which is designed to keep religion out of public life. This principle was entrenched by law in 1905, after fierce anti-clerical struggles with the Roman Catholic church. Today, the lines are in some ways blurred. The French maintain, for instance, certain Catholic public holidays, such as Ascension. But secular rules on the whole prevail. It would be unthinkable in France, for example, to hold a nativity play in a state primary school, or for a president to be sworn in on a Bible.

Over the past 30 years, in response to a growing assertiveness among the country’s 5m-6m Muslims, the focus of this effort to balance religious and secular needs has shifted to Islam. After a decade of legal uncertainty over the wearing of the headscarf in state schools, the French government in 2004 banned all “conspicuous” religious symbols, including the Muslim headscarf, from public institutions such as state schools or town halls. This was followed in 2010 by what the French call the “burqa ban”, outlawing the full face covering in public. Critics accuse France of illiberalism, of curbing freedom of religious expression, and of imposing a Western interpretation of female oppression. Amnesty International, for example, called the recent European court ruling “a profound retreat for the right to freedom of expression and religion”. For the French, however, it is part of an unapologetic effort to keep religious expression private, and to uphold the country’s republican secular identity. Interestingly, many moderate Muslim leaders also back the ban as a bulwark against hard-line Islam.

Had the European Court ruled against France, it would have prompted an outcry there. The country enjoys broad cross-party support for applying secular principles, on the left and the right, and the court accepted that it was part of France’s effort to encourage a society based on “living together”. If anything, the judgment will reinforce France’s resolve to protect its secular tradition. Last month’s ruling against the day-care nursery employee is the first time that a ban on the Muslim headscarf has been extended into the private sector. In its judgment, the court stressed that its ruling should not be generalised, as it related to the nursery’s own company regulations. Yet a precedent has been set, and the chances are that if anything the French will in future enforce rather than loosen bans on Muslim head-coverings.

Rising Alarm at Australia's Asylum Seeker Returns

High Court Grants Injunction to Determine Legality

People at a rally in Sydney on Monday protesting the Australian government's return of a boatload of Sri Lankan asylum seekers. Agence France-

ROB TAYLOR -

July 8, 2014

CANBERRA, Australia—Australia's decision to block dozens of Sri Lankan asylum seekers at sea and return them home to possible danger came under increasing scrutiny on Tuesday, with the world's top refugee body expressing rising alarm as another vessel on the high seas became stranded in a legal limbo.

Rising Alarm at Australia's Asylum Seeker Returns by Maria Anderson

Burma government imposes curfew in Mandalay

Smoke and flames billow from a burning building set ablaze during sectarian violence in Meikhtila, Mandalay division, in March 2013. Pic: AP.

By Edward Barbour-Lacey Jul 08, 2014 

Following several nights of violence between Muslim and Buddhist groups in the Burmese city of Mandalay, a curfew has been imposed in an attempt to bring order to the area. Many of those involved in the fighting had been armed with iron rods, sticks, and swords.

The majority Buddhist population in the country has increasingly clashed with the Muslim minority in the past few years. Around 200,000 Muslims live in Mandalay.

While the majority of the violence has been centered in Rakhine state in western Burma, where 200 people were killed and tens of thousands were displaced in 2012, there have been disruptions throughout the country. Many of the country’s Muslims continue to live in refugee camps.

Two people have been reported killed in this latest outbreak of violence, one Muslim and one Buddhist. Police report four people have been arrested in connection with these killings.

The fighting began Tuesday of this week when rumors were spread online by a blogger that a gang of Muslim men had raped a Buddhist woman. The message was spread further when Ashin Wirathu, one of Burma’s most controversial Buddhist monks, posted the story on his Facebook page.  Wirathu is the leader of the 969 Group that is adamantly against what it sees as Muslim expansion within the country. He has been jailed previously for inciting religious hatred.

Controversial Buddhist monk Wirathu helped inflame Buddhist and Muslim tension in Mandalay. Pic: AP.

In response to the news of the rape, Buddhist gangs attacked shops owned by Muslims as well as a mosque.

Social media has become a key way for extremists on both sides to spread rumors and inflame passions through hate speech. See here for an in-depth look at the pernicious effect of social media in Myanmar.

By Wednesday night, there were hundreds of riot police on the streets who were attempting to control the roving gangs of Buddhists who were attacking more shops, mosques, and cars. The gangs were only persuaded to leave after police fired rubber bullets into the crowds.

On Friday, there were rumors that the police had arrested a man and charged him with rape, however, this has not been confirmed.

The curfew continues.

Two Birmingham men plead guilty to Syria jihad

TUESDAY 08 JULY 2014
Two men plead guilty to travelling to Syria to join al-Qaeda militants, after they were turned in to police by their worried parents. Home Affairs Correspondent Darshna Soni reports.

Watch below: jihad the debate - can it ever be justified?

Two Birmingham Men Plead Guilty to Syria Jihad by Maria Anderson

EU Sanctions Target Humanitarian Aid

Dr. Franklin Lamb Salem-News.com

Hindering Restoration of Global Heritage in Syria...

Dr. Kinda al-Shammat, human rights advocate-capriciously targeted with EU political sanctions on 6/23/14. Photo by Dr. Franklin Lamb, Salem-News.com

(DAMASCUS, Syria) - Today, a civilization that used to lead the world and for centuries was the beacon of learning, tolerance and trade, and that still protects our global cultural heritage, is damaged—and only the Syrian people can rebuild it for all of us. We need to help them.

Last month, half-heartedly and without unanimity among its 28 member states, the European Union levied yet more sanctions on Syrian officials.

Minister of Tourism, HE Bashr Yaziji. Another target of EU political sanctions last week.

EU Sanctions Target Humanitarian Aid by Maria Anderson

Taliban suicide bomber kills four Nato troops

Victims' nationalities not revealed after attack north of Kabul which also killed 10 civilians and two policemen

About 50,000 Nato troops are still in Afghanistan, down from a peak of 150,000 in 2011. Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Tuesday 8 July 2014

A Taliban suicide bomber killed 16 people, including 10 civilians and fourNato soldiers, in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said, as foreign troops wind down their war against the insurgents.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying one of its suicide bombers had blown himself up near a Nato patrol in the province of Parwan, north of the capital, Kabul.

The attack comes as Afghanistan is mired in political crisis, with a bitter row raging over allegations of fraud in the presidential runoff election.

"Four International Security Assistance Force service members died as a result of an enemy forces attack," a statement from the Nato mission said. In line with coalition policy, it did not reveal the victims' nationalities.

Waheed Sediqqi, a spokesman for Parwan's governor said 10 civilians and two policemen were also killed.

The insurgents said 15 US special forces soldiers were killed, but claims are frequently exaggerated after such attacks.

About 50,000 Nato troops are still in Afghanistan, down from a peak of 150,000 in 2011. Nato's combat mission will wrap up at the end of this year, with 10,000 US troops staying into next year if the new president signs a security deal with Washington.

About 3,450 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 when the Taliban regime was ousted from power.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said any attempt to seize power in the election crisis would cost the country its international aid.

Initial results released on Monday showed that the former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani had won the election, but a spokesman for his poll rival Abdullah Abdullah rejected the outcome as "a coup against the will of the people".

The figures showed Ghani collected 56.4% of the runoff vote against ex-foreign minister Abdullah's 43.5%.

Islamic State claims Baghdad bombs; parliament to meet Sunday

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (C) and acting Defence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi (R) attend the funeral ceremony of Major General Negm Abdullah Ali, commander of the army's sixth division, at the defence ministry in Baghdad July 7, 2014

BY ISRA'A AL-RUBEI' AND MAGGIE FICK-BAGHDAD Tue Jul 8, 2014

(Reuters) - Islamist militants claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Baghdad, and there were signs the deadlock paralysing Iraq's parliament might finally be loosening in the face of the threat from the "Islamic State" that has seized much of the country.

Islamic State Claims Baghdad Bombs; Parliament to Meet Sunday by Maria Anderson

Putin's Secret Weapon

Russia's swashbuckling military intelligence unit is full of assassins, arms dealers, and bandits. And what they pulled off in Ukraine was just the beginning.

BY MARK GALEOTTI-JULY 7, 2014

There are two ways an espionage agency can prove its worth to the government it serves. Either it can be truly useful (think: locatinga most-wanted terrorist), or it can engender fear, dislike, and vilification from its rivals (think: being named a major threat in congressional testimony). But when a spy agency does both, its worth is beyond question.

Putin's Secret Weapon by Maria Anderson

How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution

By Lyndsey Layton June 7

The pair of education advocates had a big idea, a new approach to transform every public-school classroom in America. By early 2008, many of the nation’s top politicians and education leaders had lined up in support.

How Bill Gates Pulled Off the Swift Common Core Revolution by Maria Anderson