Aspirin 'safe' for brain-bleed strokes

By Michelle RobertsHealth -22 May 2019

Patients who have had a stroke caused by bleeding in the brain can safely take aspirin to cut their risk of future strokes and heart problems, according to a new study.

Aspirin thins the blood and so doctors have been cautious about giving it, fearing it could make bleeds worse.

But The Lancet research suggests it does not increase the risk of new brain bleeds, and may even lower it.

Experts say the "strong indication" needs confirming with more research.

Only take daily aspirin if your doctor recommends it, they advise.

Aspirin benefits and risks

Aspirin is best known as a painkiller and is sometimes also taken to help bring down a fever.

But daily low-dose (75mg) aspirin is used to make the blood less sticky and can help to prevent heart attacks and stroke.

Most strokes are caused by clots in the blood vessels of the brain but some are caused by bleeds.

Because aspirin thins the blood, it can sometimes make the patient bleed more easily.

And aspirin isn't safe for everyone.

It can also cause indigestion and, more rarely, lead to stomach ulcers.

Never give aspirin to children under the age of 16 (unless their doctor prescribes it).

It can make children more likely to develop a very rare but serious illness called Reye's syndrome (which can cause liver and brain damage).

The study

The research involved 537 people from across the UK who had had a brain bleed while taking anti-platelet medicines, to stop blood clotting, including aspirin, dipyridamole or another drug called clopidogrel.

• Half of the patients were chosen at random to continue on their medicine (following a short pause immediately after their brain bleed), while the other half were told to stop taking it
• Over the five years of the study, 12 of those who kept taking the tablets suffered a brain bleed, compared with 23 of those who stopped

The work is being presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference in Milan.

What do experts say?

The research cannot prove that aspirin prevents future strokes but it appears to be linked to a lower risk.

Nor does it suggest that aspirin is always safe to take.

But it hints that more patients - those with haemorrhagic or brain bleed strokes - might benefit from daily treatment.

It's not clear if the study findings will apply to all patients in real life.

Lead researcher, Prof Rutsam Salman, from the University of Edinburgh, said: "At the moment, people do not know what the right thing to do is.

"Doctors are hesitant about giving aspirin or aspirin-like drugs to people who have had this type of stroke.

"UK and European guidelines do not give any recommendation, because there hasn't been enough evidence.

"I think we have now confirmed safety with these findings.

"It certainly seems that aspirin is safe enough to give."

Prof Salman recommended more work to see if aspirin might actually lower the risk of brain bleeds as well as clots.

Prof Metin Avkiran, from the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, said: "Around a third of people who suffer a brain haemorrhage, also known as haemorrhagic stroke, do so when they are taking an anti-platelet medicine, such as aspirin, to reduce the risk of a heart attack or an ischaemic [blood clot] stroke.

"We now have a strong indication they can carry on taking these potentially life-saving medicines after the brain haemorrhage without increasing the risk of another one, which is crucial new information for both patients and doctors."

Anyone with concerns should speak to a doctor before considering changing medication, however.

Preventing a stroke

You can reduce your risk by:

• eating a healthy diet
• taking regular exercise
• not smoking
• avoiding too much alcohol

Weekend Tamil Heritage Exhibition In London

by our London Correspondent-2019-05-20

• 
  

In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the ending of the Civil War in Sri Lanka, a new acronym ToL, Tamils of Lanka, has entered the diaspora vocabulary over the weekend.

 

The “Tamils of Lanka- a Timeless Heritage” Exhibition, a collective and community project organised by volunteers of Tamil Information Centre, TIC, London, was spearheaded mainly by young Tamils and students at UK Universities in collaboration with academics. It was held at the spacious Tolworth Recreation Centre. near Surbiton, Surrey on 18/19 May 2019 on two floors and was well attended with parents bring their families along, together with many interested British residents also being curious.

 

 

The Exhibition, the first of its kind, was a conglomerate of Ancient History and Heritage, Political Resistance, Consequences of War, Mullivaikkal, and Art, Culture and Architecture of Tamils through the ages, with prominence given to the not forgotten memories of the war. Resilience, restitution and recovery of lost pride featured prominently, with both sadness of a lost generation and resolute vision for a newer generation.

 

One of the highlights of the event was the lecture given by Prof. Peter Schalk on “Buddhism among the Tamils “on 18 May,2019. He outlined inscriptions in Prakrit written in Brahmi by Tamil speakers dating from 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD, called the early “Anuratapuram” period by historians with traces of socially engaged Buddhism among the Tamils of that time.

 

Special Guests were Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Opposition together with Labour, Liberal and other politicians, with the Mayor of Kingston and many Councillors participating.

 

This exhibition was the brainchild of the Late Mr.V.Varadakumar, Executive Director TIC who passed away in April 2019 before seeing the fruits of his labour. He was a firm believer in uniting the various warring Tamil parties and splinter groups of migrants both refugees and second-generation Tamils in UK and abroad. He believed in enticing the future generation of young diaspora Tamils and by his example spread values of resilience.

 

Dr. Rachel Seoighe. Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent ended the last session of the Exhibition speakers with a philosophical note on conflict memory.

 

The recurring themes of this two day event was an incumbent duty to still count the dead, which many feel no body knows the final death toll, but also the need to defend the validity of progress the Tamils have made in their new homes around the world after the episode of war and the destruction of lives, culture and tradition, intentionally or otherwise, coupled with clear signs of hope for a future of reconciliation back home.

May 18 marked in Tamil Nadu

190518 Thanjavur Mullivaikkal 1.jpeg

The tenth anniversary of the Mullivaikkal genocide was commemorated in Thanjavur on May 18 at the ‘Mullivaikkal Muttram’ memorial centre.

20 May 2019

The commemorations were led by veteran Tamil writer Pazha Nedumaran.

Reports had circulated in the run up to May 18 that Tamil Nadu police were cracking down organisers of memorial activities in different parts of the state.

Activists in Chennai held a vigil demanding justice for Mullivaikkal. The Naam Thamilar party also held a commemoration at the party's Chennai headquarters.

Related Articles: 

19 May 2019 : Tamils across the world mark Mullivaikkal genocide

18 May 2019 : Tamils gather at Mullivaikkal to remember genocide 10 years on

Attacks On Helpless & Voiceless Muslims During Curfew

By Latheef Farook –MAY 21, 2019

Latheef Farook

Organized violence against helpless and voiceless Muslims: Maithri-Ranil failed to prevent it

Senseless and shameful organised racist violence against voiceless and helpless Muslims in the island had shown that Maithri- Ranil continued Mahinda- Gota’s racist violence against the Muslims who pay the price for voting the two to power.

The entire episode of Easter Sunday bombings and killings have become a calculated conspiracy against the Muslim community.

For example to begin with President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and the government intelligence agents failed to prevent the tragedy despite repeated prior warnings from powerful sources. The question is WHY? Certainly this can’t be an oversight. That means they allowed that to happen, perhaps, to put the Christians against Muslims to suit their western friends’ agenda against innocent Muslims.

In any other country president Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe would have resigned accepting responsibility for the carnage. However here the two failed to do so showing the rapid decline of moral values.

Handful of those who committed the Easter Sunday carnage had Muslim names and the community had nothing to do with them or their crime.

However in the wake of this tragedy the mainstream media unleashed a full scale campaign demonizing Islam and describing the entire Muslim community as terrorists. This campaign which could be described as “Media Terrorism” went on in full force for three long weeks during which the security forces emptied Muslims houses of even kitchen knives under search operations during emergence rule and curfew.

This happened despite Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith repeatedly stating that this carnage was done not by the Muslim community but by handful of youths used by international forces. The local media which has sold itself to US-European-Israeli war mongers’ refused to raise the issue of foreign involvement

This disgusting media terrorism built up hatred and pitted Sinhalese against Muslim community.

Once that was completed on Monday May 13 very well organized groups began attacking Muslim own property causing tremendous damage destroying Muslims economy which has been Sinhala racists main target.

However Muslims felt a bit relieved when the Army Chief Mahesh Senanayake said that a nation-wide curfew was declared and the military is prepared to use maximum force against groups of nationalist rioters who are attacking Muslims.

This assurance disappeared in the thin air when organized thugs  began attacking and burning  mosques, houses, business establishments, vehicles and whatever owned by Muslims. Multi-millionaire businessmen were turned into within hours.

These attacks and destruction continued under the watchful eyes of the forces which refused even to fire a shot in the air.  It started from Chilaw before spreading to Gampaha Kurunegala, Nikawaratiya and many other places.

According to local reports violent mobs marched through parts of the Kurunegala District for nearly 24 hours attacking mosques, homes and businesses in Muslim settlements in the area with most of the violence taking place during curfew hours, raising fears of another anti-Muslim riot in the area along the lines of Aluthgama in 2014 or Digana in 2018.

Mobs laid siege to the Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Aukana, Kottampitiya areas and by evening May 13 had moved to Nikaweratiya town area driving Muslim families, now in the midst of their Ramadan fast, into paddy fields for hiding.

Footage has emerged of mobs moving through towns during curfew hours in full view of the police. Mobs burnt vehicles meters away from the Hettipola police station earlier in the day. Activists also reported that mobs stopping vehicles and beating passengers. At least three mosques were attacked in Kiniyama a Muslim village in Kuliyapitiya.

In Padiyathalawa a Buddhist monk entered a Muslim owned shop and chased out Sinhala customers before   threatening the shop owner to   leave Padiyathalwa.

Police arrested several suspects in connection with the violence overnight but released them within hours after the mobs threatened to attack more and more villages unless the suspects were released.

The police curfew meant nothing to the mobs, and they roamed free as Muslim families fled their homes fearing for their lives. Muslims have lost all faith in the police, security forces and the government to provide them protection.

For example M.S. Fouzul Ameen 49, a well-to-do furniture shop owner from Kottaramulla in Nattandiya was killed due to serious cut injuries to his neck and face.

Ameen had been home with his family on Monday evening, about to end the daily fast around 6.20 p.m., when a mob   begun to stone the house and smashing windows, while the family stayed huddled inside. It was when the men started to smash his vehicle that Ameen had come out in a bid to dissuade them from doing so.

“The group of about five men had turned on him when he came out, and slashed him with a sword. He had fallen to the ground grievously hurt, after which they had poured turpentine that was lying around in the wood workshop on his face and left,” said Mohamed Haniffa, an uncle of the deceased.

His 16-year-old son Ajmir is too upset to talk, as he sits quietly clutching the National Identity Card of his late father. His younger siblings are too young to fully realize the gravity of the situation unfolding around them, while their mother is too distraught after the events of the past 72 hours to talk. Now what is the plight of Ameen’s wife and children.–courtesy FT Lanka?

Minister Navin Dissanayake said that the anti Muslim violence were organised and systematically cariied out and the  government has evidence to prove the claims. He said groups were brought in from outside but had support of area politicians.

Now the question is how come the government was not aware of these gangs and why preventive measures were taken to stop the carnage? Once again   they allowed that to happen?

Maithri-Ranil government made no moves to control the violence or call in the armed forces to stop the violence.

Meanwhile report by Shamindra Ferdinando in the Island on May 18 had this to state;

Deliberate attempts were made by influential interested parties to divert public attention away from the Easter Sunday carnage, a senior spokesperson for the Catholic Church told The Island.

Well organized attacks on the Muslim community in the North Western Province and Minuwangoda in the Gampaha District from Sunday (May 12) were integral part of their despicable strategy, the spokesperson alleged. “Various parties are seeking political advantage of the unprecedented crisis,” the official said.

Early this week, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith urged political parties not to be influenced by countrywide.

The priest alleged that there hadn’t been contingency plans in place to counter threat posed by those seeking to take advantage of the situation. Attacks on Muslims not only diverted the public attention from terror attacks blamed on extremist Muslim organizations, but drew international condemnation of Sri Lanka, the priest said. The UN censured Sri Lanka over the situation caused by the government’s pathetic failure to thwart organized attacks, the priest said.

The Church official pointed out that the government and police hadn’t explained as to how such large groups freely raided many towns in the Wayamba Province and Minuwangoda without hindrance. “We haven’t heard of at least one instance of the police or the armed forces firing in the air in a bid to control organized mobs,” the spokesman said.

Read More

MEMORIALIZATION: FROM POLITICIZATION TO PEOPLISATION

20/05/2019

At the last stages of the war thousands of civilians who lived in the Vanni Region of Northern Sri-Lanka were killed, injured and disappeared. Surrenders of war and persons among detainees were gone disappeared. When war intensified in late 2008 people of Vanni region started to move towards Mullaitivu district from other parts of Vanni. Daily they moved placed to place to protect themselves from shelling and bombings and finally they all came to bare lands where they found the darkness of the night is the only shadow covers their heads. They loved the night as they could get some relief from the burning. Mothers kept the children under trees and damaged and unmoved abandoned vehicles to protect them from hot sun. Final few months the sufferings intensified. They only got “Kanji” (rice porridge) to keep them survive. Then the “Kanji” become salt-less and more watery. When “Kanji” distribution is announced children run with utensils to get it for their families. There were incidents children who gone to collect “Kanji” were caught into areal bombings and shelling.

In the final stages of the war people could not bury the bodies of the dead family members. They left the bodies on the way and moved on. Young children missed from the hands of the mothers. There were incidents people stepped on the bodies of the dead and ran to protect their lives. On 18^th May 2009 war ended.

Memorializing the people who died in the war and the grievances what they suffered is a right of the people. But the “Mullivaikal Memorial” is dominated by politically influenced persons and designed according to their agendas. The survivors of war and ordinary people of Tamil community are not included as equal partners in the memorialization process. Memorialization should be a people oriented and a collective event with the particular communities’ own traditions.

In-order to transform the memorialization from politicization to peoplisation, North East Coordinating Committee (NECC) called survivors of war and the general public and mobilized them to collectively commemorate the 10^thyear war memorial from their own places. The leaflets which were widely distributed in North and East areas by NECC asked the public to “Plant a Tree and Remember Our Beloved ones” to create permeant identities and also to“Eat Salt-less Porridge” to collectively share the pain, sufferings and losses of the people.

A total number of 5000 coconut seedlings, 125 shade tree plants, and palmyra seeds were planted in remote villages of all eight districts of North and East including schools, hospitals, worship places and public places. Along with war affected social groups – families who lost their beloved ones in war, family members of disappeared persons, war injured persons, war widows, war orphans – grass root civil organizations, women’s societies, fisher and farmer federations, students, men, women and children keenly involved in the events.

Special memorial services and Poojas were organized in churches and in Hindu temples by war affected people. Villagers and neighbours joined with them. In Eachalavakkai village of Maanthai East of Mannar, a mother who lost her four children in war, treated the coconut seed ling as a child and planted it at the village temple location on behalf of her children and other 26 people of her area who died in war. She adored the planted plant with flowers with a sense of respect.

It was observed people of different generations participated in the collective commemoration. While elderly mothers cook “Kanji” at homes and collectively have it within the community, youth travelled by lorries and land masters with Kanji pots and served it in the streets and in public places. A 19 years old boy said, 10 years ago, during the war, as a 9 years old child he used to stay in “Kanji” ques and there were times that he arrived with empty jug as Kanji finished before he reaches the server. A middle-aged man in Jaffna said, he could not forget the Kanji as after having it his family members were killed in shelling. People shared their experiences in the streets while having Kanji. Some people took the Kanji in grocery bags for family members and neighbours.

It was observed, this sort of people-oriented memorialization makes the people to take the ownership of memorialization and develop solidarity among them and enables the people to widely engage in the memorialization. A rough calculation reveals more than 25,000 people of North and East involved in people-oriented memorialization in 2019.

In two locations, Sri-Lanka Army also had Kanji served in streets even though they knew it was for memorialization. This attitude of army was welcomed by the people.

Courtesy: North East Coordinating Committee (NECC),

19 May 2019/ Sri-Lanka

MEMORIALIZATION: FROM POLITICIZATION TO PEOPLISATION

 21 May 2019

An exhibition was held by the Tamil Information Centre this weekend, showcasing the history, culture and politics of the Tamil people on the island in memory of the massacres in Mullivaikkal a decade ago.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Tamils of Lanka: A Timeless Heritage’, brought together a variety of artwork, historical texts and carefully preserved artefacts that provided a glimpse of Tamils throughout the ages on the island.

Hundreds of visitors came throughout the weekend to explore the stalls documenting life on the island, from ancient times to the de facto state built under the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and under the current Sri Lankan government.

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn opened the exhibition on Sunday, telling the audience that the weekend marked a “sad occasion…  but also an occasion where the community can come together... and learn about the history of what the Tamil people have gone through in Sri Lanka”.

That was showcased in the exhibition, which also saw workshops and panel discussions throughout the weekend, highlighting the decades of Tamil struggle against Sri Lankan state repression. 

The Mullivaikkal exhibition, with photographs from the final conflict zone and objects gathered from the beach where tens of thousands were killed, was a particularly powerful reminder of the atrocities carried out a decade ago and the ongoing Tamil struggle for justice.

Corbyn also paid tribute to the late executive secretary of the TIC Vairamuttu Varadakumar and his work in highlighting the struggles of the Tamil people in the 1980’s. 

"If you trace the history back to the language riots of 1958 and the discrimination before that you can see how it developed,” Corbyn added. “Those who tried to destroy the history of the Tamil people with the burning of the library in 1981… it didn’t work. It merely strengthened their resolve.”

See more from the Tamil Information Centre here.

See more photos from Jax Luxy here.

In search of meaning

“Why is this age worse

than earlier ages?

In a stupor of grief and dread

have we not fingered the

foulest wounds

and left them unhealed by our hands?”

Russian poet- Anna Akhmatova 


Wednesday, 22 May 2019

When confronted with a mindless mass murder in the most horrific fashion what do we do? The natural response of those who witnessed the horror from a distance as well as those who survived the event at close quarters have one essential human emotion.

We search for some meaning in the mindboggling event. In this aftermath we did not do that. Why?  Because our leaders failed to do that. The President said he was not informed of the threat. The Prime Minister said that he was excluded from the inner circle in charge of national security.

In the stupor of grief following Easter Sunday, it now seems that we have not ceased to finger our foulest wounds as the Russian poet observed in her poem written a century earlier in 1919.

In the age of 24-hour-news we get news. More than news we get opinions of those who provide the news. The owners of the news disseminators have opinions. They want us to listen to their opinions.

My favourite TV feature is the daily Sinhala program titled ‘Derana Aruna’ – a lyrical rhyme of a promise which translates to ‘Our Land at Dawn’.

The presenter is a skilled artist convinced of his persuasive powers of motivation and manipulation. It is a treat to watch him explain why Mangala Samaraweera is mistaken and why our nation should be prefixed as ‘Sinhala Buddhist’.

We live in a mediated world. Only the naïve and the indifferent would dispute the centrality of mainstream media as an information source with tremendous persuasive powers.

The mistake we often make is that we think that the discerning will not succumb to the ‘intoxicating brew’ of persuasion and fantasy. The media magnates know better.

Media coverage can cover an issue that is not yet controversial by covering it ad nauseum insisting that it is necessary and in the national interest. They can turn on and off the coverage of given public discourses.

This enables them to make the inconsequential consequential and the serious in to trivial. This is the vital media lesson that was driven home in the aftermath. 

In the aftermath, we must grapple with two aspects of its consequences. First is the human aspect that contends with those who died, wounded, disfigured, and the orphaned. 

The second is the civic aspect. Easter Sunday carnage has ignited cataclysmic consequences in a fractious society that is now suffocating in the toxic mixture of suspicion and primordial tribalism.

Competitive politics has captured the discourse of justice, equality, citizenship, democracy and the battered economy.

This civic aspect is made more complex by a not very pleasant discussion on the ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ heritage of Sri Lanka and the real locus of national power.

When a country emerges from a terrible war, the manner and the spirit and the élan in which its people decide to confront the legacy of death and suffering plays a crucial and an integral part in the construction of its post war national image.

When we ended the 26 years of war against separatist terrorists, we invited tourists to come to a triumphant land that defeated the most viscous terrorists in all human history. Therein lies a tale. After the watershed year 2009, the Rajapaksa family under whose leadership and benign watch we won the war had the rare genius to introduce perception-driven politics in place of objective politics. 

Since then we are perception-driven. Objective reality has given way to perceived reality. It does not matter that the million odd trishaws or ten thousand busses of the CTB cannot ply on our expressways. The superhighway is progress.

That the money and the effort could have had a more meaningful impact if invested on mass rapid transport systems in the major cities is neither here nor there. The few oligarchs have decent highways to test their Bentleys and Maserati Gran Cabrios. 

Truth no longer matters. Perception is what matters. Alas! The perception engineers are all in the Rajapaksa camp.

Last week we witnessed a great example of perception engineering in a rather innocuous event that earned a lot of television coverage.

Acting Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene visited Minuwangoda for an on-the-spot assessment of the damage caused by rioting and to be briefed on the progress of restoring normalcy.

The television channel owned by the preeminent perception engineer of the ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ fame telecasted the event live.

The cameras zoomed on the armoured convoy racing with their sirens emitting ear-splitting wailing carrying the Acting Defence Minister. The racing convoy segment was appreciably disproportionate to the main news segment of the Minister meeting the local people.

It created the perceived reality of:

nThe Acting Defence Minister was enjoying the perks of office during his brief acting tenure, and

nThat the delightfully detached, politely reticent Acting Defence Minister was no match for the macho alternative candidate, waiting in the wings

26 days after the event, the country awaits the findings of the committee of inquiry that the President decided to appoint no sooner he learnt of the event while still in Singapore.

Since then Nero has played the fiddle at many gatherings including distant China. Yet, we are nowhere near the truth about why we failed to heed the warnings about the attack received as early as 4 April.

In our search for a meaning, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has helped us to locate the elementary dynamics of our politics.

In the backdrop of this tragic events, in the hearts and minds business, Mahinda is an unqualified success. The scope and the impact of his success following the cataclysmic events has a direct and an unambiguous correlation to the failures of Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena.

When competitive politics is reduced to a simple correlation of opposition success and government failure, it is obvious that the nation is at a standstill petrified in fear of the unknown unknowns and exhausted by the known unknowns.

And now we must turn to the other conundrum in our search for a meaning.

Mangala Samaraweera’s stubborn claim of universal equality of all in a land where the majority are Sinhala Buddhists is countered by the ultraorthodox patriots who insist that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist land where others are welcome with that proviso firmly entrenched.

Hereon, the focus of this essay is on the identity labels that have surfaced in the aftermath.

A new wrangle has erupted in the aftermath over what is righteous and what is lawful in framing national identity. This is all about nationalist thought process.

The nationalists are obsessed with the notion that they are unique. That they are above all others. Then they are griped by the fear of isolation. Nationalism is immune to reality. In other words, nationalism is power hunger wrapped in self-deception.

A rational discussion in this setting is an exercise in futility. It is simply a game for an imaginary prize divorced from truth. A political discussion calls for a reasonable degree of mutual understanding.

Here the Mahinda Rajapaksa school of political science has a proven track record. They are proving performers in the Orwellian tradition. “Facts are selected or suppressed in order to make a case; if need be, the necessary facts are simply invented or, contrariwise, erased.”It is futile to engage the Sinhala Buddhist Sangha fraternity in the politics of recognition and dignity. The brave man Mangala Samaraweera talks of universal recognition of individual rights and the core values of a liberal society that holds the promise of individual autonomy. Those who insist on the Sinhala Buddhist identity assert a collective identity – the authentic product of the alchemy of nationalism and politicised religion.

In the search of a meaning in this trauma, we find that the Rajapaksa monolith is firmly on a comeback trail. Not so much by their effort but by default of the team that we propelled to power in 2015. Bleak days are ahead.

Anti-Muslim riots and the absence of a government

If Zaharan blew up temples, many pundits would have rationalized the massacre. Anti-Muslim riots gave them an opening and diverted the attention from the real problem.

21 May 2019

What if the Easter Sunday attacks targeted temples and people queuing at bus stands in the South? Imagine then how many of those usual culprits would have gone to town, rationalizing, and even covertly justifying it.   

NGO captains would have had a field day cataloguing the ‘victimhood’of Muslims, and blaming the Sinhalese for all the evil and for finally getting murdered by the Islamic suicide bombers.   
The Evangelical church would have said ‘we told you, you deserve it’. A couple of days before the attack a Bishop from the Methodist mission cried blue murder after villagers in Anuradhapura threw stones at the congregation, whom the locals accused of being too noisy. Very little as unequivocal as of his previous clarion call was heard of him after the Easter Sunday monstrosity.   

(Many of those folks also loath Cardinal Malcom Ranjith who has reached beyond religious lines and come to represent Sri Lanka as a whole.)  

Then there are foreign media pundits. As the first thing after the attack, BBC interviewed a Europe based Tamil Tiger acolyte, who suggested a Sinhala Buddhist involvement in the attack. Many other experts were lined up. However, the party ended even before the guests turned up, after the identity of the perpetrators gradually came to light.  

It may not be politically correct to say, but it is still self-evident, that most of these people have an anti-Sri Lankan bone. That emanates from their reluctance to come to terms with this country’s demographic reality, which happens to be majority Sinhalese Buddhist. That demographic reality has also shaped a certain, social and cultural dynamic, which is evolutionary. But still, the vast majority of its people do not want the total displacement of that identity. Which is a genuine existential concern, no different from the sense of displacement experienced by many millions of the White American working class who then voted for Donald Trump.   

The Tamil Political elites thought they were too superior to acknowledge and be absorbed into this demographic reality. They fought a war, and self-inflicted doom for two generations of Tamil youth.   

Many of these ideological fellow travellers would have cheered, if the Easter Sunday attack signalled the Muslims’ taking up of arms against the Sri Lankan State.   

However, Mohammed Casim Zaharan and his fellow terrorists did not blow themselves up over domestic grievances. They unleashed their carnage as part of global Salafi Jihad, which with its sinister message of clash of civilizations, religions and values aims to build an Islamic caliphate governed by the literal interpretation of Quran and Hadith.  
In general, the terrorists who massacre civilians of a particular community expect a retaliation. The resultant disenchantment of community caused by revenge attacks would drive more members into the ranks of terrorists. That was exactly the strategy put into action by the LTTE, with devastating efficiency ( and JR Jayawardene easily played into their hand).  
However, as far as the nature and radicalising drivers behind the Easter attacks are concerned, domestic calculations were subordinate to global aims. Rather than retaliatory attacks, Zaharan and the cohort would have expected the Easter Sunday terrorism to be an inspiration to a fringe group of Muslim youth who were already radicalised, but held reservations about carrying out attacks within Sri Lanka.  

Also, some other lesser known Islamic terrorist groups such as Willayath As Seylani (WAS) , (which was banned along with National Thawheed Jama’ath and Jama’athe Millaathe Ibrahim (JMI)) have more domestic calculations. WAS as its name implies aims to form a separate Islamic state or a province in Sri Lanka. It would be these groups that would benefit from revenge attacks on Muslims.   

When the jobless village fools, and their local political patrons ran havoc in the North Western province, attacking Muslims and torching their property, they played right into the hands of these groups.  

Last week, Sri Lanka witnessed on and off curfews and frenzied attacks on Muslims in Puttalam, Minuwangoda, Kurunegala etc.   

That these attacks happened two weeks after the tragedy of Easter Sunday rubbishes the claim that they were a spontaneous outbreak of violence. Rather they were organized attacks blamed on provincial political leaders, primarily of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Some former Ministers of the SLFP, including Dayasiri Jayasekara are accused of influencing the police to release the suspects who were arrested over rioting.   

Police have reportedly arrested around 100 suspects over the anti-Muslim riots. However, the acid test would be as to how the courts would deal with the suspects.   

The historical experience has been that the existing laws are ill-equipped to deal with suspects with due intensity. These laws are meant to address normal law and order circumstances. Whereas riots represent a deviation; they are a special circumstance and need special laws to confront them. That is why there is the Prevention of Terrorism Act, a necessary evil.   
A more commonsensical and utilitarian, indeed, approach would be to prosecute the suspects of anti- Muslim riots under the PTA. Keep the current lot in long term detention under the PTA and it would send a strong message to the rest and would serve as a deterrent against future rioting. The government can later introduce a Sedition Act, modelled after Singapore.   
Anti-Muslim attacks were not – spontaneous, nor was the government taken by surprise. It had plenty of time and space to plan counter-measures. However, to adequately respond to forthcoming sabotage, the government lacked what was most needed: political capital.   

You need political capital to shoot rioters or hang them, if it serves as a deterrent. However, a government under whose watch the Easter Sunday attack happened, was bereft of any political capital. Rather than the political leadership, it fell on the commander of the army to warn ‘maximum force’ against the rioters. This magnitude of political vacuum and the absence of government would have played out disastrously in most other countries. Look no further than Pakistan. Those who rile at the majoritarian democracy in Sri Lanka should know that it was the same that keep the State intact and state apparatus in its place.   

As much as the Easter Sunday attacks, subsequent anti-Muslim riots were partly a result of a weak government. It looked the other way, as Islamic extremism was brewing its poisonous ideology. It hesitated to act partly in order not to antagonize the Muslims. That vote driven callous disregard effectively killed and maimed hundreds of innocent church goers and tourists. Later, the innocent Muslims became victims of rabid mobs again due to the vacillation born out of deficit of political capital.   

Equally importantly, the rioting also diverted the attention from the real problem of rising Islamic radicalisation and the urgency for a commonsensical approach to confront it. Rioting was brutal and killed one man. But, make no mistake, if the grass root radicalisation within Muslims are not reversed, the next attack would leave a carnage far exceeding that of the Easter attacks.  

And the economic impact of the rioting is equally disastrous. Colombo Stock market lost more in value after anti-Muslim riots, than it suffered immediately after the Easter Sunday attacks.  
Other than loss of property, emotional loss and sense of disenchantment of Muslim community is considerable. The absence of political leadership is such there was no one to apologise and sooth their fears. This is the typical behaviour that drives people into the hands of terrorists.  

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