Goni Billa” Hate Speeches of Bodhu Bala Sena Cause Rise in Attacks on Muslim Women in “Abaya” Attire

There is much concern among members of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka over the increasing number of unprovoked attacks on Muslim women wearing the “Abaya”, the robe like overgarment that covers the whole body.

The issue is being viewed with concern at discussions of the Muslim community in different places in Sri Lanka and also features prominently in exchanges of views conducted via various media organs.

It is learnt that this issue was delved into at a recent meeting between some Muslim members of Parliament and representatives of the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama(ACJU)that was convened by Cabinet minister of Urban Affairs AHM Fowzie to examine the full implications of the “Halal”certification Issue.

ABAYA

What is troubling the community most is the phenomenon of rising incidents concerning Muslim women in the Country wearing the Abaya.

Among the forms of feminine clothing of Muslims are the scarf covering the head known as “Hijab” , the veil covering the face known as “Niqab” and the loose robe like overgarment covering the whole body known as “Abaya”in Arabic, “Burqa” in Urdu and “Purdah” in Persian.

The names of these clothing are often confused or used interchangeably by many including the “Ethno Religious Fascist”Bodhu Bala Sena(BBS) organization which has been targeting the manner in which many Muslim women dress as part of its overall Anti-Muslim campaign.

A familiar feature of public speeches by BBS leaders including its President Ven. Kirama Vimalajothy Thera and General Secretary Ven.Galaboda Attha Gnanasara Thera had been the virulent view expressed against the Abaya or Burqa dress worn by Muslim women. All sorts of vulgar remarks and derisive comments were made against women wearing such clothing.

GONIBILLA

Both Vimalajothy and Gnasara Theros flouted principles of Vinaya by viciously attacking the Muslim women wearing such dresses. One description repeated frequently on BBS platforms was “Goni Billa” (scary person in a sack) Since the Abaya covered the whole body of the women, the BBS speakers called it “Goni Billa” in a manner that appealed to low tastes of people.

These derogatory speeches have already begun to impact on some misguided Sinhala youths. There have been scattered incidents where Muslim women in Abaya and even Hijaab clothing have been the target of caustic,offensive remarks.Attempts have been made to yank the clothing by street urchins in a few places.More serious incidents too have begun to proliferate in recent times

MANAMPITIYA

The latest incident is one that occurred in Manampitiya in the Polonnaruwa district concerning the Muslim postmistress who had assumed duties from February this year.On Saturday March 16th as she was leaving after work at the Post Office some youths accosted her and requested her not to wear the “Hijab”.She simply ignored them.

On Monday March 18th morning the Postmistress was on her way to the Post Office on Manampitiya Main street when youths on two motor cycles tried to snatch the Hijab away. The postmistress however held on to the scarf tightly. The youths had sped away as people started rushing to the scene.

The Muslim postmistress has lodged a complaint with the Manampitiya Police. She has stated that she was unable to see the faces of the would be Hijab snatchers as they were wearing helmets with visors.

FORT STATION

Another incident happened at the Fort Railway station on Friday March 15th.Four young Muslim girls all of them law students were walking on the railway platform when a bunch of young hooligans jeered and surrounded them.They began tugging and pulling at the Abayas they were all dressed in.

Mercifully others at the scene saw what was happening and came to the rescue.A gathering crowd began to berate the hooligans who beat a hasty retreat. It is noteworthy that those who chased the hooligans away were mostly Non –Muslims.

DICKWELLA

In an incident which happened a few weeks ago in Matara district three Muslim schoolgirls from Dickwella were attacked near the Mahanama bridge near Matara town. The girls all of them dressed in “Abaya”were returning around noon from AAT classes at Nupe,Matara.

A well built sturdy man with a hefty pole confronted them and began scolding them as “Gonibillas”. He then tried to hit one girl on the head with the stick but she had jumped to a side and escaped with the stick grazing her slightly. He had then tried to clutch the Abaya of another girl and hit her. She too evaded him sustaining a slight injury on her hand.The third girl ran away before the man could reach her.

As the girls screamed and ran people started converging. One Sinhalese woman started shouting at the man.The thug with the pole moved away. The Sinhalese woman then consoled the terrified girls and told them to come with her to lodge an entry with the Police.The woman’s husband however chided his wife for getting involved in unnecessary matters and took her away.

COMPLAINT

The three Muslim schoolgirls returned home but did not tell their parents about the incident. The news however spread and by evening the parents got to know. The families concerned then went to the Police and lodged a complaint.

The Police then went to the spot where the incident took place. A mentally unhinged,feeble looking man with a small stick was seen loitering there. The Police then suggested that this “Mad”man was the person who attacked the girls.The victims however said this was not the man and pointed out that the person who attacked them was a well built sturdy person who had a pole and not a stick.

The Police then asked people in the vicinity whether they saw the attack. All of them denied seeing such an attack and cast doubts whether the girls were telling the truth. Nasty remarks of a communal nature were also made. At this point the Police said they could do nothing more unless eyewitnesses came forward to identify the assailant and departed.

BORELLA

In an incident that happened at a hospital in Borella a Muslim woman wearing Abaya was suddenly kicked in the back by a Sinhalese youth. When the shocked woman asked why he kicked her the youth had retorted in raw filth. He had abused Muslims in general and Muslim women in “Gonibilla” dress in particular.While the affected woman remained in a daze over this unprovoked attack others (Non-Muslims)started remonstrating with the youth who then left the scene

DEHIWELA

At a Bus terminal in the Dehiwela area a Muslim woman wearing the “Niqab” face veil had got into a parked bus with passengers. A Sinhalese woman already seated in the bus with her child started screaming at the Muslim woman calling her “Gonibilla’. She then told the bus conductor that she would not travel in the same bus with the Muslim woman as her child was getting scared by the “Gonibilla”.

The conductor then refused to issue a bus ticket to the woman unless she removed the veil. When she refused to do so the Muslim woman was asked to find another bus.Many passengers too seemed hostile. So the Muslim woman got down from the bus and hired a three-wheeler

TIHARIYA

In an incident of somewhat similar nature but with a touch of humour ,three Muslim women in Abaya attire had got into a bus at Tihariya.Some passengers had then mocked them saying “ This is a “Haram”bus. Why don’t you travel in a “Halal”bus?The Muslim women were targets of such remarks in lighter vein for quite a while. But at least they were not asked to unveil or get out of the bus as in Dehiwela.

KOTAHENA

In an incident at Kotahena a young Muslim girl in Abaya was walking on the pavement when a passing motor cyclist stopped near her and spat on her. He then shouted an obscene phrase and spat again on the startled girl. He then sped away. The girl is the grand niece of a veteran Muslim politician. She was not spat upon because of that relationship but for the act of wearing the Abaya

SPONTANEOUS

These are but a few of the incidents concerning Muslim women .What is frightening about these attacks on Muslim women in Abaya attire or wearing Hijabs and Niqabs is the fact that most of these acts seem spontaneous and not pre-meditated or planned beforehand. The perpetrators seem to be acting independently on their own and not on the orders of any organization.

Ordinary people who are at most times law abiding, tolerant, decent citizens are suddenly engaging in hostile attacks against Muslim women in Abaya attire without any provocative act by the victims.The very sight of a Muslim woman or girl in an Abaya seems to be provocation to some as in the case of the proverbial red flag and bull.

BRAINWASHED

The continuous derogatory references “Gonibillas”to Abaya clad Muslim women by Bodhu Bala Sena Bhikkus is gradually impacting on multiple layers of Sinhala society.Impressionable minds are being “brainwashed”into perceiving Muslim women in Abaya attire as something evil and dangerous.

The Bodhu Bala Sena may claim that they are a “non – Violent” movement but the anti-Muslim hatred they express in their speeches and writings are promoting a hostile atmosphere where violence could erupt on a major scale.

“HALAL”AS”HARAM”

The vicious anti-Muslim campaign of the Bodhu Bala Sena and its allied outfits along with the Jathika Hela Urumaya is helping to form an undesirable anti-Muslim climate in Sri Lanka. The distortions and wilful misrepresentations about the “Halal”certification process has created a monster out of Halal.In a cruel irony “Political Buddhism” is portraying the word “Halal”as being one with negative connotations.”Halal” is depicted as “Haram” to a gullible audience.

Two recent incidents would help illustrate the vilification of Halal that is permeating majority community consciousness now.

KAL-ELIYA

At Kal-Eliya a group of youths went to a footwear store run by a Muslim businessman.They wanted to know whether the shoes ,sandals and slippers being sold were “Halal” products. A huge ruckus was created for many hours. All on account of the “Halal”bogey.

COLOMBO 7

In the second incident a Sinhala student at a prestigious primary school in Colombo 7 asked for water from a Muslim classmate who promptly obliged by giving his friend his water bottle. As the Sinhala student was about to drink another Sinhala classmate said” Bonda Epa. Eka Halal Wathura”(Don’t drink. It is “Halal”water).All three classmates are in the 8-9 age group.

FRICTION

There are also numerous incidents of friction occurring in rural and semi-urban schools where Sinhalese students are in a majority and Muslims in a minority.Sadly several teachers too are contributing to this friction because of their prejudices influenced greatly by the demonization of Muslim practices and beliefs by the Bodhu Bala Sena.

The Rajapaksa regime is covertly and Overtly encouraging the Bodhu Bala Sena through acts of omission and commission. The mainstream media is generally blacking out reports of anti-Muslim incidents due to certain reasons.Even as efforts are on to project an image of everything being hunky-dory in the Paradise Isle tensions continue to simmer beneath the façade.

FASCISM

The vast majority of Sinhala Buddhists both clergy and laity are unhappy about Bodhu Bala Sena activities and disapprove of them. Yet they remain silent in the face of flourishing fascism due to a number of reasons.

By their silence and inaction they are indirectly sanctioning the growth of a virulent ethno religious fascist monster that will surely plunge Sri Lanka into chaos and destruction unless otherwise checked and eradicated.

(dbsjeyaraj.com)

BBS Saffron Brigade And A Nation In Tears Forever – Sharmini Serasinghe

‘Buddhist Sri Lanka’ perceived as the ‘sole protector’ of the Dhamma is where all beings irrespective of caste, creed, religion or race are supposed to live in peace, compassion and harmony. Then why is this tiny tear-drop shaped nation in the vast Indian Ocean destined forever to be in tears? Where did Buddhism go wrong for Lanka? Or should it be where was Buddhism made to go wrong for Lanka?

 

Never before in recent history has the populace of this comparatively ‘small’ country – Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim – been as ‘largely’ polarized as we see now. Physically we are so very near to one another but yet so far apart. For today we are a nation where not only are the Sinhalese and Tamils surveying each other with fear and suspicion, but the Sinhalese and Muslims as well. Whodunit!

 

With the embers of an ugly and unfortunate civil war still glowing, we are now beginning to feel the ominous signs of yet another episode of racial intolerance emerging, this time with the Buddhist flag being brandished against the ‘other’. Clearly there is another blood-bath on the horizon for Lanka.

 

In the absence of a strong political will to nip this malady in the bud, the ‘Guardians’ of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, the Mahasangha, too, have taken to maintaining a stoic silence. It was only very recently and coincidentally in perfect timing with the Geneva debacle, that one of these ‘Guardians’ of Buddhism appeared to have been jolted into action and thus issued a nonsensical and incongruous statement reported in the Sunday Leader of 10th March 2013 under the caption “Asgiriya Chapter puts BBS on notice”.

 

This lame statement claims that they of the Asgiriya Chapter do not accept ‘some’ of the actions of the Bodu Bala Sena. The stress on the pronoun ‘some’ sticks out as a sore thumb. This could only imply that the extremist BBS Saffron Brigade not only enjoys the tacit approval and blessings of the reigning political leaders but the ‘Guardians’ of Buddhism in Lanka the Mahasangha as well, of all what the BBS stands for except ‘some’. This ‘some’ could mean anything or nothing.

 

If this is the interpretation of the Buddhist philosophy, practiced by the Mahasangha, then this ‘Buddhist’ country is better off without such hypocrites.

 

For they are then nothing but ‘Buddhist ornaments’; therefore a lame excuse for Buddhists let alone wear the mantle of the Mahasangha.

 

In this context all what our elected leaders including this ‘Mahasangha’ seem to be able to do is only pay mere lip-service to this ruckus. By this they seem to be implying to the Saffron Brigade “Do as you do, and don’t mind what I say”.

 

There are those blinded by misguided loyalty who take umbrage at the very suggestion that our ‘faultless’ elected political leaders and the oh-so-holy Mahasangha can never say or do wrong. In the minds of some of these individuals, those who accuse their holier-than-though leaders of fanning the flames of religious extremism must be either NGOs or paid by NGOs to sling mud. The truth always hurts, sometimes a lot!

 

They would have to be either extremely naive or endowed with limited gray-matter to believe that our political leaders in governance, ably supported by the ‘mute’ Mahasangha have ‘nothing to do’ with the gloom that is unfolding before our very eyes. After all what do they, the ruling politicians, care what becomes of the Muslims, as they don’t get their vote anyway!

 

What appears stark as daylight is that as long as they at the political top, including their pampered and willingly manipulated Mahasangha, are afforded the privilege of basking in the glory of self aggrandizement and all that entails the ‘good life’, that’s all they care about.

 

They don’t essentially give a !@#$%^&* or a hoot that Lanka may be entering the throes of yet another smouldering blood-bath that would ultimately leave our country in a pile of ash and rubble. After all what do they care, it’s only the common man out there who will suffer and get killed, not them. Déjà vu!

 

What they our elected political leaders appear to be saying but not saying is never mind the Muslims, they are getting too big for their boots anyway. So let them be rattled a bit and put in their place as long as we don’t appear to be doing it. Hence the Saffron Brigade marches forward to attend to the needful.

 

Then there are those languishing in ‘Camps for the Homeless’ in the North and East, torn apart from their families and places they once called home, taken over and occupied by the Army. What our elected political leaders seem to be implying to them through their sheer lack of will to resolve their issues is – never mind they voted for the Swan anyway, so let them suffer it out as those who vote for ‘others’ will be shown no mercy.

 

And as for the Sinhalese what our elected political leaders appear to be implying by denying them the democratic right to plan their families to suit their purse is, let them produce more, more and more so we will have more, more and more Sinhala Buddhist votes. Never mind if they are malnourished and uneducated they can still vote.

 

Let our elected political leaders and others not be bothered by such above-mentioned trivialities. For very soon there is an event of far greater importance that must be celebrated come hell or high water, the great ‘Victory Day’ in the month of May.

 

Never mind that thousands of the innocent perished and became refugees in the name of this ‘Victory Day’. They were after all a mere insignificant collateral cost because “We Won the War”. That appears to be what our elected political leaders are saying but not saying.

 

At a saner level might we ask does this ‘Victory Day’ need to be celebrated with such vulgar pomp and pageantry? Can it not be a day of reflection on all that ails the political system of Lanka? Do we need an annual reminder in such a crass and tasteless way of the mistakes of our own political forefathers? Should this not be rightfully a day of moaning instead of one to be celebrated? Do we have to make it so obvious to the world that we are today a nation marching backwards?

 

As a Buddhist might I ask our ruling political leaders: cannot, at least for one day on this day, some compassion and sensitivity be shown towards all those who gave life and limb to make this day possible? Didn’t we kill off our own and not an unwelcome foreign invader?

 

“Oh no!” I hear that ominous voice of our elected political leaders.

 

Yes they don’t see it that way and to hell with those who don’t see things their way. For this is an all important day that must be celebrated loudly and most visibly as possible and at any cost. For this is the day when The Emperor dons his ‘Victory Day’ cloak to cover his otherwise nakedness and impress the masses that there is no other such as he!

 

The vote to remain forever in power wins at the end of the day!

 

Sharmini Serasinghe was Director Communications of the former Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) under Secretary Generals Jayantha Dhanapala and Dr. John Gooneratne. She counts over thirty years in journalism in both the print and electronic media.

The Political Economy of Prejudice: Islam, Muslims and Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism in Sri Lanka Today: Some Reflections

Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority is increasingly finding itself the target of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists: a campaign against halal, attacks on mosques, boycott of their businesses, hate speech, intimidation and threats. Many concerned social activists, researchers and commentators have attempted to grapple with current manifestations of this phenomenon with a view to shaping meaningful and effective responses by furthering our understanding of its socio-political and economic dimensions.  This reflection is shared in the same spirit.

I focus on two related aspects. Firstly, I highlight why it is important to term (and view) the spate of recent acts not just as anti-Muslim, as many tend to do, but also as anti-Islam. Viewing Sinhala-Buddhist extremist rhetoric only as ‘anti-Muslim’ actually overlooks the underlying prejudice against Islam itself that fuels this campaign. Secondly, the piece simultaneously argues for going beyond a mass-appeal-centred view of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism to account for its links with currently dominant political economic configurations and their interaction with social segmentation and ethno-religious identity-based differentiation in Sri Lanka. I conclude by arguing why the politics of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists constitutes a politics of dominance.

The anti-Islam dimension in Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism and why calling it that matters. It is common to hear actors such as the Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) claiming that they are not against Islam or even Muslims as such but only against certain fundamentalist Islamist ideas and their advocates. They make a distinction between ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘traditional’ Muslims, claiming that Buddhists have lived in harmony with the latter for centuries. While this distinction is itself problematic, it is also a deceptive manoeuvre. For in reality, the BBS and its ilk have rallied against practices such as halal, which are far from a mark of fundamentalism. It is important to note that one can indeed oppose positions taken by certain Muslims without necessarily being anti-Islam; in Islam as in other religions there is internal criticism and contestation on various issues of doctrine and practice, including on fundamentalisms.

However, the targets of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists today are some of the most widely shared elements of Islam in Sri Lanka—places of worship, halal, Friday prayers, etc. Moreover, they have done so in a manner that signals a desire for dominance (more on this towards the end).

The truth is that fundamentalist forces like the BBS are both anti-Muslim and anti-Islam in character and these two strands must be recognised as distinct though obviously related. This is important, not merely for the sake of analytical accuracy but also to help shape responses better. By overlooking the anti-Islam dimension we may also be reducing, albeit inadvertently, the scale and complexity of the problem. Considering the anti-Islam dimension highlights how certain key elements within Islam’s doctrine and belief structure are characterised as inherently dangerous rendering all practices suspect and all adherents legitimate targets.

Amongst the many similarities between the Sinhala-Buddhist right wing, and birds of a similar feather elsewhere, including Hindu nationalism in India, is the sustained campaign to underline that Islam is more prone to fundamentalism and extremism than any other religion. In other words, just as tolerance is apparently written into the DNA of Buddhism and Hinduism, intolerance is apparently written into the DNA of Islam and therefore Muslims are prone to illiberalism and even violence.

Another related aspect is the consistent demonization of the idea of sociality and fraternity found in Islam. The doctrinal stress on ‘brotherhood’ and unity of all Muslims—a nation without borders, so to speak—is quite central to many interpretations of Islam. This so-called ‘unity’ within Islam is itself posited as a threat and is used to stir up fear and insecurity regarding a national minority behind which lurks a giant global demos—“the destructive hordes of Islam”, to put it like Anagarika Dharmapala did. This is also connected to the myth of demographic conquest, more on that later. However, apart from some core Islamic beliefs that maybe shared (in some cases even this is debatable) there is significant divergence in the religious and secular worlds of Muslims in Sri Lanka (themselves internally differentiated) and in many other countries, especially in the Arab world (itself very fractured). Just consider also that political violence in the name of Islam has in fact claimed mostly Muslim lives or that Muslim migrant workers from Sri Lanka or elsewhere are treated as badly as any others in the Gulf; young Rizana was not even given a chance at justice in Saudi Arabia.

The anti-Islam dimension in this context is also doing the work of stereotyping and essentialising what is a heterogeneous belief system. Islam, like every other major organised religion in the world, is an interpretive sphere marked by disagreement over various elements of practice and even doctrine. Not everything that Muslims do is Islamic and not all Muslims may agree that some aspect of practice or doctrine is Islamic for the same reason. In fact, simply because someone follows Islam does not mean he or she always considers being Muslim as his or her primary identity. However, essentialising Islam is central to the anti-Islam project because it can then also be used to justify calling on Muslims everywhere to explain the actions of anyone who professes to act in the name of Islam anywhere. This recent Daily News article, which connects “disparate events in the Muslim world, taking them out of context and then applying them to Sri Lanka” is a good example.

Let us consider the anti-halal position. It does beg the question as to whether it is linked to Muslims wearing their Islamic badge to a marketplace of otherwise apparently socio-culturally unmarked consumers? Or does certification of commodities as halal amount to a ritual stamping of goods meant to be socio-culturally undifferentiated? However, in reality, a socially undifferentiated marketplace is itself a myth—a full moon has a significant impact on commerce as well as what you can buy in super-markets in Sri Lanka; thus, whether or not one is Buddhist one cannot buy alcohol or meat. Marketing and advertising, branding, and packaging are all to often standard bearers of culture, ethno-religious symbols, and nationalist sentiments—the market is not and has never been a zone free of identity politics and culture. Meanwhile, the ritual stamping of Sri Lanka’s political, economic, socio-cultural and physical geographies with Buddhist relics, ruins and temples as well as flags, statues, pictures, symbols, pilgrimages, etc.—now a fairly lucrative market in itself—is in overdrive.  Even a critique that halal certification was commoditised —i.e. became a means of making profits for ACJU or Muslim businesses—conveniently ignores, among other things, the economic motivations of all producers in reaching out to Muslim consumers not to mention the widespread commodification of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism itself.

Beyond the anti-halal mobilisation, the anti-Islam dimension in this context is doing the work of reproducing the myth that Islam ‘imposes’ economic behavior and patterns of consumption that are designed and always operate in ways that enable some sort of communal accumulation of surplus. However, it also taps into the underlying prejudice that Islam’s belief system is in conflict with the ethos of individualist, capitalist consumerism being illiberal as it is—the clash of civilisations redux. Critiques of consumerism grounded in Islam strike a slightly more discordant note with many liberals for it is seen to bring with it an additional baggage of intolerance, an overbearing sociality, orthodoxy and support for modes of communal accumulation.

The view that Islam is “alien” and Muslims “Shylockian” (Dharmapala again) has a long history in the sub-continent and is connected with narratives of Muslim political and economic conquest through war (in India) and through trade (in Sri Lanka) respectively.  While Christianity too has been targeted in the sub-continent it is arguably connected to narratives of spiritual conquest i.e. conversions, to which are tied to ideas of ‘being led away’, ‘forcibly converted’ etc., which explains why missionaries and the evangelicals are especially prime targets. However, spiritual conquest is somewhat different, not least owing to its reversible nature i.e. reconversion (actively pursued for quite sometime now by Hindu nationalist groups in India). It is also set apart from political and economic conquest, which also allow for stoking sentiments of defeat, loss, and humiliation. In addition to all this, there is the narrative of demographic conquest, connected uniquely with Islam and the structure and rules of family it apparently ‘prescribes’ (including family size and polygamy) which in turn powers myths about Muslims reproducing themselves into a majority, which are in wide circulation in the sub-continent and elsewhere in the world. All of this implies that Muslim sociality (Muslim community structures and organisations), religious practices and institutions, businesses, and persons are all likely legitimate targets.

In other words, the ant-Islam dimension does a significant amount of work in Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalist discourse, which needs to be identified and recognised. We must call out the BBS and their ilk on being both anti-Islam and anti-Muslim because whatever the political economic dimensions they cannot be separated from the prejudice that has lurked for a long time. Just by way of clarification, I am not suggesting that those who use ‘anti-Muslim’ as a descriptive label are unaware of the issues raised above, I am only suggesting, for all the reasons given above, that it is important to make that awareness more explicit.

Religious identities, politics and economics: Lessons from elsewhere in South Asia?

Looking at the anti-Muslim and anti-Islam dimensions helps us unpack prejudice, important because prejudice permeates economic, social and political barriers of class, caste, religion and gender and is central to mass appeal and popular emotional traction. However, this is not to suggest that mass emotional appeal is all there is to explain, we certainly need analyses of the political economic projects that are served by such prejudice. However, such analyses must bring together understandings of the social bases, political configurations, economic interests and identity-difference politics driving current-day Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism. In doing so it is important to account for the realities in which political allegiances, economic ideologies as well as social segmentation and differentiation interact.  To clarify what I mean here are a couple of illustrations from Bangladesh and India—these are just two picked from amongst a large number of others to consider.

Mushtaq Khan’s analysis of the political economy of secularism in Bangladesh points to the concert between ideology, religion and clientelist surplus appropriation. He argues that ideology, whether around secular or religious nationalism, works more like “labels distinguishing competing middle-class-led patron-client networks in their on-going and periodically intensifying struggle” over power and resources. He underlines how loyalties based on group identity (religion, language, etc.) serve as avenues for economic mobility and effective instrumentalities of political mobilisation of multi-class factions. In other words, strategic political mobilisation around ethno-religious nationalism and identity can generate vertical alignment and solidarity (however unstable) and horizontal cleavage and conflict.

Shankar Gopalakrishnan has underlined how Hindutva gained momentum in India from its ability to provide prospects of social cohesion and secure identity along with promises of social and economic mobility. Even though the solutions presented to the needs of multiple social sectors “corresponded to the interests of the ruling classes”, the “material-ideological ‘bargain’” was attractive in a context of changing modes of petty commodity production and increased social upheaval as a result of subaltern political assertions, viewed as ‘divisive’. Moreover, he notes how Hindutva’s impulses of an “essentialised individualism” (a good Hindu) embedded within a totalising idea of community (a socially undifferentiated ‘Hindu Rashtra’) chimes with neo-liberalism’s stress on the utility maximising individualism and exercise of free choice in an undifferentiated marketplace. At the same time, Hindutva’s conception of the primacy of the nation as the origin and guarantor of rights rather than the state is in harmony with neoliberalism’s role for the state as a manager rather than redistributor.

The post-war context in Sri Lanka offers significant scope for potential gains and conflicts over re-alignments of networks of patronage and clientelist redistribution, which along with ethno-religious relations was in many ways over-determined by the war. And the dominant players in this competition will only be too happy to align themselves with the so-called moral and spiritual regeneration of the body politic i.e. ethno-religious nationalism and extremism, if it will give them an edge in cementing their socio-political bases (perhaps better seen as multi-class factions?), economic privileges and crucially, reconfiguring the social and eventually even the socio-political and legal substance of citizenship itself.

In conclusion

While underlining the anti-Muslim and anti-Islam dimensions, some cautions are in order. An over stress in the response on the anti-Muslim dimension may actually suit elements like the BBS, who will claim that they do not have any prejudices against Islam as such but are only drawing attention to actions of certain ‘bad’ elements within the Muslim community. On the other hand, over stressing the anti-Islam dimension presents the danger of a slippage into full-scale identity politics and privileging narratives of identity and prejudice not grounded in the political and economic realities. And amongst the dangers of such identity politics is that it can be used not just by hegemonic but also by dominant vested interests amongst subaltern communities to further their own leverage and power, marginalising progressives (in particular feminists), advancing the cause of orthodoxies and hardening boundaries. Religious nationalists and fundamentalists everywhere, across ethnic and religious divides, share many such manoeuvres and operate in mutually reinforcing ways, rendering them indispensable to each other.

Precisely because such manipulation and a reductionist politics of identity are a hall-mark of all religious nationalisms and chauvinisms, a political economy lens is absolutely vital. However, the latter will itself be incomplete and less relevant if it does not also account for the complexities of identity formulation and difference. We must continue to strive towards more fine-grained analysis of what we are living through, choosing our frames with care because it defines the problem itself and therefore how we think and respond.

One last crucial set of points needs to be made. One is not suggesting that non-believers, ‘outsiders’, or for that matter those who believe or practice in non-conformist ways have no right to initiate or engage in a debate or question any beliefs or practices in a particular religion, be it Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or any other. However, anyone seeking to raise such questions, whether from the ‘inside’ or the ‘outside’ must be assessed, at the least, in terms of: a) their stated and unstated motivations, including the nature of potential social, political and economic interests in the outcomes of the debate; b) the extent of inter-group inequality, i.e. the overall relationships of power within the polity, and their own recognition of and location within it; c) the distortions and influence of the state and its institutions, recognising that they are never ‘neutral’ players; and d) their own commitment to democratic principles and justice.

Public debates about religious beliefs and practices are an important part of deliberative democracy. However, this also demands that those wanting such a debate demonstrate a commitment in word and deed to the basic principles of democracy, including within their own imagined communities. The Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists, the focus of this analysis, do not pass this test— they have clear political and economic vested interests in pursuing an ethno-religious nationalism, are not committed to genuine inter-group equality and have the power to bend a pliant state machinery in their favour. Moreover, they have shown that they have little respect for democratic principles such as rule of just law or non-discrimination, on the contrary they have shown that they are willing to use any means possible to have their way.

Intolerance, absolutism, lack of respect for democracy, and, totalising and exclusivist ideas of religious identity and its linking with citizenship, etc. marks out actors like the BBS. And their targets are not just ethno-religious minorities but also those ‘within’ who do not conform. What they are really seeking is an assertion of their dominance and this is inseparable from the reality that the present-day Sri Lankan state is itself a biased arbiter, being significantly oriented towards them. One need not look too far back in our history to comprehend the dangers this presents.

References

Mushtaq Husain Khan (2000) The Political Economy Of Secularism And Religion
In Bangladesh,
in Basu, S. and Das, S. (eds.) Electoral Politics in South Asia, Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi.

Shankar Gopalakrishnan (2008) Neoliberalism and Hindutva: Fascism, Free Markets and the Restructuring of Indian Capitalism, Radical Notes Paper Series, Aakar Books.

Bodhu Bala Sena Begins New Campaign Against Attire of Muslim Women in Sri Lanka After Abolishing Halal Logos

Having tasted victory over the Halal certification issue, the Bodhu Bala Sena(BBS) organization is to begin another widespread campaign targeting the Muslim community on the issue of attire worn by Muslim women in Sri Lanka.

The co-founder and head of the Ethno-Religious Fascist Organization Ven.Kirama Vimalajothy Thera has announced that the Bodhu Bala Sena will commence a fresh campaign before March 31st 2013 against the form of dress covering the body that is worn by many Muslim women in Sri Lanka.

The Bodhu Bala Sena(BBS) is expected to make details of its campaign known at the Mass rally to be held inKandy on Sunday March 17th.

Vimalajothy Thera expressing happiness over the decision by the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama(ACJU)to stop Halal certified Logos on products domestically also stated that the BBS would like the entire Halal certification process scrapped in the future.

Currently the ACJU will issue Halal certificates free of charge for products catering to the Export market if requested by the manufacturers.Locally, Halal Logos will not appear on products.

Incidentally, the BBS lit crackers in many urban areas in the outstations to celebrate the Halal victory.

Many of these incidents occurred near Muslim owned mercantile establishments.

The BBS Leader however emphasised that while being elated over its triumph on forcing the ACJU to suspend Halal certification locally, the Bodhu Bala Sena will continue with its activities untiringly.

The BBS will now commence with fresh vigour a specific campaign against the attire of Muslim women.

Though various types of clothing are worn by Muslim women in Sri Lanka, the dress that has aroused the wrath of the Bodhu Bala Sena is that which is worn to cover the whole body.

Among the forms of feminine clothing are the scarf covering the head known as “Hijab” , the veil covering the face known as “Niqab” and the loose robe like overgarment covering the whole body known as “Abaya”in Arabic,“Burqa”in Urdu and “Purdah”in Persian.

The Bodhu Bala Sena target at present is theAbaya dress of Muslim women covering the whole body.

The BBS will begin a widespread campaign in Sri Lanka demanding that Muslim women should stop wearing the Abaya in public as it hurts and affects the sensibilities of the non –Muslim population that amounts to 91% of Sri Lanka.

The perverted logic applied here is the same as that in the Anti-Halal campaign where it was questioned as to why 91% of Sri Lankans should buy and consume Halal certified products.

The Bodhu Bala Sena which enjoys the support of Defense and Urban Development secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (BROTHER OF PRESIDENT) has been conducting a multi-faceted anti-Muslim campaign under the pretext of opposing Halal certification.

A familiar feature of public speeches by BBS leaders including Vimalajothy Thera and General Secretary Ven.Galaboda Attha Gnanasera Thera had been the virulent view expressed against the Abaya or Burqa dress worn by Muslim women.

All sorts of vulgar remarks and derisive comments were made against women wearing such clothing.

Both Vimalajothy and Gnasara Thera flouted principles of Vinaya by viciously attacking the Muslim women wearing such dresses.

One description repeated frequently on BBS platforms was “Goni Billa”(scary person in a sack) since the Abaya covered the whole body of the women, the BBS speakers called it “Goni Billa” in a manner that appealed to low tastes of people.

These derogatory speeches have already begun to impact on some misguided Sinhala youths.

There have been scattered incidents where Muslim women in Abaya clothing have been the target of caustic,offensive remarks.

Attempts have been made to yank the clothing by street urchins in a few places.

In one instance the grand niece of a Veteran Muslim political leader wearing Abaya was spat upon in broad daylight on a public road.

The most serious incident was in the Southern Province at Dikwella near the Mahanama bridge where three Muslim girls in Abaya attire were attacked and injured slightly.

Complaints were made to the Police who said that no further investigation was possible due to unavailability of Eyewitness reports.

According to Islamic theologians one of the plus points in wearing the Abaya is that it prevents exposing the female body to unrelated males thereby minimising the potential for unwarranted sexual arousal and temptation.

In that context it is indeed amusing to see respected Buddhist Priests wedded to the notion of celibacy being in the forefront of a campaign urging Muslim women to discard the Abaya.

Although the BBS is expected to formally commence the Anti-Abaya campaign on March 17th in Kandy, posters have already begun to appear in different parts of the country.

Many of these have crude and vulgar words.

It may be recalled that Defence Secretary Gotabhaya had told the ACJU that the BBS had indicated to him that it would not proceed with further its anti-Muslim campaign if the Halal certification process was discontinued.

This was a crucial factor in the decision made by the ACJU to scrap Halal labels locally.

It now appears that the Bodhu Bala Sena as in the case of most Fascist movements has not been truthful in this.

The Halal victory has only whetted its appetite for more triumphs in its on going anti_Muslim activity.

The Anti-Abaya campaign by the Bodhu Bala Sena will fuel the fire of communal discord further and increase insecurity among Muslim women.

Muslim women Abused at Fort Railway Station!

This incident occurred on last Friday, at the Fort Railway station. Four young Muslim women (Law students in Muslim dress) were pulled and dragged by their dress, by some young men, then some passersby came to their rescue and chased those hooligans, most of rescuers’ came to help were non Muslim brothers.

 

These type of incidents are very common and victims are Muslim women, in Sri Lanka.  BBS, publicly ordered to protest against the Abaya the (Muslim Women dress) just after the orders, their supporters are in ACTION. Our Muslim community must thanks those non Muslim brothers for the timely help. Pray for God to save our country.

BBS fires all cylinders at Muslims in Sri Lanka

• Vows to set up Buddhist trade chamber if trade chambers fail to safeguard Sinhala Buddhist rights
• Alleges that Mahanayakes had no forewarning about Halal ‘compromise’
• Slams Halal logo compromise; vows to continue agitation until certification is banned
• Claims Anunayakas and learned monks caught in an inter-religious trap set by Milinda
• Claims ACJU had no right to make announcement ahead of report by Cabinet sub-committee
• Claims sales at Muslim-owned enterprises had decreased by 50%

Firing from all cylinders, the Bodu Bala Sena yesterday hit back against Monday’s much-welcomed and harmonious compromise on the Halal controversy and its architects, with the monk-led group claiming it would not rest until the Islamic certification is completely banned.

The hard-line group which started the anti-Halal agitation through the country said the logo was merely the final stamp of a process that was abhorrent to the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in the island. The group said the Halal debate must continue and Sinhalese must continue to boycott Halal products.

The group slammed Presidential Advisor Milinda Moragoda and the trade chambers for brokering the compromise with the All Ceylon Jamaiythul Ulama, making it non-compulsory for companies to display the Halal logo on packaging. Calling Moragoda politically bankrupt and an agent of foreign influence in Sri Lanka, Bodu Bala Sena monks said the former Minister was engaged in a conspiracy to destroy Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

“Milinda Moragoda is creating an unholy inter-religious alliance, and attempting to destroy our learned monks. These revered bhikkus are now in the grasp of infidels,” Bodu Bala Sena National Organiser Viththarandeniye Nanda Thero told journalists yesterday.

Addressing the press briefing, Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero said they were disgusted that much-loved learned monks were joining hands with the ACJU to announce the Halal compromise. He charged that the Halal compromise had come with no warning to the Mahanayake Theros in the country.

“Those pseudo Buddhist leaders who never stood against Muslim extremism and Christian fundamentalism when it was taking root in this country five to six years ago are now suddenly claiming this is a historic occasion,” Gnanasara Thero said, referring to the monks present at the ACJU joint press briefing on Monday.
Hitting out at the business community, the Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary said the community was used to making money using shrewdness and cunning. “The trade chambers used these same tactics to manufacture this compromise on Monday,” he charged.

Taking a swipe at Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Susantha Ratnayake, the monk said that it was at the hotels of the Ceylon Chamber Chief that a Buddha Bar had been opened and an item called ‘nirvana’ was placed on a restaurant menu.

Bodu Bala Sena Executive Committee Member and layman Dilantha Vithanage charged that if the trade chambers failed to safeguard the interests of the Sinhala Buddhists, the group would take steps to set up a Buddhist trade chamber.

Vithanage said that it was unthinkable that the trade chambers, the ACJU and members of the clergy had reached consensus on such an important issue within two days.

“This is an insult to the Presidential Cabinet sub-committee that is yet to present its report on the Halal issue. The ACJU is making national decisions ignoring the Presidential committee,” he said.

He said the organisation of Muslim clerics had no business to make major announcements ahead of the report being submitted by the sub-committee. According to the group, several businessmen had complained to the committee about being coerced into obtaining the Halal certification.

Criticising the ACJU decision to provide Halal certification free of charge from now on, Vithanage said that only indicated that what they were doing in the past was robbery. “They must return all the money they made from certifying Halal, which is against their own religious teachings,” he said.

Vithanage said the monks who had joined the ACJU to announce the compromise yesterday had insulted the Mahanayake Theros who had only learned of the decision through media reports.

The Bodu Bala Sena said that they would continue their campaign of agitation and ensure Halal certification is completely done away with by the April New Year. The Group’s General Secretary said there was no point putting plasters on the problem.

The group said that the debate they had created about creeping Muslim extremism had already resulted in sales dropping by 50% in Muslim owned enterprises.

By Dharisha Bastians

Gota opens Bodhu Bala Academy.

Mirror) – The Buddhist Leadership Academy of the Bodhu Bala Sena was declared open yesterday (09) by the Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development and Defense Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse. This Academy was constructed by The German National Michael Kurstwayer and gifted to the Nedimala Buddhist Cultural Center. The ‘Meth Sevana’ building complex is located in Galle, Ranchawala, Pilana.

The ‘Meth Sevana’ Education and Cultural Center has been transformed into the Buddhist Leadership Academy.

According to the Bodu Bala Sena this Academy has been established to propagate leadership qualities in Bhikkus, Buddhist leaders and Buddhist activist youth.

The Nedimala Buddhist Center will run the Buddhist Academy.

The Bodu Bala Sena says they will transform this into a university in the future.

Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse who addressed the ceremony said that although many had asked him not to participate on this occasion, he did so after realizing its timely importance.

‘These Buddhist Clergy who are engaged in a nationally important task should not be feared or doubted by anyone’ he said. .

Bodu Bala Sena is Obviously a Rajapaksa – Pawn Used by the Siblings for Their Dynastic Project

“Only hate was happy….”
Auden (In Memory of Sigmund Freud)

On Tuesday, around 700 Tamils – mostly elderly women – set off from Jaffna. As Lankan citizens, they were exercising their constitutional rights; as family members of the war-disappeared, they intended to participate in a demonstration against extra-judicial killings, outside the UN office in Colombo.

They never made it out of Vavuniya. “The military said the protesters were stopped for their own safety after reports their vehicles were been attacked…… In the end, the mainly elderly women protested in Vavuniya, where they had been halted…..holding pictures of their relatives….” (Colombo Page – 6.3.2013).

The demonstration, organised by Mano Ganesan, was aimed at drawing the attention of the UNHRC, currently in session in Geneva, to the very real problem of the war-disappeared. Since the regime allowed the protest in Colombo to go ahead, its real problem was not with the demonstration per se but with the participation of Jaffna Tamils in it.

Post-war, a new wall is dividing the North and the South, a wall kept up in the name of national security by the Rajapaksa regime. Economic, cultural and personal contacts between the North and the South are permitted, in general. But political contacts between the North and the South, outside the Rajapaksa-fold, are regarded with zero-tolerance.

So UPFA leaders can have political rallies in the North; and pro-government Tamil politicians can bus innumerable Tamils for political events in Colombo (no stone-thrower problem there!). But any Sinhala-Tamil contact within the oppositional fold is perceived as a threat and treated with anti-democratic and illegal severity.

An oppositional unity which cuts across ethno-religious-class lines is the ultimate Rajapaksa nightmare. The regime becomes jittery whenever a Southern political party tries to reach out to the North. The JVP, several smaller left formations and even Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP have experienced the violent effects of this absolutist-intolerance.

Preventing any anti-Rajapaksa political awakening in the North or any anti-Rajapaksa political unity between the North and the South is thus a top priority for the Siblings. Sri Lanka would not been in hot-water in Geneva today, had it not been for this Rajapaksa obsession. Had the regime permitted normalcy and democracy to return to the North, post-war, the war-crimes charges would not have taken wing. If the Tamils were allowed to enjoy at least the limited freedom permitted to their Sinhala brethren, that would have sufficed to neutralise the West and keep India on the Rajapaksa-side. The world was tired of Mr. Pirapaharan’s murderous maximalism, and all the Rajapaksas had to do was to make minimal political concessions to the Tamils. Instead they imposed an anti-democratic Sinhala Peace on the Tamils, thereby giving the ‘war crime’ charge a new life.

Had the regime allowed the Northern Tamils to come to Colombo and take part in the demonstration, it could have used that fact to bolster its own claims and attack its opponents in Geneva, with some credibility. Instead the regime opted to provide its opponents in Geneva with one more weapon. In the power-besotted Rajapaksa eyes, permitting a majority-minority alliance within the opposition-fold is a far greater evil than tarnishing Sri Lanka’s international reputation.

When Lankan-interests conflict with Rajapaksa-interests, the latter wins, always.

Tiger Eelam and Rajapaksa Sri Lanka

Vellupillai Pirapaharan wanted not an Eelam for Tamil speaking people or even a Tamil Eelam. The only Eelam he was interested in was an Eelam under his total control.

Up to a certain point, the contradictions between Tamil-interests and Pirapaharan-interests remained minor and non-antagonistic. But when they diverged, sharply, and turned inimical and mutually exclusive, it was his interests Mr. Pirapaharan prioritised, over and above Tamil-interests, every time. This obsessive vision not only pushed the Tamils towards a historic defeat; it also blinded Mr. Pirapaharan to his own long-term interests. He decided to abandon reality altogether and chase his dystopian mirage. An un-heroic death on the shores of Nandikadal was the appointed end of that journey.

The Rajapaksas do not want a pluralist Sri Lanka or even a Sinhala-supremacist Sri Lanka. Their Sinhala supremacism is as instrumental and opportunistic as Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s Tamil supremacism. It is a useful – and a necessary – handle. What the Siblings really want is a Rajapaksa-supremacist Sri Lanka, a country under their total control, a land ruled by their family for evermore, their own ‘Thousand Year Reich’.

Rajapaksa-interests and Lankan-interests are already divergent and headed in opposite directions. The contradictions between Rajapaksa-interests and Sinhala-interests too are slowly turning antagonistic, especially in the economic sphere. The irrational Family-first economics of the Rajapaksas is seriously undermining Sinhala wellbeing.

A genuinely Sinhala supremacist regime, for instance, would have prioritised improving the lot of Sinhala farmers over the building of an unnecessary airport in Mattala. But for the Siblings, the pride and joy of having a Rajapaksa Airport far outweigh all the needs of all the Sinhalese. Eventually Sri Lanka will become a graveyard of infrastructural white-woolly mammoths, all named after the Rajapaksas, while most Sinhalese wallow in poverty.

Sinhala supremacism is a weapon to promote and a mantle to cover Rajapaksa supremacism; no less, no more. The Siblings will conjure into being crucibles of hate from time to time, to assist in its agenda of keeping ordinary Lankan too divided and afraid to realise the ill-effects of Rajapaksa-rule.

Like the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)

Last week, a BBS delegation powwowed with the Army Commander and the IGP. The meeting with Gen. Jayasuriya was “also attended by Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Major General Shavendra Silva…” (The Sunday Leader – 3.3.2012). Its purpose was to discuss the BBS claim that ‘Islamic terrorist groups’ (including Al Shabaab) are here. “The Venerable Embilipitiye Vijitha Theor said the monks handed over some documents to the army to back their claims and called for an in-depth investigation” (ibid).

The BBS came into being, organisationally, in July 2012. Today it is a major political player. Such a meteoric rise is not possible in Rajapaksa Sri Lanka, without Rajapaksa patronage. The BBS is obviously a Rajapaksa-pawn, used by the Siblings to further their own dynastic project.

Pawns are expendable, and replaceable; infinitely. \

According to the Sunday Times website, there is a plan to incarcerate BBS activists until the UNHRC sessions are over . Whether this faux ‘show-and-tell’ crackdown happens or not is immaterial. The BBS will perform its allotted role and evaporate from the polity and public memory. But the venom they spewed will continue to fester, impeding unity and promoting discord/fragmentation.

That is precisely what the Rajapaksas want. If Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Hindus suspect, fear and hate each other, if they build walls against each other, if they maintain a climate of cold war across these psychological ramparts (interspersed occasionally by real conflicts), they will never be able to unite, politically. And the Rajapaksa future is secured.

Hatred breeds hatred; violence begets violence. That is precisely the Siblings’ purpose. Countries which are normal and peaceful do not need heroes or saviours. So Sri Lanka must always be awash with suspicion, fear and hatred. How else can the minorities be cowed into inaction and the majority made to cling to the Kurakkan-shawl for protection?

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

Bodu Bala Sena and its Affiliate Groups are Engaged in a Campaign to Spread Fear and Mistrust About the Sri Lankan Muslims

Hard-line Sinhala groups like the Bodu Bala Sena essentially have a singular objective. They aim to spread fear and suspicion about communities and people whose customs and way of life are alien to most. Once upon a time, before a separatist struggle tore the country apart, it was the Tamils. Post-war, their rage has been directed at the Muslim community.

 

The Bodu Bala Sena now has a Special Investigations Unit and two emergency hotlines for the public to call in order to spur the unit into action.

 

Less than one month after the Sinhala hardline group commandeered a ‘civilian’ police force at a major rally in Maharagama, at least two major raids have taken place under its watch.

 

Both times, the country’s lawful police have followed meekly in the wake of the monks leading the charge against a Colombo Municipal Council run abattoir in Dematagoda and then a citizen’s arrested of an allegedly rogue Buddhist priest at the Maligawatte flats.

 

Both times, the group conducted the raids with media personnel and television crews in tow, as if eager to showcase the impunity with which they operate.

 

Raiding the ‘abattoir’

 

In Dematagoda, the Bodu Bala Sena ‘officers’ led by the group’s General Secretary Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero shut the gates to the slaughter-house –– and prevented meat trucks from entering. They interrogated drivers and CMC officials on site, demanded to see receipts and licenses and inspected storage facilities. The Dematagoda Police, summoned to the site at a few minutes’ notice, indulged and facilitated the BBS “raid” despite admitting later that the monks appeared to have been misguided about the activities at the premises.

 

While the building that dates back to 1865 is known as the Dematagoda Slaughter House, the premises actually serve as a meat distribution point. Cattle slaughter is prohibited within the Colombo city limits. The meat is transported to the site from other areas of the island, for approvals by the CMC Veterinary unit that declares it fit for consumption before it is distributed to meat markets and hotels and restaurants throughout the city.
The Bodu Bala Sena troops initially stormed the premises under the erroneous assumption that calf-slaughter was taking place inside. They changed tack upon realisation that they had been misinformed. Suddenly, the raid became about improperly stored meat products that were reaching the urban consumer. A CMC Veterinarian quipped that in 25 years of service with the Council, he was yet to receive a complaint of rotten meat traced back to the Dematagoda distribution site. The official also said that while the BBS monks were quizzing the mostly Muslim meat truck drivers, what had perhaps escaped their notice was that ironically most of the meat was arriving in Dematagoda from Sinhalese cattle farmers in Anuradhapura and elsewhere.
But in the Bodu Bala Sena world, such considerations are immaterial. The fact that meat truck drivers were mostly Muslims and the CMC is run by a Muslim Mayor would be proof enough that something ominous was happening at the Dematagoda premises. The group’s post-raid posters show images of a Muslim man juxtaposed with an Arabic script and pictures of the Dematagoda premises.

 

The very next day, television crews were provided front seat viewing for the Bodu Bala Sena led invasion into a home at the Maligawatte flats. The televised raid involved an interrogation by the group and the monk being handed over to the Maligawatte Police on allegations that he had committed financial fraud and sexual abuse. The priest has since been released on bail since, but the BBS is threatening similar action against marauding monks in the name of protecting Buddhism.

 

The group is mobilising frantically, with rallies in major cities across the country, the setting up of task forces and membership drives. Last week an anti-Halal demonstration took place in Weeraketiya, in Hambantota, the heartland of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s support. Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil reacted angrily to news of the protest, saying it effectively provided the green lights for anti-Muslim protests all over the country.
BBS goes door-to-door

 

A promised door-to-door campaign appears to have already begun, with a group of clergy and laymen, claiming to be from the Bodu Bala Sena, visiting homes in the Mount Lavinia area last weekend, to inform Sinhalese residents that it was their duty to have as many children as possible to counter the explosion of the Muslim population in the country.

 

The group walked around with what appeared to be a Grama Sevaka list, residents said, using which they were able to identify Sinhalese homes. In one such residence, having realised the family was Sinhalese Christian, the BBS team still urged the homeowner to have more children. The bizarre request left some residents stumbling for answers, having to explain to the strangers in their home that it was not economically feasible for them to have more children.

 

Amidst the noise and fury of BBS antics, more incidents against Muslim businesses and places of worship were reported last week. A mosque in Kegalle was stoned in the wee hours of the morning last Friday (1). The 60-year-old Mahara mosque was defaced with images of pigs and distasteful slogans. The Asian Tribune website contains a list of incidents against members of the Muslim community and mosques and enterprises since the beginning of the year. In cases where individuals have been assaulted, the website claims the victims have chosen not to report the incidents for fear of reprisal

 

Connecting dots

 

And even as the BBS madness crescendos and speculation grows about the group operating with at least tacit State sanction, the announcement came by the group’s senior officials that Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa would declare open the new Buddhist Leadership Academy in Galle on Saturday (9). The Academy will be run under the twin auspices of the Buddhist Cultural Centre run by Bodu Bala Sena President Kirama Wimalajothi Thero and the Bodu Bala Sena. The academy aims to provide ‘leadership’ training to Buddhist clergy, laymen and youth activists and inculcate knowledge of history and Buddhism through its curriculum.

 

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry last week announced the ban on the LRT contraceptive method and vasectomies for men – the former being agenda item seven on the Bodu Bala Sena’s Maharagama Declaration unveiled on 17 February.

 

Following discussions with the Government and senior Defence officials, the All Ceylon Jamaiythul Ulama has offered not one but two compromises in the past two weeks, on the Halal issue, all the while claiming that they were not doing so under duress from the Government but to ensure harmony between religions. Tomorrow, the ACJU will meet private sector stakeholders to attempt to reach a compromise on the Halal certification issue. Despite a request by the ACJU that the Government take over the Halal certification process, the Administration has so far declined the offer, perhaps in the knowledge that the wrath of the BBS and its splinter groups will turn on the regime in such an eventuality. All the while, the BBS’ 31 March deadline for a total ban on the Halal certification draws closer.

 

As the Halal debate wears on, the ACJU is finding itself in a remarkably isolated place, politically. Having backed the Rajapaksa regime unreservedly in the past, it is now finding that because of the ethno-religious dimensions of this crisis, the Government’s sympathies must remain with the Bodu Bala Sena, which shares a support base with the regime. An ACJU delegation accompanied Government officials to Geneva last year, when the first US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka was adopted and repeatedly affirmed the Rajapaksa regime’s commitment to peace, reconciliation and minority rights at various side events during the UN Human Rights Council session.

 

This year, the UNHRC Session unfolds even as a very different scenario plays out in Sri Lanka. Lack of progress One year after the Council adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka, the international community is making it clear that the country has shown an appalling lack of progress in addressing lingering reconciliation and rights abuses issues in the aftermath of the war.

 

Reports by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights watch repeatedly critique Sri Lanka for a lack of progress in investigating alleged war crimes allegations and continued minority and opposition suppression in the country.

 

The US has called Sri Lanka out at the Council this year, as showing a lack of genuine action on issues highlighted last year by the international community, even as the Sri Lankan delegation took pains to repeat to the Council many of the statistics and action plans it had heard before.

 

To make matters worse, the Sri Lankan Head of Delegation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe was also the only speaker at the UNHRC 22’s High Level Segment to launch such a brutal tirade on High Commissioner Pillay’s credentials, alleging that she was biased against Sri Lanka and had fallen prey to LTTE propagandists. The Sri Lankan Minister’s remark drew immediate sympathy for the High Commissioner from the German Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, who felt Pillay required a defence against “unjustified and personal” criticism from certain quarters, and called out Minister Samarasinghe by name.

 

It was nothing if not a testament to the diplomacy Sri Lanka has grown accustomed to practice of late, in which vilification and belligerence constantly triumphs reason and common sense. One has come to expect a certain comprehension on the part of officials of Samarasinghe’s ilk, who must realise that Navi Pillay is not merely an individual that must be taken on, but the present holder of high office within the UN system. Denigration of Pillay only singles Sri Lanka out for further criticism, as a country that consistently and vehemently lashes out at its critics instead of seeking to silence them with quiet and affirmative action.

 

And so it is in this muddled backdrop in Geneva, with Channel 4 and the Tamil lobby charging, that the Sri Lankan State continues to suppress and discriminate against the Tamil people, that the Leader of the Muslim Tamil National Alliance Azath Sally on Tuesday (5) wrote to UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon, in attempt to draw the UN Chief’s attention to the present plight of Muslims in Sri Lanka.

 

UN Chief alerted about Muslim situation

 

In his letter, copied to High Commissioner Pillay, Sally tells the UN Secretary General that the Sri Lankan Government was “pushing the country towards another holocaust”. Alleging that the violation of the rights of Muslims living in Sri Lanka were tantamount to a violation of the UN Charter, Sally said that radical members of the Buddhist clergy were being allowed to take the law into their hands, with the enforcers of the law watching from the sidelines, and publicity given to these events by organs of the State.

 

The MTNA Leader cites the 1992 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities that requires states to “take measures were required to ensure that persons belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination and in full equality before the law”.

 

The impunity with which the BBS operates and the climate of insecurity it is creating for the Muslim community has not gone unnoticed by the diplomatic community. That the Government is permitting the BBS antics to go unchecked, especially when it is under serious international scrutiny at the UNHRC session in Geneva, is if anything, ample proof that it is no longer concerned about censure from that forum.

 

This notion was further reinforced when 11 busloads of civilians from the north, families of the disappeared who were travelling to Colombo to attend a rally yesterday to highlight their cases during the UNHRC sessions, were detained in Vavuniya by the Police. The Police warned the civilians that the buses may come under attack on the way to Colombo, Tamil politician and Democratic People’s Front Leader, Mano Ganesan said.

 

Strong US reaction

 

The detention drew a sharp response from the US Government last night.

 

Issuing a statement, the US Embassy in Colombo charged that Sri Lanka has been “backsliding” on important areas of fundamental democratic rights, since the adoption of the UNHRC resolution last year.

 

“The LLRC recommends thorough investigations into disappearances as well an establishment of a mechanism to address cases of the missing and detained. Since last year’s UNHRC resolution the United States has grown increasingly concerned by the lack of progress on these issues,” the Embassy said in a hard-hitting statement that urged the Government to allow freedom of movement to the protestors from the north. The US expressed “alarm” at the detention of the peaceful protestors and said “the right to freely express opinions is universal and protected under Sri Lankan and international law”.

 

The statement comes in the wake of New Delhi and other ‘friends’ of Sri Lanka urging the Government to engage diplomatically to soften the language of the second US-backed resolution due to be tabled at the UNHRC in the next few days. With the Government intent to regress and show its hand even while the sessions are in play, the prospect of that dilution is beginning to look very remote.

 

Looking away from Geneva

 

Determinedly looking away from Geneva, the Rajapaksa administration is instead focusing all its energies on ensuring that the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting goes through in Colombo in November. The summit has been cast into shadow due the Government’s vehement decision to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake in violation of international standards for the removal of judges and rulings by its two highest courts and its apparent lack of progress in improving its human rights situation.

 

Minister of External Affairs G.L. Peiris told Parliament on Tuesday that it was ‘crystal clear’ that the summit would go ahead in Colombo come November and asserted that there was no grounds for Sri Lanka to be inserted into the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group.

 

The core grouping is mandated to determine whether Commonwealth member states are adhering to the organisation’s core principles and has the power to suspend states seen to be in violation. An international drive is underway to have Sri Lanka placed on the agenda for the group’s meeting in April that comes soon after the UNHRC 22nd Session closes at the end of March. If Sri Lanka enters the agenda, the skies will darken ominously over the prospect of the major summit being held in Colombo as scheduled, Minister Peiris’ proclamations in Parliament notwithstanding.

 

Unnoticed by its citizenry, Sri Lanka has taken a dangerous turn towards autocracy and ethno-religious fascism that places the country precariously on the edge of international pariah status. Neither phenomenon screams to announce its presence, but creeps up slowly on a politically naive and disengaged populace.

 

The citizens of post-war Sri Lanka, intoxicated with its hyper-development drive and superficial stability, are sufficiently apathetic to the real dangers posed by the BBS and its powerful sponsors. Blinded by rage against the ‘other,’ the Bodu Bala Sena and its affiliate groups are engaged in a campaign to spread fear and mistrust about the Muslims of Sri Lanka. The trajectory of fear is abundantly clear and its seeds are already sown. Unless arrested now, political apathy and patronage could allow an already disturbing situation to spiral swiftly – and violently – out of control.

 

By Dharisha Bastians

Mervyn warns Bodu Bala Sena

(Mirror) – If anyone is attempting to stir religious hatred and out to destroy unity and peace, its is a warning to desist from doing so otherwise it would not be possible to escape him’ says the Minister for Public relations, Mr. Mervyn Silva.   The minister was speaking at  a ceremony at the Sri Wardanarama Temple in Katana.

He said that monks should act and speak in the manner of normal laymen adding that they should be  more exemplary conduct.

He said  that hitherto he ha been silent in the ongoing discussions  pertaining to the Halal  certification issue.

In the past, in the gaining of independence for the country, the monks have played a great role  and they should render their services to the problems arising in the country in a decent manner based on the Dhamma.

When  tackling any national issue the Buddhist clergy should work together under the advise and directions of the Malwathu and Asgiri Chapters, he stressed, and said  that it was an insult to Buddhism when they are segregated as group and begin different discourses, which is an insult to the Dhamma.

When the Muslims came to Sri Lanka the Halal issue was not there, and for a long time both the Sinhala and Muslim communities lived in amity and unity, and religious and communal divisions should be allow  rear its head once again, the Minister said.

Muslims brothers should carry out their practices and customs as before.

Beliefs  and practices  should not be imposed on others and create unnecessary racial tension, the minister said.

Bodu Bala Sena And The Friday Forum

Colombo crowd’s Friday Forum is worried about “Muslim hunting” in Sri Lanka. As usual this mostly retired-elite group is in a tunnel.  Not a word about the Ulamas working like Taliban agents in Sri Lanka.  Aasad Saaly does a better job in his consideration of the other side of the Halal certification issue.  FF wants to blame the Bodu Bala Sena and that is all.  I do not know how many parents of the Friday Forum’s (FF)Sinhala Buddhist members sent them to a village/town Temple Sunday school when they were young children. I also do not know how many of them had heard the story of a colonial governor expressing his embarrassment when (in the 1880s) the Sinhala representative of the then Legislative Council had voted against the resolution to make Vesak a public holiday in Ceylon.  The Sinhala rep who was a Christian said that one week of Christmas holidays was enough for all in Ceylon.  No Forum can become a “useful” entity unless it at least gives the impression to the public (in this case Colombo English-speaking crowd) that it knows what it is talking about. Otherwise, the perception of people will be that FF is nothing but a weekend gathering of a wine and cheese party.

Sri Lanka’s history and a geography cannot be ignored. How can it (FF) forget even the most recent past? Think of the dark days of CBK who is now coming back to talk about bad MPs forgetting that she was the one who first made Mervyn Silva, the thug, an MP!  With her two chief disciples Mangala Samaraweera and S. B. Dissanayake, organizing white lotus peace parades in Colombo, ridiculing the village boys and girls sacrificing their lives in the North, Sinhala Buddhists were hiding their faces in fear and shame!  It was the late Ven. Gangodavila Soma, reminiscent of the earlier times of the Anagarika Dharmapala who came forward to pump oxygen to a dying and discriminated community of Sinhala Buddhists. There was no lay man or woman with a backbone to help boost Buddhist morale, and Ven. Soma said he had nothing to lose. He became an unstoppable national force which a shrewd converted evangelical businessman like Lalith Kotalawala was able to foresee. The others saw the true value of Ven. Soma Movement only after Ven. Soma’s tragic death, reminding people the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence of things. Ven. Soma’s funeral proved that Buddhists are becoming a disciplined-organized, and if necessary Malcolm X-like force.

Three entities tried to claim Ven. Soma’s dowry. Chandrika tried to bribe Ven. Soma’s mother and take a photograph with her. JVP demonstrators found Buddhist monks waiting on roadsides with pirith nuul. Ultimately, it was Mahinda Rajapakse who could benefit from Ven. Soma’s effort. MR won because of the Sinhala Buddhist vote. A president is the president all ethnic groups. But it does not mean he should ignore Sinhala Buddhists at the expense of so-called ethnic harmony or interfaith labels. Ali Jinna once told Gandhi, “Mr. Gandhi you worship cow but we eat cow, so how can we become friends?”  Similarly one God-based religions and Buddhism cannot be same as Buddhists do not believe in a God.  Since Buddhist never harmed or interfered with other religions, what the government was expected to do was to protect Buddhism from harm perpetrated by other religions came from the West. Buddhists did not ask to make Buddhism the state religion. For example, when D. S. Senanayake, on the advice of Ivor Jennings said that there is no Pali stanza saying “Aanduwa Saranam Gachchami” (I take refuge of the government), Buddhist position was clearly laid out thus:

 “The Buddhists wish—and quite rightly—that in this country where they form 70 percent of the population, Buddhism should be recognized as the predominant religion of the people. In the rest of the world, Ceylon is regarded as essentially a Buddhist country, and they want this claim established here as well…They will not be content to remain in the position of inferiority to which they have been reduced by 450 years of foreign occupation… They  have no desire to make Buddhism the State religion—in spite of the cry raised by self-seeking politicians— but they want the State to help them rehabilitate themselves and undo some, at least, of the injustices perpetrated against them during the days of their subjection.”

(From a speech by Professor Gunapala Malalasekera, President of the All-Ceylon Buddhist          Congress, printed in Times of Ceylon,January 15, 1956, reproduced on page 196 of the book,               Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation by W. H. Wriggins, Princeton Univ. Press, 1960, p. 196).

Despite this position successive governments of Colombo ruling families used Buddhism as a platform for them to get votes and erected constitutions mentioning foremost position to Buddhism etc. As we can clearly see from the Buddhism ministry under the present prime minister, this kind of false recognition became a loss to Buddhists on five different ways: No extra benefits were given to Buddhists, but other world religious units got government office space; and international Christian groups started a propaganda campaign against Buddhists citing the constitutional words. Useless and sabotaging ministry officers did more damage than good to Buddhist institutions via government control. Temple chief monks who were independent sovereign entities unlike a Christian church became dependent on government dole for funds; villagers thought that they do not have to donate for temple maintenance now that the government is taking care of temples!   While this is going on in Sri Lanka, on the other hand in Christian countries such as in USA George Bush gave all the privileges to Christian evangelists, despite the requirement of religious neutrality mentioned in the US Constitution. In UK it is Queeen’s religion. In Norway it is another Christian faith.

When a president who came to power with the Sinhala Buddhist vote could not protect even the Buddhist ruins in the East and North, when Buddhist social values and heritage was rapidly declining, Bodu Bala Sena came to speak on behalf of Buddhists.  Halal issue was the match that lighted the firewood gradually accumulating all over Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka could not prevent the dynamiting of the Bamian Buddha or setting fire to ancient Buddhist manuscripts found in Afghanistan. But the government must at least be able to prevent bulldozing ancient Buddhist temples. The jokers in the Archeology Department could not stop even that. For them it was only a heap of earth. Both Christian Church and Islam organizations in the world spend millions of dollars to convert people by unethical means.

It is true that it was Gotabhaya Rajapakse who helped MahindaR to win the war. FF can have cheese and wine parties in Colombo because of that. But when it comes to civil administration, MR Administration is no different from past administrations.  Corruption, inefficiency and general stupidity is continuing. It divides people either as yes men or enemies.  Mahinda R is missing a great opportunity to make Sri Lanka a real Dharmishta Rajya. Mahinda Chinthanaya cannot work unless and until people are freed from crook politicians. One of the best approaches is to empower people at the village level demarcated by natural, language-blind political units with a ten-member council elected on non-party basis. Instead of the present Divineguma plan based on officialdom, which is bound to fail, village councils so selected must be allowed to decide on local affairs including education. Officers and higher governmental units must be there to help and not to decide on behalf of people. This is what one can say is the 13A Plus as from village level councils it can go upward to seven river basin regions in the island with Yalpanam as the northern river basin.

Because LLRC report created more problems to the government, Ulamas thought they can capitalize on MahindaR’s weakness to bend over backwards to please the minorities and introduce hala joke in an authoritarian manner. A Buddhist country like Sri Lanka does not need American or Navi Pillay-kind of advisors to teach on human rights. Buddhist gave women equal rights and even animals and trees their rights 2600 years ago. The problem is past politicians and present president is either not willing or not able to implement Buddhist principles. Buddhist principles are reasonable principles. For example, Muslims Ulamas can have halal but it is unreasonable to gear it toward non-Muslims. Sri Lankan Muslim women do not have to become goni billas covering their head in streets as Sri Lanka does not have sand storms. In their mosques they can cover their bodies not on public roads.

I wanted show FF that if they just isolate an issue and write complaints it will be a waste of time and energy. FF must try to be a forum wanting to help all Sri Lankans and not directing their frustration against MahindaR. For example, FF members need to watch on Youtube what Bodu Bala Sena said at the Archeological Dept meeting or in Beruwala hotel about the Buddha Bar to see both the trees as well as the forest. I challenge FF to have a meeting with BBS so that FF will not write another silly letter to the president. Otherwise FF is no different from that Tisaranee Gunasekara who spits her venom against the Rajapakse family. She throws the baby with the bath water. Judging from how it works via Youtube videos I think BBS will be the future hope of Sri Lanka.

By C. Wijeyawickrema –

Keep Your ‘Kiribath’ Mr. Gammanpila – Hameed Abdul Karim

Reading the preamble of Mr. Udaya Gammanpila’s article titled ‘Halalization and end of Sri Lanka food culture’ (‘Ceylon Today’ 24 February, 2013) I got the impression that he was beginning to turn a new leaf in his approach to Muslims and Christian communities living in Sri Lanka, though the title kept nagging at the back of my mind telling me such a transformation was not possible.

 

All that soppy babble about how it was unnecessary for the Norwegians to teach us religious amity was intended to take another shot at the Muslims via the halaal bogey. If we are to take the word of this self confessed Sinhala nationalist it were the Muslims who shattered the bonhomie that existed between all communities in the country by insisting that their food be ‘halaal’.

 

Shiv Sena

 

Much has been written about the halaal controversy created by the Bodu Bala Sena and hijacked by the JHU fearing they might lose the little support they are left with. That is assuming the BBS is not an extension of the JHU like the Shiv Sena is an extension of the Hindu racist party the BJP. No more need to be said about ‘halalization’ now that the Jamiyyathul Ulama has handed the ‘halaal business’ over to the government to do as it pleases thus taking the wind off the sails of the BBS and the JHU. But don’t be surprised if these racist groups come up with some other ‘grievance’ to grumble about. And if they do then those of us, who include decent peace loving Sinhala Buddhists, will need no further proof of the halaal issue being only a pretext for a sinister plot. And this plot could be taking over the reins of government like did the BJP in India.

 

Jamiyyathul Ulama Equals Prabhakaran?

 

Be that as it may, I think it was grossly unfair for Mr. Gammanpila to compare the Jamiyyathul Ulama withVelupillai Prabhakaran claiming that the former is more dangerous than the latter because the Jamiyyathul Ulama is making an attempt at social segregation and not territorial segregation. This is absolutely ludicrous and can be seen as a subtle attempt to create hate among rural Sinhala Buddhists against Muslims. The bulk of the urban Sinhala Buddhists don’t care a hoot for the scare mongering of the likes of Mr. Gammanpila. This is patently obvious when you see them patronising Muslim owned restaurants on Galle Road on any given day.

 

Portuguese Expulsion

 

Once again we have a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist selling his supremacist ideas to all and sundry. And poor King Senarath pops up again. Mr. Gammanpila tells us that the good king came forward to accept the Muslims that the Portuguese had expelled from Colombo. Here again you begin to get the feeling that it was King Senarath’s magnanimity and charitable bent of mind that prompted him to come to the assistance of the displaced Muslims. But the fact is that King Senarath needed the Muslims to cultivate his lands so that he could be assured of a regular supply of food while he waged war on his fellow Sinhala Buddhists. To the good king Senarath the Portuguese’s expulsion of Muslims was a godsend.

 

Mr. Gammanpila says that the good Sinhala Buddhists of that time gave these Muslims accommodation in temples and gave them food. But don’t you think it’s rather comical when he says that ‘no Muslim demanded halaal food at that time’? Well, how would he know? Was he there? Maybe, the food was vegetarian with a little bit of fish or ‘karowala’ (dry fish) thrown in for taste. If that was the case then the food would be halaal! So if I get a similar Sinhala ‘buth’ (meal) parcel with or without the ‘dharma chakra’ I would gladly eat it. Same goes for a ‘saiva sapadu’ even with the ‘thrishool’, because these foods, being vegetarian, are halaal for Muslims. Frankly, I think Mr. Gammanpila has still not grasped the actual meaning of the words ‘halaal’ or ‘haraam’. Then again maybe he doesn’t want to on account of his political agenda.

 

Muslims in Sinhala Armies

 

Muslims were not lotus eaters during the times of the kings. In fact they were among the best of fighters in Sinhala Buddhist armies to a point where the historian Qyeroz bitterly complains that in all revolts against foreign occupation the ‘Muslims were always on the side of the enemy who happened to be Sinhala Buddhists. Today sections of the descendants of those Sinhala Buddhists consider us Muslims as the ‘enemy’ or ‘outsiders’ or ‘tourists’ or ‘creepers’. Look at how they are treating us. What a travesty of history and justice. There is not even a trace of gratitude for what the Muslims have done for Sri Lanka in history and up to current times. All along we have stood by our faith in Islam whilst Sinhala Buddhist kings and noblemen changed their faiths for posts and privileges. No Muslim did that. We don’t need a pat on the back for standing firm in our faith, but give us some respect. King Dharmapala changed his faith and became Don Juan and became a vassal of Portugal.

 

Tsunami

 

When the tsunami hit us the whole nation was plunged into grief. We moved around like zombies, struck by lightning, with devastated looks on our faces. Thousands perished in the disaster and people from all the communities here and around the world came together in one grand display of humanity to console and help those affected. In short it was a humanitarian crisis. So for Mr. Gammanpila to add a sectarian and racial tinge to this humanitarian crisis by bragging that he and his JHU housed Muslims in temples and gave them food goes beyond all decencies. He said the Muslims didn’t ask for halaal food then why are they asking for that now. If the food was vegetarian then, like I said before, it is halaal for Muslims. Unless of course Mr. Gammanpila and his band of merry man had prepared beef curry and fried chicken!

 

Many were those of other faiths who banded together as groups to help the affected people. None of them identified themselves with sectarian labels as does the overtly self righteous Udaya Gammanpila of the JHU. Millions of dollars poured into the country (some of it went into the pockets of corrupt politicians). Muslims too joined in with men and money helping all communities without any sectarian bias. My religious upbringing and modesty prevent me from elaborating.

 

What Halaal Found

 

Something good happened during all the halaal controversy. During a routine check it was discovered that a chemical called ‘L-Cyesteine’ was used by bakers as a taste enhancer for bread and pastry products. What was not known even to the bakers was that this chemical is mainly sourced from human hair, duck feathers or, according to a manager from the products’ Chinese company, hog hair’. This was stated by Mufthi Rizwi of the ACJU in an interview with a weekend paper. Nobody I know would want this ingredient used in bakery products unless of course he or she is an out and out cannibal! In this instance all right thinking people should thank the ACJU for exposing the unsavoury substances that went to make L-Cyesteine.

 

Hero and Victim

 

All through his article the self righteous Mr. Gammanpila plays a triple role, that of the good Samaritan, hero and victim. Good Samaritan when he publicised his charity towards the Muslim tsunami victims. Hero of the Sinhala Buddhists, doing his best to save Sinhala Buddhism which according to him and his fellow travelers’ reasoning is facing an imminent threat from Christianity and Islam. But it is fast becoming clear that all these tantrums and propaganda are only pretexts to gain political advantage. This is the identical way India’s BJP operated before they won an election and formed a government of their own. The BJP had its Barbri Masjid campaign. The BBS has, with the full backing of the JHU, has its Barbri Masjid in Daftar Jailani in Balangoda. The BBS has ordered the destruction of Daftar Jailani by the 31st of March. Will President Mahinda Rajapaksa invite the BBS to tea the same way Rajiv Gandhi invited the BJP when they threatened to destroy the Barbri Masjid? Or would he, unlike Gandhi, read the riot act to them?

 

The JHU’s plan is to relegate Muslims and all minorities to subordinate roles in society like Tonto was to the Lone Ranger. Since the day the BBS and JHU created the halaal controversy Mr. Gammanpila like others in the extremist groups have played the role of victims of Muslim ‘fundamentalism’. Like as if to say ‘we are very good people but since the Muslims want halaal food we have to take a stand and stop this nonsense’. Muslims have always consumed only halaal food since the advent of Islam and never indulged in haraam business like running casinos or bars. The JHU had supported, in violation of Buddha’s teachings which they claim to protect and foster, the establishment of casinos and new bars in parliament over and over again. So instead of playing the victim for political propagandist purposes, Mr. Gammanpila should address issues like alcoholism and gambling among Sinhala Buddhists, not to mention the other evils like child rape and murder that is everyday news these days.

Sri Lanka Muslims Address UN over Threats

Sri Lanka has been thrown into tension following a string of serious incidents involving extremist Buddhist provocations against Muslims.

CAIRO – Growing fearful of the rise of Buddhist nationalist attacks, Sri Lanka Muslims have written to the United Nations, complaining about the recent anti-Muslim campaign carried out by radical Buddhists with the government failing to protect them.

“After the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam, the Muslims of Sri Lanka have been looking at every opportunity to bring about national unity at a time when the country is in transition,” the Muslim Tamil National Alliance said a letter sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and cited by Colombo Gazette.

“We fail to understand the failure of the government of Sri Lanka in arresting the current trend which if left to go its course ,would spell disaster for the country we call our home,” the letter added.

The Muslim Tamil National Alliance, led by Muslim politician Azath Salley, was worried about the rise of a controversial group known as “Bodu Bala Sena”, or Buddhist Force, which has been accused of inciting attacks against Muslims.

The group has been campaigning for a ban on halal meat, a campaign resisted by the Sri Lankan government.

The Buddhist group has denied any role in attacks on Muslims, saying several “duplicate groups” were pretending to be them.

Sri Lanka has been thrown into tension following a string of serious incidents involving extremist Buddhist provocations against Muslims.

In June, some 200 demonstrators led by several dozen Buddhist monks converged on a small Islamic center in Colombo’s suburb of Dehiwala.

Throwing stones and rotten meat over the mosque gate, protestors shouted slogans demanding the closure of the Muslim worship place.

Earlier in April, a number of Buddhist monks disrupted Muslim prayer services in the village of Dambulla. The attackers claimed that the mosque, built in 1962, was illegal.

Weeks later, monks drafted a threatening letter aimed at Muslims in the nearby town of Kurunegala, demanding Islamic prayer services there be halted.

The letter sent to the UN Chief urged the UN to draw the attention of the Government of Sri Lanka to protect and promote the rights of the Muslim minority.

“We urge your Excellency to take all necessary measures to guarantee that the rights and the freedom of religion or belief of the various religious communities living in Sri Lanka are respected and protected and ask of the government of Sri Lanka to adopt effective measures to prevent the recurrence of these acts,” the letter said.

Civil War

The letter to the UN was sent as another Muslim group, the Friday Forum, asked the government to take solid steps towards stopping rising fascist-nationalist attacks.

“The Friday Forum urges you to act immediately and decisively to counter the increasingly venomous and strident anti-Muslim hate campaign launched by a few extremist groups claiming to represent the majority Sinhala community,” the Friday Forum said in a letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and cited by Lanka Business Online.

“The country has witnessed attacks against mosques, and the circulation, on social media, public posters and web-sites, of obscene and vituperative messages that are offensive to religious beliefs.

“It has witnessed anti-Muslim public rallies and processions, including a call to boycott Muslim business establishments.”

The group referred to earlier attacks by nationalist Buddhists which triggered a 30-year war ending in 2009.

In 1983, a Kristallnacht style pogrom led to the escalation of the ethnic conflict.

“The possibility of violence against a particular community, and the dangers of ethnic cleansing are very real,” the Friday Forum wrote said.

“The horrors of the 1983 ethnic riots constantly remind us how human life and personal security mean nothing, when there is incitement to communal violence and hatred.

“Hate campaigns inevitably result in a deep sense of fear and vulnerability among members of the targeted community, giving rise to a fear psychosis.

“Such a situation not only deeply harms that community, but also imbues a whole society with suspicion and propensity to communal violence.”

Sri Lankan Muslims, known as “Moors”, are the third largest ethnic group in the country after the Sinhalese, who make up 70 percent of the populace, and Tamils, who account for 12.5 percent.

Analysts say successive governments have been under pressure to give in to the Buddhist majority whenever there is an ethnic clash.

During the country’s long civil war, the Muslim community was often caught between the two warring parties and it has a reputation for moderation.

Muslims live scattered throughout the island from Galle in the south to the Tamil-dominated Jaffna peninsula in the north.

Sri Lanka citizen group calls for halt to anti-Muslim nationalism

Mar 08, 2013 (LBO) – Friday Forum, a Sri Lankan citizen’s group has asked the administration to take steps to stop rising fascist-nationalist actions directed at the island’s Muslim community.

“The Friday Forum urges you to act immediately and decisively to counter the increasingly venomous and strident anti-Muslim hate campaign launched by a few extremist groups claiming to represent the majority Sinhala community,” the Friday Forum, said in a letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“As you are aware, this campaign has intensified over the past several months.

“The country has witnessed attacks against mosques, and the circulation, on social media, public posters and web-sites, of obscene and vituperative messages that are offensive to religious beliefs.

“It has witnessed anti-Muslim public rallies and processions, including a call to boycott Muslim business establishments.”

An extreme nationalist organization called ‘Bodu Bala Sena’, had been at the forefront of anti-Muslim activity in the island.

The call to boycott Muslim businesses is similar to the Judenboycott of Germany. Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority has previously been the target of nationalists, which triggered a 30-year war ending in 2009.

In 1983, a Kristallnacht style pogrom led to the escalation of the ethnic conflict.

“The possibility of violence against a particular community, and the dangers of ethnic cleansing are very real,” the Friday Forum wrote said.

“The horrors of the 1983 ethnic riots constantly remind us how human life and personal security mean nothing, when there is incitement to communal violence and hatred.

“Hate campaigns inevitably result in a deep sense of fear and vulnerability among members of the targeted community, giving rise to a fear psychosis.

“Such a situation not only deeply harms that community, but also imbues a whole society with suspicion and propensity to communal violence.”

The Friday Forum welcomed comments made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Trincomalee in February calling for communal harmony, but said not enough was being done.

A hate campaign was rapidly being set against Muslims through the media.

“In any situation in which there are efforts to incite communal tensions, the primary responsibility of removing such threats and reassuring the community under attack is with the government,” the Friday Forum said.

“The people elect the President and other representatives in the expectation that they will ensure an environment in which all citizens can live assured of their human rights including equality, personal security, dignity and religious freedom.

“Failure of a government to provide this is a serious breach of its responsibilities and has, in the past, had tragic consequences for our country and our people.

“We urgently call on you as elected Head of State to address the nation denouncing the current anti-Muslim campaign and its sponsors and detailing the measures the government will take to deal with the hate campaign against Muslims.

“Only such steadfast and resolute action, rising above narrow identity politics, can safeguard the peace and further an environment of communal harmony and security in our country.”

Act of peaceful diplomacy

All ceylon Jamiathul Ulama has decided to issue Halal certificates free of charge in Sri Lanka. The effect came after the controversy created over the Halal certification by some extremist buddhist hardline groups, Particularly the “Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist power Army) as it seeks to divide the country along racial lines, laying the foundation for more conflict. There are several elements of it that, despite being repeated, are not being taken into account and undermine the tolerance and racial harmony that should be promoted in Sri Lanka, especially in the tenuous aftermath of a three- decade war.

Initially the battle was launched on the grounds that the Halal process was expensive and is a burden to the business community. The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) came out with the breakdown of the cost for the certification process which clearly showed it was minor and income went in to meeting administrative expenses.

It is a point of note that none of the 150-odd companies that have obtained the certification came forward to support the platform forged by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) which insists Halal certification was unfair, a cost to the consumer and against the business interests of companies. This is despite the fact that only a limited number of products which currently carry Halal certification, they are mostly aimed at Muslim consumers, and the relatively low low service fee was charged.

In fact the Halal process gave the stamp of approval necessary for Sri Lankan goods to be exports to Muslim markets such as the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia earning the country much- needed foreign exchange.

Swarnavahini “Live @ 8” Un·biased

 

The EAP owned Swarnavahini promotes Bodu Bala Sena  movements, as a leading news provider in the country,  they don’t fail to cover racism striking campaigns  carried out by the  bodu bala sena in their  daily segments creating more havoc in the country.

Racist minister Patali Champika Ranawaka criticizes Muslim Ulamas

Quoted – By selling the Halal certification the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama Association has violated the verses of the Holy Quran says the Jathika Hela Urumaya.  Speaking at a press conference held in Colombo today JHU Secretary Patali Champika Ranawaka stated that the ACJU representatives have not read Quran verses.

Without Halal Certification We lost 1.5 Million Just in 2months – Vendol Chairman Lelwala G Godakanda

Vendol company exposes its loss causing factor. The company had lost 1.5 million during the first two months as they had been unable to send their products to Middle Eastern countries. Some said they have had to shut down their businesses owing to the same reason.

Asked whether obtaining halal certification is very expensive, its clarified their certification cost only Rs.9, 000 per annum

“For the SLS certification it cost around 1.5 million and for the ISO the same amount as the SLS. It is nothing for them to take the halal certification and get their sales increased incredibly.

Hate Campaign Against Members of the Muslim Community Through Public Meetings and On the Internet

Recently, some persons, including some Buddhist monks, carried out a hate campaign against members of the Muslim community through public meetings and on the Internet. Several mosques have also been attacked and some Muslim traders have been targeted by unruly crowds calling upon them to close their businesses.

Should such hate speech be banned in a democracy? Liberals oppose any ban on freedom of speech. They not only uphold the right of free speech but say that trying to stamp out hate speech curtails the debate that would ultimately discredit such speech. This is the viewpoint in the western democracies. Although freedom of expression is very important there’s a fine line where our beliefs and opinions may offend others who belong to a different group. Hate speech is not as it were an intellectual debate or discussion but speech specifically directed at inciting people to violence against a particular group of people.

 

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s thought unchecked speech would fan the Hindu-Muslim violence that has marred the country’s recent history. So, he kept in place a colonial-era Penal Code that outlawed sedition, blasphemy and “outraging religious feelings.We too have similar provisions in our Penal Code but we do not invoke them against rabble rousers from the majority religious community. Of course, these provisions didn’t prevent religious violence in India. Instead, they enabled religious radicals to claim offense more easily. So Hindu extremists groups sued and goaded officials to charge India’s most famous modern painter M.F. Husain—whose controversial paintings included a nude “Mother India”. They eventually drove him out of India. Then there was Salman Rushdie and his “Satanic Verses” which was banned in India and Iran issued a fatwa urging anyone to kill him in the name of religion. The Bible says that God did not permit Cain to be killed although he had murdered his brother Abel. The culture of offense varies from country to country. So, some would argue that any such banning would be ineffective. They refer to the pamphlet published in USA, which insulted Prophet Mohamed and led to widespread rioting and attacks on US embassies although it was illegal and legal action was taken against the offender.

 

Today with the Internet websites and social media networks like Face Book and Twitter, hate writings can be freely propagated. The Indian government has banned or censored some 300 websites spreading communal rumours.

 

Canada has also banned hate speech which was defined as “any writing, sign or visible representation that advocates or promotes genocide or the communication of which by any person would constitute an offence under section 319.” The Canadian law defines genocide as the destruction of an “identifiable group.” It defines an “identifiable group” as “any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.The punishment on conviction is two years’ imprisonment for anyone who incites hatred against any identifiable group. The judge is also empowered to confiscate publications which appear to be hate propaganda. But a statement made in good faith which can be proved to be true is a valid defense for an accused.

R.M.B. Senanayake

Sri Lanka businessmen can sue Jamiyyathul Ulama over Halal issue – Racist minister

Mar 06, Colombo: Sri Lankan racist Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka says that the business community can sue the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) against issuing of an illegal and unwarranted certificate on food commodities.

The Minister, who is also the layman leader of the racism spreading Buddhist nationalist party, Jathika Hela Urumaya, said that the party would not take legal action soon against the Jamiyyathul Ulama but would like to give some more time for them to withdraw the Halal certification process.

The Minister also highlighted that the producers have violated the right of the consumers by forcing Halal certificate on them. He said that the Sinhala New Year should be celebrated without Halal products.

He further said that the Jamiyyathul Ulama is violating the Holy Koran by issuing the Halal certificate for money. He said that except Jamiyyathul Ulama of Sri Lanka, the bodies that issue Halal certificates are commercial establishments.