2ND LEAD (UPDATE)

Religious fundamentalism on rise among Sinhalese, Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2012, 23:56 GMT]
Following the threats issued by Buddhist monks against a mosque in Dambulla on Friday that they would demolish it unless the Muslims relocated the mosque from the area, which the monks claimed as a holy Buddhist site, the SL Prime Minister DM Jayaratne, who is also the minister of Buddhist affairs, on Sunday instructed the Muslims to relocate the mosque, triggering anger among Muslims. The Buddhist monks, who are engaged in setting up new Buddhist viharas and Sinhala colonies in the country of Eezham Tamils, have carefully timed their action against the Muslims in Dambulla after successfully wooing the votes of the countries with overwhelming Muslim populations, either to back Sri Lanka or to abstain from voting at the recent Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Muslim circles in Colombo said.

The Muslim leaders in the island are now appealing to influential Muslim countries to condemn the decision by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.

Almost all the Muslim member countries of the UN Human Rights Council stood with the Sri Lankan state when the voting took place in Geneva on the resolution tabled by the USA.

Bangladesh, Maldives, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Kuwait, Qatar voted against the US-proposed LLRC-based resolution, while Malaysia, Senegal, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Burkina Faso and Djibouti abstained, an act which was also interpreted as indirectly backing the Colombo regime.

Similar to the Dambulla episode, in September last year, a group of Buddhist monks in Anuradhapura went amok on a Muslim shrine and destroyed it claiming that the Muslims were trying to make the shrine into a Mosque and also claimed that the said mosque was situated in a holy Buddhist site.

In the meantime, a Muslim deputy minister from Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district, has been allegedly engaged in destructive activities with the intention of causing disharmony among the Tamil speaking people of the district.

On Thursday, the letters on the welcome board, which read ‘Batticaloa Urban Council welcomes you‘ in Tamil and located at the border between Batticaloa city and Kaaththaankudi town on Batticaloa - Kalmunai Road, were painted with dark ink, hiding the Tamil letters. The incident has taken place 150 meters from Kaaththaankudi Police Station.

The same welcome board was also destroyed on 23 September 2011 by some Muslims, who claimed that the Tamil greeting “Va'nakkam” was a “haram” for the Muslims of Kaaththaankudi.

Meanwhile, the Sinhala-Buddhists and their military consider it as their inalienable right to build Buddhist stupas in Saiva sacred centres such as Thirukkeatheesvaram and in any part of the country of Eezham Tamils in the island, whether there are Buddhists or not.

Chronology: