It has now become absolutely clear, that what took place at Aluthgama/Beruwela should be seen as a Government-backed anti-Muslim pogrom

Aluthgama carnage

Sri Lanka Muslims have to turn to  the most effective instrument available: the international community 

Sri Lankan Muslims at the cross roads 09 –  by Izeth Hussain

The present article and my earlier ones of July 5 and 12 are meant to constitute a unity, focusing on the questions of what really the Aluthgama/Beruwela outrages signify, and what action can be taken by the Muslims to safeguard their lives and their legitimate interests. I concluded my last article by arguing that the Muslims should, in order to safeguard their legitimate interests, turn to the Government, even though it is carrying out an anti-Muslim project, and also have recourse to the civil society.

'Fascists' in saffron robes? The rise of Sri Lanka's Buddhist ultra-nationalists

 Tim Hume, CNN

•     The Bodu Bala Sena is blamed by many for inciting religious riots that left 3 Muslims dead
•     A month on, a monk who gave an inflammatory speech before the riots has not been charged
•     Observers say it appears the group is operating with impunity, fueling the fears of minorities
•     An ultra-nationalist Buddhist group has been campaigning against Muslims in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: Religious police unit at Buddha Sasana Ministry to stay

“The police unit established to deal with complaints regarding religious issues will stay,” maintained Police Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana, refuting the comments made by the Ravana Balaya organization suggesting the possible disbandment of the Police Unit in the near future.The organization led by its General Secretary Ven Ittekande Saddhatissa Thera had also said the unit is now defunct. “The police unit is inactive and is not even receiving any complains,” the Thera said.

The Pope's Visit to Sri Lanka: Buddhiast propose counter measures

Kithu Handa says campaign to undermine Pope’s visitKithu Handa (Voice of the Catholics) – the national movement to protect the Catholic religion asserts the demand made by  Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary, Galagoda Atte Gnanasara for the Pope to apologize to Sri Lankan Buddhists, is part of a plan that is being hatched to disrupt the Pope’s visit to Sri Lanka next year.

A ‘bigger project’ at work to cripple the Sri Lankan Muslim community economically and ‘put them in their place.’

Hakeem at Aluthgama

Not even ‘sufficient remorse’ from Govt for Aluthgama riots says Hakeem

Nearly a month after the worst religious violence Sri Lanka has seen in decades, Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem has warned of a ‘virtual holocaust’ against the country’s Muslim community unless Islamophobia and hate speech by radical monks were nipped in the bud. Minister Hakeem, who also heads the country’s largest Muslim Party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, told foreign correspondents yesterday that there was a ‘bigger project’ at work to cripple the Sri Lankan Muslim community economically and ‘put them in their place.’

Sri Lanka: Where does the power of the BBS come from: Political or Sanga establishment ?

(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

July ’83 and June ‘14:  SL Muslims at the cross roads – 6 By Izeth Hussain

Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad. – Greek saying

There has been much thinking, writing, and discussion on the Aluthgama/Beruwela outrages, so that we can now try to draw conclusions with some measure of confidence about what those outrages really signify. There seems to be a fairly widespread notion that July ’83 and June ’14 constitute two great divides in Sinhalese/minority relations, with the difference that that in 1983 the outrages were of course much worse. Both divides had behind them two common factors: an excess of drunken power compounded by ethnolunacy in the two Governments of the time.

BBS leader 'Gnanasara Thera Insulted Quran' - Muslim Affairs Director General Affirms

Submitting an observation report to the Colombo Fort Magistrate, the Director General of Muslim Religious Affairs affirmed that the statement made by Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera to the media recently contains derogatory remarks on Quran.

Sri Lanka:The Shadow of Gotabhaya

English Translation of the above in a Sinhala weekly called Ravaya by Victor Ivan:
One named Gotabhaya Rajapaksa happens to enter Sri Lanka politics only after Mahinda Rajapaksa becomes president.  Since leaving the military, for nearly one and a half decades, then he lived in the USA. He becomes a publicly known or powerful figure after his advent subsequent his sibling coming to power as president. With that he is appointed as the defence secretary - a post regarded as powerful- and he becomes the coordinator of the security forces in Eelam war IV that followed.

Dalai Lama urges end to anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka

Tibetan spiritual leader says religious attacks in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and Sri Lanka unacceptable.  The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, has reiterated his plea to Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to halt violence against Muslims, in a speech to tens of thousands of devotees to mark his 79th birthday. In front of the massive crowd that included Hollywood film star Richard Gere in Leh, India-administered Kashmir, the Dalai Lama said the violence in both Buddhist-majority countries targeting religious minority Muslims was unacceptable.

U.N. Chief Urges Sri Lanka to Protect Muslims Under Attack

Sri Lanka Muslims protest

Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS  (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the Sri Lankan government to “take necessary measures” to prevent any further attacks against minority Muslims in the country. He said the secretary-general recalls the Human Rights Council resolution of March 2014, which urges the government of Sri Lanka to investigate alleged attacks on members of religious minority groups and to take steps to prevent such attacks in the future.

Sri Lanka: Whitewashing saffron fascism

BBS Rule over Police

Dayan Jayatilleka
What is the role of the regime and state in a multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious, multicultural i.e. pluralist setting and in a fraught, conflicted, actually or potentially violent situation? How should and how do the regime and state function?
Are the UPFA regime and the State a neutral umpire –as it should be– between the constituent communities of Sri Lanka where all citizens are constitutionally equal, or are they a biased (“hora”) umpire?

India fears growth of fundamentalism in Sri Lanka after riots

(Newsweek cover photo)

Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury,

NEW DELHI: Security experts have expressed serious concerns over the recent riots in Sri Lanka, and have stressed the need for Colombo to take steps to control the situation, fearing that riots may be exploited by 'foreign elements' wanting to carry out a terror strikes in southern states of India.  Delhi is equally apprehensive the riots may have been encouraged by elements wanting to create a situation whereby the affected Muslims in Sri Lanka get marginalised and thereby offer a breeding ground for recruiting terror operatives. 

“Stop the promotion of hatred and faith-based violence” – UN rights experts urge Sri Lanka

Heiner Bielefeldt

GENEVA (2 July 2014) – Three United Nations experts on freedom of religion, minority issues, and summary executions today called on Sri Lanka to adopt urgent measures to stop the promotion of racial and faith-based hatred, and violence against Muslim and Christian communities by Buddhist groups with extremist views, and bring perpetrators of this violence to justice. More than 350 violent attacks against Muslims and over 150 attacks against Christians have been reported in Sri Lanka in the last two years. Muslim and Christian communities are reportedly subjected to hate speech, discrimination, attacks and acts of violence throughout Sri Lanka frequently.

Historic Fort Jumma Mosque on Chatham Street in Colombo High Security Zone Receives Parcel of Pork Pieces and Warning Letter.

Jumma Mosque

In a fresh instance of vicious religious hatred unknown anti-Muslim elements have sent a warning letter and pieces of pork to a famous long standing Mosque in the heart of Colombo city. The historic Fort Jumma Mosque on Chatham Street was the latest target in the anti-Muslim wave currently engulfing the country.

It is learnt that some unknown person or persons left a parcel and letter addressed to the Mosque authorities on the premises early this week.

Sri Lanka: Fort Mosque Receives Threatening Letter With Raw Pieces Of Pork

A mosque in Colombo Fort received a threatening letter on Saturday with raw pieces of pork ordering the Mosque authorities to halt the reconstruction of the mosque.
A priest attached to the  Mosque who was present at the time had opened the threatening letter. Eye witnesses said he was disturbed after seeing the letter and the raw pieces of pork which were sent to him by an unidentified person.

Sri Lanka: Rathmalana Mosque attacked .

A mosque at Rathmalana was attacked and set fire to on  last Sunday  morning around 1 30 am. At that moment the caretaker of the mosque was awakened, and he manage to mobilize neighbours to help him out. As  they managed to quell the fire immediately, it did not cause big damage. Police investigations began with  deploying dogs, but as yet no criminals have been detected.

LV

UNP raps Govt. over BBS

Alleges Government is supporting and protecting Bodu Bala Sena in spite of deadly violence in Aluthgama and Beruwela

◾ Main Opposition takes its own national multi-religious initiative to secure ethnic harmony

◾ Multi-stakeholder meeting convened in Parliamentary complex approves four proposals; further public suggestions sought

All Ceylon Hindu Congress condemns acts of communalism, religious hatred

The All Ceylon Hindu Congress (Federation of Hindu Religious Associations and Hindu Temples in Sri Lanka), has strongly condemned acts of communalism and religious hatred again being directed against minority religious groups and in particular the recent incidents affecting Muslims in Aluthgama and Beruwela areas.

We cannot and must not allow our Motherland to be dragged into another civil War, by a small group of extremists - CBK

Statement by former  President  Chandrika B Kumaratunga.

I'm deeply concerned about the outbreak of communal violence and Anti- Muslim attacks that occurred in several areas of the country, in the past week. I’m saddened by the loss of precious lives, the displacement of families and the wanton destruction of property. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones and their livelihoods.

Blood on Bodu Bala robe; A nation searching for new troubles and new enemies

Today the Bodu Bala Sena stands in the dock indicted with the heinous charge of attempting to return this nation to the blood-soaked barbaric age of violence from which it had risen so recently. It stands accused of repeated anti-Muslim attacks that have now resulted in inevitable bloodshed and death; and it stands condemned for outraging the religious sensitivities of the Buddhists by presenting to the world’s reproach and contempt, its distorted, savage and warped version as the sworn practical translation of the Buddha’s noble doctrine of Ahimsa.