Local Issues

Dispute The dispute over the presence of a Muslim mosque on Buddhist temple land in Dambulla points Muslims protest in front of the Davatagaha mosque in Colombo to an underlying tension in Sri Lanka’s multi religious society that is capable of being exploited by extremist forces. It is reassuring that the violence that suddenly manifested itself over the location of …

  This year the celebration of Vesak takes place against the backdrop of an incident, the memory of which must surely cloud the tranquility of this sacred day for many Buddhists. In Dambulla two weeks ago an unruly mob led by Buddhist monks stormed a mosque, yelled abuse and prevented the Muslim devotees gathered there from conducting their prayers. This …

To mainstream Sinhalese; Save the Sinhalese and the country from chauvinists. To Muslim politicians and theologians; Don’t sell the community. You are under watch. Muslim community’s overall response to vandalism at the Dambulla mosque by a mob led by Ven Inamaluwa Sumangala Thero on Friday 20 April 2012 has been “calm and dignified”. In one voice their message to the …

Secularism implies the relationship between Religion and Politics, more specifically between Religion and the State. The concept of secularism has drawn its sources from the philosophy that Humans can order their lives and their societies without recourse to transcendant or supra natural powers, and hence they could also organize and manage the State and its government , without direct connections …

  The protest by the laymen and Budhhist monks in Dambulla over an alleged illegal erection of a mosque in Buddhist Sacred Area became the talk of the town previous weeks. While, the Ven. Inamaluwe Sumangala Thera says the lands were belong to the temple, the authorities from the mosque claim they also have the ownership for the land.  However, …