Local Issues

Sri Lanka Muslims refuse to claim cremated COVID-19 relatives

In Sri Lanka, the families of some Muslim coronavirus victims are refusing to claim the remains of their loved ones. They are protesting against the government’s forced cremation policy as it goes against their religious beliefs. On Tuesday the Supreme Court dismissed 11 petitions challenging forced cremations. The health minister says burials cannot be allowed until a committee of technical …

Read More »

SC rejects FR petitions challenging gazette notification Cremation of COVID-19 victims in Muslim and Catholic communities

The Supreme Court (SC) today rejected the examining of 12 Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions filed challenging the gazette notification regarding the cremation of COVID19 victims belonging to Muslim and Catholic communities.The three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, justices Murdu Fernando and Preethi Padman Surasena commenced hearings on November 30.All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Leader MP Rishad Bathiudeen, former MPS …

Read More »

Colombo Community in Need

ශ්‍රී ලංකා වාසී ඉස්ලාමීය සහෝදර සහෝදරියනි, දානපතියනි…!කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතයේ බලපෑම හේතුවෙන් කොළඹ නගරයේ සියළු කටයුතු මුළුමනින්ම අඩාල වී ඇති බව ඔබ හොඳින් දන්නා කරුණකි. මෙමගින් පීඩා විඳින අහිංසක ජනතාවගේ අපහසුතාවයන්වලට යම් හෝ අස්වැසිල්ලක් ලබාදීම පිණිස කොළඹ නගරයේ සියළුම මුස්ලිම් දේවස්ථානයන්ගේ එකමුතුව වන කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික් මස්ජිද් සම්මේලනය මීට පෙර ක්‍රියාත්මක වූවා හා සමානව සදකාවන් සහ සකාතයන් ඒකරාශී කර, නිසි ක්‍රමවේදයක් යටතේ ජනතාවට …

Read More »

Compulsory cremation of Covid-19 dead bodies of Muslims: Science, human decency and racism By Ranga Jayasuriya

Contingencies and the human response to them are also a test of fundamental values of humanityThus, dangerously and disturbingly a good deal of Islamophobia is being made into the mainstreamThis general sense of backwardness is amplified when the saner voices of professors, specialist doctors and other professionals fail to speak upWhen your country is doing something totally different from  what the …

Read More »

Burial or cremation – the polemic has begun By Dr M. HARIS DEEN

The front page headline item in The Island (12.11.2020), titled “Resumption of burials a high risk the country cannot afford to take” – (copy of the article is attached below of this post), ascribed to Member of Parliament Muzammil, shows his ignorance; he has caused a reprehensible affront on the Muslim community.Muzammil’ss reasoning is unacceptable, when he says “that the country was …

Read More »