Raising ugly head of racism; Will Sri Lanka become another Myanmar? By Latheef Farook

A few hundred Sinhala ethno religious rabble rousers who call themselves the guardians of Buddhism and Sinhalese though they do not represent the Sinhalese community, went on a protest march last week from Kataragama to Temple Trees to get the government to ban cattle slaughter.

This seems to be the second stage of their ongoing anti Muslim campaign following the so called Halal issue which though a non issue but made it one to serve their sinister political agendas.

The main purpose of the anti animal slaughter campaign is obviously to generate hatred   and pit the Sinhalese against Muslims and turn the country once again into a killing field.

This only shows that they have learnt no lesson from what had happened during the past few decades. Some even fear that their ultimate goal is to whip up animosity to unleash Myanmar style violence to drive Muslims into refugee camps to languish there as most Northern Muslim refugees, ignored by all, do for more than 22 years.

In this seemingly well calculated and extremely dangerous campaign they have already done considerable damage to poison the minds of many in the Sinhalese community and fan the flame of communal discord.

Already there were numerous hostile incidents. For examples principle of a school requesting mother of a student not to wear scarf, forcing Muslim students to kneel before Sinhalese teachers daily when they enter and leave the school, doctors trying to sterilize pregnant Muslim women who entered hospitals for delivery, attack on Muslim women wearing hijab, attack on Muslim owned businesses and many such incidents showing that   communal disharmony has reared its ugly head. 

In their drive to propagate hatred towards Muslims Buddhist monks who are in the forefront   in this campaign even tell blatant lies to misguide the Sinhalese. For example one Buddhist monk, addressing a public gathering, said that” Muslims always spit three times on the food or drink which they serve to non Muslims”. This, he said, is the teaching of the Quran”.

This is absolute nonsense and mischievous .Perhaps he has read the American-European war mongers’ Quran and not the Holy Quran revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which teaches love, affection and respect to non Muslims.

However their shrinking number in the Kataragama-Temple trees march demonstrate that the” majority community has started discarding them as they begin to realize the threat they pose to the country’s stability.

Yet, instead of enforcing the law these lawless elements were treated with respect.

The so called Kataragama to Temple Trees procession resembled the Hindu fascist BJP’s Rat Yatra in India almost a decade and half ago which led to an anti Muslim pogrom, slaughtered more than 30,000 Muslims besides raping  women and destroying their economic lifeline.

Knowing the explosive nature of the march here in Sri Lanka, the government should have banned it; unfortunately, it was not done. Instead they were given police protection     insulting not only Muslims but mainstream Sinhalese too.

On the way they set ablaze a beef stall at Tangalla under the watchful eyes of the police. Throughout the march loud speakers were used to issue dire warnings to Muslims describing them as terrorists and extremists indicating their intense hatred towards Muslims than their love towards cattle.

Instead of dealing with these law breakers the police warned beef stall owners at Bambalapitiya market to close their shops on the day the marchers passed through the area. This resembles the attitude of the police when they watched mobs destroy a four hundred year old Muslim shrine at Anuradhapura and the subsequent attacks on Dambulla Mosque and several other similar incidents.

These protest marchers reached Temple Trees on Wednesday 26 June 2013 where they were received by President Mahindra Rajapakase who, according to these monks, had assured them that legislation banning the slaughter of cows will be introduced within two months.

This assurance provides a seal of government approval for the racists. All these pampering of hate mongers at a time when there are numerous burning issues to deal with only shows no one has  learnt any lesson from the thirty year destructive war which was the outcome of this type of racist policies.

These hate mongers often stated in the past that “we will take care of the Tamils first and then deal with Muslims. Now that the Tamils were crushed after the military defeat of the LTTE, perhaps showing their triumphalism began implementing their agenda against Muslims not realizing the disaster involved.

Under pressure or persuasion   many local authorities have banned animal slaughter in their respective areas. What many suspect is that what is happening in Sri Lanka is the extension of the global anti Muslim campaign unleashed by United States, UK and Europe as part of their global military agenda.

The architects of this war against Muslims, Zionist Jews who rule US and Europe, are here in the island and they are quite active. It appears the local racists are simply being exploited to implement their agenda against Muslims to expand their war against Muslims to Asia.

After all the European Union claiming to champion the cause of democracy, freedom, human rights and other such slogans, honored Myanmar’s President Thien Sein last month with a special award while his troops and gangsters  slaughtered Muslims, burnt buildings and destroyed commercial and industrial establishments.

Indications are that, if the racist elements are allowed to continue their hate Muslims campaign in the way they had done for the past year and half,  it is likely that Sri Lanka may become yet another Myanmar.

The unanswered question is whether Sri Lanka emerged only four years ago after a thirty year ethnic war, can afford another pogrom now  against Muslims. Therefore isn’t it time that responsible elements in all communities rise up  against this ugly monster of communal discord and save this multinational, multi religious, multi lingual and multi racial country from this pathetic plight.

This beautiful country with its rich heritage cannot allowed to be hijacked by a few hundreds of racists and turn into a yet another killing field.