They have the freedom to pray but need to reduce the volume in calling for prayers from the Mosaues Same should apply to other religions. Why don;t you re-check with Angoda mental hospital if your brains were shaved off in the military when they shaved your head off.
Imtiyaz Razak, Can you provide some details of what have influential people from minority communities so far contributed in the last 70 years to build trust out with ordinary Sinhala-Buddhists in SL?
Obviously when we live in multi-cultural communities, we have to make sure that we interact with majority people in that community.
Let us all focus on how to rebuild trust in grass root levels with ordinary people in SL. Anything beyond this and the Muslims will be blamed for so called Islamizing the Sinhalese. It is always the Muslims fault, right? The biggest problem is the language barrier which draws the line but thats an entirely different subject.
Why some comments are missing. IS it because the auhtor needs only certain kind of comments?. Western buddhists live even in Sri lanka. Itis Cathilicsm, Islam and christianity that is political.
Alternatively, I would like to pose the question to Imtiaz, why do Muslims hate everybody else i. Hela — Because you hated them first in And do you know why we hated them in ? Because they acted as bounty hunters to the British colonials. Hela — Your Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim brethren hate themselves exactly like you. Those who suffer from self hatred, hate others too. Rauf Hakeem says it was only a mob attack.
So why worry. There will only be further mob attacks while Hakeem plays the fiddle while Muslim houses and shops burn. Hakeem does not want to rock the boat. The Sinhalese are an Envious Lot! This is the proper way that Muslim are needed and timely suited them! That is that Islam want treatment which is that only understand by Muslim in Globally. You dummy. I agree with most -not all- of what Dr. Imtiyaz says.
I always wonder how he manages his act as a Marxist and as a believer of Islam. As this is not the time and place to comment on those issues, I leave them out. I have a question for the commentator, Dr. In Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese-dominated press has also praised the film. The Daily Mirror newspaper called it "the most honest, courageous and important piece of art on Sri Lanka done by a Sri Lankan". Most of the Tamil Tiger leaders were killed in , so audiences will never know their response to the allegations in Demons in Paradise.
Among the wider Tamil community, however, there has been anger. Athithan Jayapalan, a Norway-based academic who specialises in Tamil identity, doesn't dispute the crimes committed by the Tamil Tigers. However, he thinks the film is misleading for foreign audiences who may be unfamiliar with the civil war. Where is the Sri Lankan state? It's pretty much out of the picture. Mr Jayapalan believes the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government far outweigh what the Tamil Tigers did.
Ratnam says his focus on the Tamil Tigers was intentional - to warn the Tamil community, especially those living abroad, about romanticising the group. Those who faced the brunt of the war, they would probably welcome this film more. But Sri Lanka-based human rights lawyer Mathuri Thamilmaran disagrees. She saw Demons in Paradise in the capital Colombo, and asks why Ratnam has avoided screening the film in Tamil areas of the country. Sri Lanka is an unfortunate example of this neglect.
Quite unlike its giant polyethnic neighbor to the north, the legitimacy of political leaders in the newly independent Ceylon later renamed Sri Lanka did not rest on an anticolonialist struggle that effectively united diverse ethnic groups. Some historians claim these leaders simply rode on the coattails of their Indian counterparts. The legitimacy of the government, which has always been dominated by Sinhalese politicians, became increasingly staked on the identity of the Sinhalese and their language and sacred Buddhist religion.
Of course, Sri Lankan history did not begin with independence. Resistance to colonial rule took the form of a religious and cultural revival in the nineteenth century, which protested the fact that most Buddhists were at the low end of the socio-economic and political scales. From to , in all but one case, Protestant Christians of both language groups "represented the interests" of the largely Buddhist, coastal Sinhalese in the Legislative Council.
Although poverty was widespread in all the island's ethnic communities, some Muslims, Christians and Hindu Tamils had visible, highly placed economic and political positions in society. Periodic clashes between Buddhists and these other religious groups did occur. Several factors fueled this revival.
The Sinhalese glorified their roots, claiming distinct descendance from a superior Aryan race. They also emphasized their belief of Buddhism's special place on this supposedly sacred island, and exaggerated images of invading Tamil kingdoms from India many centuries in the past. With tens of millions of Indian Tamils just across the narrow straits separating the island from India, this last image has been particularly troublesome to the regionally small Sinhalese population.
From independence on, with political power resting solidly with the majority Sinhalese, nationalism for the newly politically powerful majority became defined by "a return to Sinhala. Two rather distinct Tamil communities, which together make up around 20 percent, of the total population, exist in Sri Lanka today. The smaller grouping of "plantation" Tamils were brought over the Palk Straits from India by the British in the last century to work on estates. An initial act of the independent Ceylonese government was to disfranchise these Tamils and then deny them citizenship rights.
This boosted the voting power of Sinhalese in rural districts. Language became another initial indicator to Sri Lankan Tamils that their rights as a minority were in jeopardy after independence. In , after pledges that both the Tamil and Sinhala languages would have equal status, Sinhala was declared the only official language.
Then the Sinhalese-dominated government whittled down one of the very pillars of Tamil self-worth by beginning to hold Tamils back on university admissions and government jobs.
Although many Tamils had successfully integrated into regions outside of their traditional "homelands" in the north and east, government programs to settle Sinhalese into Tamil areas were also perceived by many Tamils as a deliberate effort to weaken them. Up until , predominant Tamil political parties pressed for a federal political system to solve these problems, which would grant much greater powers to regional governments.
But as the violence against Tamils escalated, their leaders began calling for a separate Tamil nation, or Eelam. On the island that would encompass northern and eastern coastal areas.
Nonviolent Tamil protests against discrimination and consistently broken promises by Sinhalese politicians met with increasingly violent reactions from certain Sinhalese sectors. From to , Sinhalese mobs instigated at least five major outbursts of communal violence directed at innocent Tamils.
The attacks proved to be a crucial turning point for many Tamils. Government officials were implicated in riots that took hundreds of lives, rendered thousands more homeless and destroyed millions of dollars' worth of property. The local Tamil Refugee Council TRC criticised the move, maintaining that Colombo will simply be utilising Canberra's machinery to further oppress the Tamil population. The Tamil Refugee Council is an Australia-based grassroots organisation advocating for the rights of Tamil refugees in Australia and throughout Asia.
Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson Charanja Thavendran about the alleged war criminals running the Sri Lankan government, why our government's treatment of Tamils is problematic, as well as what's to be expected at the genocide day rallies. Sri Lanka still remains a dangerous place for Tamil people due to the active repression of Tamil citizens.
This can be observed through the continued police and military occupation of approximately 3, acres, according to the Sinhalese government. And with the continued police and military presence in predominantly Tamil areas, instances of police brutality haven't deescalated post-the national liberation struggle, but have rather escalated with the recent election of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. A recent instance of police brutality was the arrest, detainment and interrogation of the mayor of Jaffna , Viswalingam Manivannan, by the counterterrorist investigation division.
This sort of action clearly indicates suppression of voices critical of Tamil oppression, and it furthermore depicts the fascist tactics of silencing opinions that do not align with the government narrative.
The Sri Lankan government continues to engage in the cultural genocide of Eelam Tamils and other minorities. This is done through rewriting Tamil narratives and through the destruction of Tamil landmarks and artifacts.
Recently, the Mullivaikkal memorial was demolished, which was remembering the Mullivaikkal massacre. This was done during the cover of night with a strong military presence. Additionally, in Mullivaikkal this year, a Hindu temple — Hinduism being predominately worshiped by Tamil people — was demolished to be replaced by a Buddhist temple, which is the primary religion of the Sinhalese majority. These acts are proponents of cultural genocide, as the destruction of Tamil artifacts aims to deemphasise the significance of Tamil Hindu monuments and overstate the importance of Sinhalese Buddhist landmarks.
The best way to encapsulate the Sri Lankan situation for Tamil people in the homeland can be ascertained by how freely Sri Lankan government officials speak about Tamil oppression. The Sri Lankan public security minister Sarath Weerasekera has been very vocal about teargassing and arresting Tamil protesters. We can sue them and confiscate all their vehicles and put them in prison. During the national liberation struggle for Tamil Eelam, Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa — the current president — was the defence secretary.
Back then, under the brothers' term, many war crimes and genocidal acts were committed by the Sri Lankan government. These included the intentional shelling of civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations. All these war crimes have never been accounted for and there hasn't been any real consequences imposed for these war criminals.
So, the re-election of Mahinda and Gotabaya gives Tamils increased fear, as these war crimes have been ignored and there's a continuing implicit threat. Furthermore, many people in the prime minister's cabinet are war criminals. Some of them have been denied entry into countries — such as Australia and the US — so they've been recognised as war criminals by other nations. Essentially, the highest positions of power in Sri Lanka are occupied by war criminals, who are dogmatically opposed to Tamil rights.
The ease of violent speech against Eelam Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka, the arrest of Tamil public figures — such as the mayor of Jaffna — and the continued persistent destruction of Tamil culture has been reflected in Tamil protest in the homeland. The protest, whilst peaceful, still resulted in police brutality with a year-old participant being arrested and interrogated for six hours. The increasing repressions have essentially caused more civilians to take to the streets and protest for their rights.
However, attempts to simply voice experiences of injustice have been met with brutality and silencing sponsored by the government of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government is using video footage to identify protesters, and this hinders people's right to protest and further escalates the repression of Tamils and other minority groups.
Therefore, these drones are a means to discourage people from protesting and discourage them in fighting for their rights in the future. On the more severe end of the spectrum, they will be used to inflict violence or permanently silence activists and journalists. Primarily, the Australian government should not be supporting the increased surveillance of Tamil people, as it adds to the genocidal process against Eelam Tamils, in particular, making it easier to persecute those who oppose the narrative put forward by the Sri Lankan government.
In regard to the Australian government's track record in dealing with the Sri Lankan government, and, in particular, the Eelam Tamil situation, this country has time and again supported a political relationship for its own vested interest, instead of holding a modicum of value towards human rights and dignity.
An example of this was in , when the Australian High Commission denied a visa for General Jagath Dias on the basis of war crimes, because of the documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields. However, the Australian government still supports the Sri Lankan state with these gifts and also works with the regime to stop people seeking asylum.
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