Civil society groups urge Govt. to take action against escalating religious tension

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Civil society group Renaissance led by Victor Ivan yesterday urged the Government to take action against escalating religious tension in the country.

A prominent journalist and civil society activist, Ivan warned that the violence may easily escalate further if the situation was not immediately curbed.

“We can observe a trend of attacks on the Muslim community. They are now living in fear. The Government has to take action, inform the public of what has happened and what action has been taken, to say the perpetrators have been caught. The Government has to display in action that they will not allow such incidents to take place. But we don’t see that. We see that they are silently allowing these things to continue,” he said at a media briefing held by Renaissance at the Library Services Auditorium yesterday.

Drawing examples from the history of the country, Ivan claimed that the incidents bear similarities to the ‘83 July riots and violence that unfolded in Dharga Town in 2014.

He warned that if the Government did not take steps to stop this now there may be a repeat of such events.  

According to Renaissance member Maulavi Munir Mulafer, during the past month 15 Muslim places of worship and commercial establishments have been attacked. According to him four mosques have been attacked during the past month.

Urging the authorities not to take sides when dealing with the issue, Ivan said that if the situation was not addressed and appropriate action taken against all those who espouse extremist views, the public may take action against the Government as it did after the Dharga Town incident.

The group’s other members, Prof. Sarath Chandrajeeva, Wijeya Hunupitiya, Sugath Amarajiva, Navaratna Banda and Thilak De Silva, were also present at the news briefing.