End extremism

THE abduction of two students studying at Zahira College in Puttalam who were later released after being severely assaulted is a shocking incident that does not bode well for the future.

The report, which quoted the Police, noted that the students were abducted on Wednesday, severely beaten, and then dumped near a kovil along the Mannar Road. This unfortunate event deserves the strongest of attention from the Police given not only the horrific nature of the assault but also the background within which the abduction took place.

As the rhetoric from hard-line Sinhala Buddhist factions grow, incidents of this nature can also be seen as a direct result of the encouragement for people to take the law into their own hands and act in response to perceived slights. Opportunistic people can take such motivation as a way in which to legitimise their actions and see it as a way to “help” or further the cause of protecting Sinhala Buddhist interests in the country.

Whipping up sentiments against minorities into a violent frenzy can have violent and disturbing results as other incidents quoted in the media have shown. Provoked by criticism of Muslim women’s clothing, there have been attacks on women wearing traditional dress with even a well-recorded event of a female relative of a powerful Muslim Minister being spat upon in broad daylight.

Such behaviour cannot be tolerated, but increasingly Muslim-related rhetoric is becoming more violent as the Government fails to take decisive and severe action against them. The anti-Muslim campaigns that began with the Halal certificate are now spilling over into ever more dangerous areas despite attempts by moderate Buddhists to stem the tide. Efforts to resolve the Halal issue have been undermined and dismissed repeatedly, with hardliners taking every step as a negative one and a reason to keep pushing an issue regardless of its merit.

The saddest part in all this is that law abiding citizens who have harmed no one are unprotected and run the risk of being attacked for no reason or even worse, seeing their loved ones being victimised. Such a situation cannot be tolerated and the Government must step into address security concerns of minorities with immediate effect. They must use the law to bring perpetrators to justice while allowing people to enjoy their rights as free and equal members of society.

A security force that crushed the LTTE should have the capacity to bring such cowardly offenders to justice. Ignoring the rights of minorities will only result in the country repeating mistakes that it made decades ago. Sadly, as the Government continues to drag its feet on eliminating extremism, the chance that Sri Lanka will have to pay for this oversight grows.

The venomous words flitting through social media have now grown to envelope Catholics as well with one image criticising the church for using a ‘muthukudaya’ because it is claimed as an exclusive Buddhist symbol. The caption calls on the Buddhist people to “wake up” and fight for their “inheritance” in a vein that is disturbingly reminiscent of the Halal controversy.

Many Buddhists watch this decline with deep foreboding for they do not agree with this extremist strain, but have less voice and more decency. Yet it is time for them to speak out and prove that Sri Lankans have become wiser and will not let extremism blight this island once again.