Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith

Following is a response by Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith to a letter via email sent by Masihudeen Inamullah who identifies himself as a patriotic citizen of Sri Lanka. We have reproduced both letters:

Dear Mr. Inamullah,

I have received your email of 5 December 2020 and wish to clarify matters concerning my interview given on the occasion of a visit by Mr. Kavinda Jayawardena MP to the Archbishop’s House. 

First of all I must say that it is Mr. Jayawardena who wanted to come and see me and I gave him the appointment. He came to present to me some information concerning an intervention he made in Parliament about the Batticaloa Campus, said to have been built by Mr. M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, former Minister. He came to report to me what he said in Parliament, which is his right and I permitted him to meet me on his own request. 

With regard to my statement, I wish to state that nowhere have I said that I am against Sharia law and that the Muslims should not be allowed to practice Sharia law. It is not up to me to determine that. The Muslim community is free and should be respected if they choose to follow whatever laws they wish to follow, just as we Christians follow the 10 Commandments and the Buddhists the Pancha-Sheela. 

My statement was all about the demand we are making on the Government that the investigations on the dastardly attacks carried out on Easter Sunday by some people to be completed soon and those responsible be brought before justice. 

I expressed my unhappiness about the delays. It is also because there are some people who protest that they are being held up in jails without a proper prosecution and their rights are trampled. It is important for the investigations to be completed soon and those responsible punished. It doesn’t matter whether the ones responsible are of one religion or the other. Those who do such things cannot represent a religion.  With regard to the Batticaloa Campus, what I stated was that if it is to be recognised as a university, it must be open to the students of all the communities, irrespective of religion or language. 

I must very clearly state that I am against any form of discrimination against anyone and if anybody has done anything wrong, such persons should be prosecuted irrespective of their religious or racial belonging. It is important for us to uphold the rule of law above all our petty considerations. 

What is unfortunate in Sri Lanka is that, some persons in law enforcement try to defend those who do wrong things and hide the facts for political aims. Someone who does a wrong thing should be punished even if he belongs to any political party, race or religion. When will we learn to be impartial in our approach to what is right and wrong?

I am sure you understand that I defended the Muslim brothers and sisters when it mattered the most and protected them soon after what happened on 21 April 2019. 

I have nothing against any community here and I stand by everyone, but I promote and encourage integration in this country between the majority and the minorities in a spirit of brotherhood, while respecting the differences. As long as we try to show our differences and place accent on them, this country will continue to suffer. After a 30-year disaster of a war, will we learn to speak more about what unites us than what divides us? 

I am a Catholic but I don’t want to make my Catholic identity a cause of division within this country. I wish to shun special privileges which accentuate such differences. I have always stressed on amity between religions and races and stood for it courageously. Let us all, people of the Book and others too, learn not to stress on our differences but on that which unites us.

Let us then respect each other’s identity but learn to integrate ourselves within the one nation without inflaming passions, especially among our younger members. 

The Christians did it on Easter Sunday with immense patience and I assure you, we will continue to do so even in the future. For us, the Muslims are people who believe in the Almighty God, the most merciful. We too do the same. Let us then stand united in that. 

May God bless our country and our people.

Yours sincerely,

Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith

Archbishop of Colombo

Letter to Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith