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Top monk and top academic criticise Cardinal’s statements

18 Jan 2022

 
  • Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera asks to refrain from politicising Easter attacks
  • Prof. Nalin de Silva says Cardinal empowering Wahhabism
  Association of National Organisations Representative Ven. Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera said yesterday (17) that Colombo Archbishop His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith must encourage the Government and support its actions to stop Islamist extremism, whilst adding that certain individuals must stop politicising the Easter Sunday terror attacks. “The Archbishop has many ideas and opinions these days. We would like to request him to co-operate with the Government and to encourage the Government in its activities to stop the production of extremists. All of us have this need to prevent these kinds of incidents in the future. Some individuals are also saying these days that the attacks were used for an overthrow of political power. This is what the Islamist extremists want. They want us to believe that there is a political motive behind this. We accept that the National Thowheeth Jamaa’th organisation Founder and suicide bomber Zahran Hashim may have had international political needs but this is a result of Islamist extremism,” claimed Ven. Abhayatissa Thera. He added that the interpretation of the attacks serving a political purpose is a challenge to the investigations being conducted into them, and added that this could deter real justice from being meted out to the true victims of the incident. Meanwhile, renowned academic and former Ambassador to Myanmar Prof. Nalin de Silva claimed that the Cardinal’s statements would empower Wahhabism in Sri Lanka. “We see the Cardinal’s statement as a barrier to our attempts to free Sri Lanka of Wahhabism. In fact the Cardinal’s statements empower the Wahhabists as they would believe that they could do anything in the future and absolve themselves of blame. Furthermore, the fact that the Cardinal made a statement less than 24 hours after the incident at All Saints’ Church in Borella was not the smartest thing. Some time should have been given to the Police to conduct investigations and uncover the truth before making such statements. Furthermore Police should be independent of not just the Government but people like the Cardinal and even us. I also have a question. Will the person who has been detained change his statement once he is released? The Cardinal’s statement makes me believe that the suspect might change the statement,” he said. The date of 14 January marked the passing of 1,000 days since the Easter Sunday terror attacks occurred on 21 April 2019, targeting three churches and three hotels, and killing over 200 people, including foreign nationals. Marking the day, Archbishop Ranjith claimed that certain political leaders, who were aware of the extremists prior to the attacks occurring, had used the attacks as leverage for their politics. Similarly, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and National People’s Power (NPP) Leader and Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake alleged last Saturday (15) that the society now questions whether the Easter Sunday terror attacks were a part of a political conspiracy, and urged investigations into specific aspects of the circumstances behind the attacks to prove or disprove these suspicions. Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegeya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa alleged on Sunday (16) that the current Government used the attacks to secure power, whilst failing to investigate them properly.


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