The Hate SMS that is going around – It is disgustingly racist we must desist

There is a hate SMS going around that informs Sinhala people that by 2024 the Muslims will be the majority community in Sri Lanka. It was brought about by the extrapolation from the last census using growth rates of the community. The number of Tamils has fallen substantially due to emigration, do not pose a problem. The Muslim community is now targeted.

The Bodu Bala movement of Buddhist priests recently made a huge outcry about Halal certification, saying many food items cost more due to this, and why should they be given alms in the form of Halal certified food for the local market. The SMS asks people NOT to buy Halal certified products.

The SMS further asks people not to patronize NO Limit and Fashion Bug Stores and that Etisalat is building Mosques, and not to buy from Muslim stores. Further not to sell property to muslims and not allow our female daughters to be married to Muslims. This is pure hate against the Muslim community, by prejudice at their success.

I reject this outright and believe it is yet another step in trying to homogenize this population, by taking every step to frighten this community into leaving Sri Lanka. The racists were able to persuade hundreds of thousands of Tamils to leave, it appears it is now the turn of the Muslims.

Sri Lanka is a multiracial country, where all its citizens have the freedom to live and work wherever they want. It is reprehensible to frighten an inherently minority complexed majority of Sinhala people in this way and it will only further foster racism and a backlash worse than the LTTE will result, from a cornered community with nowhere to go. Remember the Muslims were here for centuries and many of the Muslims today are genetically Sinhala being converted to the muslim faith hundreds of years ago by the travelling muslim traders, and they set up muslim villages all over the country that exist to this day in majority Sinhala areas.

Any attempt to discriminate will further alienate and strengthen this community, and it is the Sinhala people who will further suffer by this boycott. If the Sinhala people want they can behave more like the muslims, by being stronger in their faith, and further with their faith help their fellow brethren. It is simply due to the bad relationship within the Sinhala community that Muslims prosper. It is better to strengthen Sinhala charity, Sinhala togetherness and neighbors helping each other, rather than being jealous of our neighbors to counter any perceived threat.

Minorities in any community stick together to help each other out. It is to be expected. We must learn from those traits and copy them, not discriminate against one community. It very easy for this racism to get out of control and then Sri Lanka will reverse to a period of conflict because this Government did not suppress this new movement.

The Government governs by making people frightened. Not by instillling a sense of patriotism. Muslims are also patriotic Sri Lankans and SHOULD not be discriminated against at all. People must be allowed to practice their faith. People will only follow a religion if that religion gives them something. If Buddhism is not being practiced properly it is up to the Clergy to set an example and stop trying to outdo each other in building palaces in their own temples, but instead use their wealth to help the less well off and the less fortunate. This will strengthen the faith and be an example, which will make others follow it, and not leave it or lapse practicing it because of the bad examples of the practice of Buddhism in Sri Lanka which is far from the teachings of the Buddha.

Instead of the Govt. pussyfooting another incendiary time bomb, that will devastate Sri Lanka, they must unite this country and remove the cancers of these ideas from taking hold. We live with a false sense of security because of the intransigence of the Administration, pandering to racist influences within their organization, that appear to be politically acceptable to the present regime, or better thrive on it.

There is a whole coterie of intellectual thinking that is backing this racism and it goes right to the top of Govt. which I believe is even encouraging, perhaps spreading these fears amongst the people. We must STOP it before it takes hold, otherwise mass hysteria will result making July 1983 a walk in the park.

We sadly have a leader drunk with power, unable to see the sordid use of that power to frighten and therefore subjugate people with fear. We who care about the future of this country have a stake to ensure safety and security of all those who live here. If it is compromised in the slightest, it will give rise to fear and then defense of those under threat. There will be a flight of capital, there will be mass unemployment and anarchy will reign.