A brain is in a human being’s head not on the bum!

When people do not know why they do something, and instead take orders from others that is called following commands, whilst keeping your brain comatose, as to why those edicts are followed. That is why there are minors and adults. It is OK for minors to follow the advice of Adults for their protection, and when they are of the age of reasoning for individual levels of logic, one explains why those particular rules are enforced.

IN SRI LANKA, adults also follow orders “leaving their brains behind” and by doing this, extremists, liars and people with personal agendas have a field day. This includes this Government of Mahinda Rajapakse, which is able to lie and steal their way without impunity, as the people at the receiving end are unable to think about what is happening to them, when lies are being spread by the Government. They instead are still drunk on a drug called a false sense of security.

The media also has a field day knowing that the adults of Sri Lanka do not know how how to use their power of reasoning, and so plug them with information that is grossly incorrect or at best misleading, giving themselves an undue level of control over people's minds.

In the current context the spread of race hate by the Bodu Bala Sena is a case in point. 

Let us take the issues of the BBS one at a time. Firstly with Halal. While it was correct of them to question the absurdity of Halal certification, for all and sundry foods, it would have been better first to request that the ACJU, the certifying body be stopped as they are not permitted to issue certificates and are unable to ensure compliance. The matter should have ended there and would not have inflamed religious intolerance. However as the BBS modus operandi was to create intolerance, as without it they DO NOT have a following. They are creating a problem and should be stopped, with the Maharagama rally which will reiterate their demands scheduled for today being one.

The next point of contention being the use of the Muslim God’s name or thanks before slaughtering, it has nothing to do with certification. All Muslim butchers in abattoirs all over the country have all throughout history invoked those blessings and prepared the meat for sale. So all Buddhists who bought meat from Muslim shops be it Chicken, Mutton or even Beef have eaten it and so banning certification will not change the procedure. So if they were true Buddhists they should say there are no Gods, so whatever God they appeal to makes not a figs worth of difference! It would be better then if they stopped eating flesh of animals rather than merely say they will not kill, and only eat that which others have killed, which to me is no different.

It is mischievous of the BBS to say that God’s blessing is used on all Halal certifications, as it is not so. Those sundry non meat items have the certification for dubious reasons to give satisfaction that the product is NOT TAINTED with some non legal edible ingredient, which is in any case a moot point in reality. How about the scandals of halal certification of products that contain pork!! as a case in point.

Then about “Muslim principles of lending being widespread”. To a rationalist it is all smoke and mirrors! Everything bears interest but here they cloak it in a way it does not use the word interest as that is prohibited! BBS are instead saying money is lent without interest and therefore Buddhists are deprived of such benefits and so this practice should be stopped. What a load of baloney! They should just appeal to the usurious village money lenders to be fair in lending money to the villagers and not charge 15% interest a month. However they make no friends with that but are able to make incorrect statements to fool their followers instead.

Then we come to the 5 wives syndrome, where they have actually said that we must change Buddhist law to permit 5 wives! As Muslims are permitted 4. What a load of jibberish! Do you need any religious rules to determine how many concubines you want. There are men who can afford it who keep more than one mistress and family already. In Islam it is only if they are able to maintain for families that up to 4 are permitted. I don’t wish to go into the reasons, as they are historic, as there was a severe shortage of males in the time of the Prophet and the rule was made as a practical requirement. I do not wish to get entangled in a fundamentalist argument here as all religions have people who take the word as gospel and not the intent at the time, and so suffer from religious bigotry. In any case marriage itself is a Western Concept which we have embraced into our laws. What about polyandry amongst Sinhala people in the past?

Then we come to the Burqa wearing syndrome, which of late has seen an increase in women wearing full Arab dress. That too is a most unnecessary thing as most Muslims in Sri Lanka history wore Sri Lankan traditional dress, and if need be used this same dress to cover body parts for religious purposes. There is no point causing the ire of Muslims by calling for a ban on this, as it would only inflame the fundamentalist into forcing all Muslims to follow this, thereby negating the effect and causing more religious intolerance. These types of Burqa wearing will gradually decline with Education, when people realize what it was that was mandated!

The fear mongering with regards to the rise in the Muslim population due to the recent census showing a substantial rise from the previous one is also not warranted as it is because of the war, reduction of Tamil, assertion of the Muslim pride, and the wholesale packaging of mostly Sinhala women to the Middle East that has created this aberration. Most Muslims I know will never send their wives or women to the Middle East to work, so it should be for Sinhala people to see the error of their ways in doing the same rather than use the growth card to stir racial hatred, fear and intolerance.

The answer is Education, with most religious leaders of all religions not wanting it. That is the answer to fundamentalism. People will see sense and make up their own minds on what they wish to believe as being in keeping with their particular religious beliefs. They do not want clerics determining how they should live and behave. I do accept that there are some highly educated and rational people too who are fundamentalist, but they are few and usually with psychological dysfunction at the bottom of their warped sense of logic. The reader of this sentence will realize if he or she falls into that category of intolerance!

History as part of education also must be learned so we will understand how Muslim men who came to Sri Lanka in the past took Sinhala wives and in many cases Muslims have more native blood of the nation than most Sinhala people, technically having more rights to this land. Whilst some Muslims converted to Buddhism, there were Buddhists who converted to Islam in history, and no one has any right to criticize people willingly taking on another religion. It goes along with one's own personal beliefs. I also believe if a person uses rational thinking to change one's belief of religion, then that person will adhere better to that religion than those merely born to it, who are more apt to abuse it instead.

Whilst I use the current raging debate and possibility of an explosion of intolerance, as the example for the thesis I put forward at the outset, It applies to life in general and I believe it should therefore be looked at in that light to come up with a satisfactory lifestyle  path for one's personal walk through the circle of life.

Let all people be unique following their own belief without pressure from others or false Gods!