A political opportunist with connections
Hakeem from Kandy, the Minister of Justice
for an absurdly long period in Sri Lanka is a floating Muslim, who is all
things to all men. He claims his constituency as the Muslims of the Eastern
Province, as that was I believe where the power base of the Muslim Congress of
Ashraff came from and which is machinated to grab on Ashraff’s untimely and still
unsolved demise in the Helicopter Accident.
I show the link below to an address he
made to the Foreign Correspondents’ Association in Sri Lanka, a very
influential body on world opinion on Sri Lanka, and it was clear from what he
had told them, that he unequivocally blamed the rising BBS militancy as a
precursor to the possible radicalization of Muslims in Sri Lanka!
This is a VERY SERIOUS ALLEGATION, which
is speculative at best and factually incorrect at worst. If one reads history,
Muslims 50 years ago were far more integrated with the local people and
conformed in dress and behavior and practiced their beliefs without much visual
inconvenience with the host majority community. This has changed, long before
the BBS ever appeared on the scene.
I am neither Buddhist or Muslim and am
trying to be impartial, however difficult that might be in this particular
essay. It is possible that the BBS arose out of this perceived threat that the
powerful Muslims in Sri Lanka did nothing to prevent or minimize. The radical
ideas of Muslims in the past 50years from the early 1970’s possibly made easy
due to the wealth generated in the oil crisis 1970s, have in a very sinister
way entered SL Muslim society in slow but steady way. As Imams are NOT a
structured system like Buddhist Clergy or Christian Church hierarchy, it is
easy for well funded organizations, to produce Imams deft at preaching their
sort of Islam, and changing thought in a subtle way which has definitely taken
place.
I wish I had a video of an Imam 50 years
ago today speaking at Friday prayers to compare with one of today to illustrate
my point. Any moderate Muslim reading this will know what I am getting at.
IT
IS INCUMBENT upon moderate Muslims to CHALLENGE the current move to radicalism
within the community and NOT BLAME external forces for their incubation of
radicalism.
TO SHORE UP HIS LAGGING SUPPORT HAKEEM HAS EMBRACED RADICALISM.
He
has become part of the problem and not the solution. Time he is taken out
of the game. WHERE ARE THE MODERATES?
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