Wednesday, September 21, 2011

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”-Mahatma Gandhi: time has come to bring back our country’s greatness in treating animals

How true! Treatment to animals in a civilization whose foundation had been laid by Buddhist philosophy was among many great things Sri Lanka was known for from time immemorial.  The colonial foothold in Sri Lanka was certainly beginning to make a negative impact in our civilization which treated animals as equally as humans. The slaughter of animals with unprecedented numbers and cruel methods used by non-Buddhists especially by colonists and the populations converted to their religions was widespread in the areas under colonial rule. Though the Buddhists continued to maintain their compassionate attitude towards animals by largely being as a relatively less flesh consuming community, the large scale slaughter happening around them and the widespread flesh eating practice made some impact among them.

The recent incident involving minister Mervyn Silva who rescued a large number of animals about to be slaughtered in Munneswaram and Western Province Governor Alavi Moulana threatening the minister to face grave consequences if he goes ahead of preventing large number of animals to be slaughtered on the eve of the Haj festival brings to the fore us to think twice about our stand on this matter especially as a nation whose foundations are largely laid by the Buddhist philosophy.

While I do not generally accept most of the rash and foolish actions by the minister Mervyn Silva nor him as a person I appreciate the initiative made by the minister though it was also not done proper manner. However, the attention created by the minister's action should be a stepping stone for all of us to join hands to start a campaign aimed at eradication of cruel and inhuman treatments towards animals.             

We should mainly pay our attention to the bloodcurdling, horrific and cruel manner in which the cattle are slaughtered in Sri Lanka. We should also certainly pay our attention the sheer number of cattle being slaughtered in a single day in Sri Lanka with terrifying treatment meted out. No sensible person with even an iota of kindness in the heart would ever dare to eat beef if he/she witnesses the cruel and horrific manner in which the poor animals are subjected to suffer while slaughtering.

At time Sri Lanka is in an important juncture with the dawning of peace after defeating terrorism and while celebrating 2600 years of Sambudhdha Jayanthi setting in motion to embark on a righteous society, it is very much pertinent to focus our search light how animals are treated especially when slaughtering, the number of animals being butchered and how we can eradicate this practices shameful to entire humanity. Then only Sri Lanka can boast again as a great nation which we were known for centuries. 

Friday, September 16, 2011

A Key lesson learnt by Muslim fundamentalists in Sri Lanka from Tamil racism: Claim a fabricated history of 2000 years of Muslims in Sri Lanka and go a step ahead in turning temples and Sinhalese Buddhist archeological sites into mosques.

Building a mosque on the tomb of the Sinhalese king Dutu Gamunu raised a many an eye brows of fair thinking people here and abroad irrespective of the ethnicity they belong to. The laughable and bizarre claim that a Mullah has been buried on the site 1000 years ago not only make one surprised but stunned.       

It is well known that the Tamil racism created a bogus history and to facilitate it went on destroying the Temples and Sinhalese Buddhist archeological sites strewn length and breadth of the North and East of Sri Lanka. But there has been some sort of restraint on the part of Tamil racists in certain instances where some Buddhist temples and its archeological artifacts and inscriptions have been spared. You can witness this if you visit some of the Buddhist Temples in the North and East.

But in the case of Muslim fundamentalism the case has been quite opposite. It can be observed that Muslim fundamentalists have been ruthless and very fast in this instance: Ruthless in completely destroying the temples and archeological sites and fast in building mosques on the sites.  As our fellow blogger on Kottu Sinhala Buddhist reports the Kuragala temple is the latest case in point. Kuragala is a vast complex of Buddhist monasteries which was home to thousands of Arhats. The caves with drip ledges and Brahmi letters were the meditating abodes for the Buddhists monks. The fundamentalists have gone to the extent of destroying the inscriptions written in Brahami letters with the use of acids and have given an Arabic name (Dufter Jayalani) to the place.  Mosques built and several constructions made with inscriptions covered with cement plasters. In this instance too a mullah is claimed to have stayed in the place some 'thousands years' ago. The funniest part of the whole story has been a video and a web site has been produced in support of the bogus, fabricated and defaced history of the site. As it is well known Muslim fundamentalists in Sri Lanka never care about the law of the land of the country and the court order given to remove the mosques and other constructions has been ignored.       

Now a campaign is underway to claim that the removal of the mosque built on King Dutu Gamunu's tomb was done by unruly Sinhalese Buddhist racist mobs including Buddhist monks against peace loving Muslims. (This is the same method used by Tamil racists to cover their racist acts against Sinhalese Buddhists). Dolor crazy NGO hordes are fabricating the stories and up in  arms claiming that the right to have a place of worship to peace loving Muslims is denied. The court order given to remove the construction is conveniently forgotten.

As I pointed out in my previous posts, Muslim fundamentalists have found the time is very much conducive to make their move at a time Sri Lanka is under pressure by 'International' witch hunt over alleged war crimes. Grease Yaka incidents which were used to attack the security forces personnel was a case in point. Now building of mosques in Sinhalese Buddhist archeological sites go on with impunity.          

PS: It was the destruction of artifacts and land grabbing of Deegawapi temple that came to public limelight for the first time in Sri Lanka though there have been numerous such instances reported and continue to occur from the Eastern part of the country.