“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 ( Re-posting a previous article)

Following is one of my posts written against the cruel treatment subjected to the animals in Sri Lanka especially the brutal manner in which the cattle are slaughtered in mass scale daily. I feel it's opportune to re-post my article in the backdrop of Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thera's passing away due to setting himself on fire against the cattle slaughter and some other anti-Buddhist activities perpetrated against the Buddhists in the country.            

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.

Beheading of an unarmed British soldier in London by Muslim fundamentalists and hacking to death of an unarmed Police Sergeant in Puttalm by Muslim fundamentalists- many similarities between the two incidents with a glaring dissimilarity too!

The brutal murder of an unarmed police Sergeant Navarathna Bandra by hacking by Muslim fundamentalists while he was on duty in Puttalam in August in 2011 has a stark resemblance to the beheading of an unarmed British soldier Lee Rigby in London by Muslim fundamentalists a couple of days ago. There are many similarities between the two incidents with a glaring dissimilarity too. First and foremost both murders were perpetrated by fanatical Muslim fundamentalists who have become a cancer to the peaceful societies the world over.  The UK and Sri Lanka, as many other countries in the world, are paying the dear prize for their ill-conceived and short-sighted policies of tolerance and accommodativeness towards the ever growing Muslim expansionism and fundamentalism.

Unarmed police sergeant Navrathna Bandara was hacked to death in cold blood while he was begging for his life. His wife was a 09 months' old pregnant. He begged his attackers to give him a chance considering his unborn child. And also an injury in his leg made it impossible him to run for his life. But the Muslim fundamentals had no mercy in their hearts as sergeant Navarathna Bandara was a Sinhalese, an infidel.        

The British soldier was also in similar helpless situation when his attacker was mercilessly chopping him as if a "piece of meat". (Hacking to death or beheading the "infidels or Kaffirs" is the standard way being followed by Muslims from Islam's inception in eliminating the former and it is widely practiced in the world over irrespective of whether the Muslims are in the majority or the minority)  

What is then the glaring dissimilarity that I'm talking about in the two incidents? This dissimilarity is none other than the huge publicity earned by the brutal murder of Lee Rigby by the British media in particular and the world media in general. However, in a total contrast the news of brutal murder of Sergeant Navarathna Bandra was concealed as much as possible here in Sri Lanka. The identity of the perpetrators was never revealed but a few blog sites. Extra efforts had been taken to prevent it from becoming known that It was the Muslims who killed the police Sergeant. The incident was portrayed as a result of a clash between "two groups". It was after the incident became public knowledge only that a few newspapers reported the incident casually while taking extra efforts to conceal the perpetrators' identity. The protest carried out by the villagers of Sergeant Navarathna Bandra against the brutal murder received almost no publicity among the mass media.                        

Despite the fact that the UK has been paying the dear prize for turning a blind eye towards growing Muslim expansionism and fundamentalism, it tries to undo the damages it caused by producing a well-informed and enlightened public whose vigilance would certainly help them to face the dangers of Muslim expansionism and fundamentalism. However, non-Muslims in Sri Lanka continue to grope in the darkness until they are too late. Even some form of protests shown recently especially by the Buddhists who are pushed to the wall by Muslim fundamentalism are portrayed as "Ethno-religious Fascism on the part of the majority community against a beleaguered Muslim Community" by some vested interested parties and individuals.

Why do non-Muslims in Sri Lanka feel Muslim expansionism more severely than the non-Muslim populations in other countries in the region?

Situation in Sri Lanka and India: 

This can be explained taking examples of several countries belonging to different geographical regions in the world. First and foremost the overall size of the population in Sri Lanka in particular and the geographical size of our island nation in general play a big role in deciding it. Take for example our giant neighbor India, home to the second largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia. The number of children in an average Muslim family in India is around 05 while in Sri Lanka it is around 10 to 12 in the East and 06 or 07 in other parts of the country. Given the sheer size of non-Muslim populations of India with equally the geographical size of it, the family size of the Muslims in India and their growth rate hardly make any adverse effect on other communities. However, when it comes to Sri Lanka the present growth rate of Muslims make a horrible impact given the non-Muslim families' average number of children hardly pass the number 02. And also the sheer geographical size of India hardly make any negative effect while in Sri Lanka it bears terrible consequences with non-Muslims being evicted in their traditional places of  habitations giving way to the disproportionately large exclusive Muslim enclaves as result of Muslim expansionism.

Tension among the communities has already become a reality in Sri Lanka with the land greedy Muslim community acquiring lands at an amazing rate resulting in other communities becoming almost refugees. This has become a common phenomenon in the North- East region as well which was under war for 30 years. With the conclusion of war Muslims have been settling in in the former war zones at such a rate that there have been frequent agitations by Tamils who were the owners of those lands before the war. The latter community claims that the lands owned by them are frequently seized to settle Muslims. This has been rampantly happening with a Muslim Government Minster has been totally biased towards the Muslims when settling them. There has been a simmering row going on in Mullaiveli in Mulaitivu District which I highlighted in one of my posts too. So it is plainly clear that the demographical changes that are taking placing in Sri Lanka due to Muslim population explosion have a terrible bearing on other communities.

How other countries like Singapore, Japan and Australia cope up with the problem:   

The countries which have the potential to face similar consequences like Sri Lanka have taken timely actions to prevent it from happening. A case in point is Singapore which took actions to impose a law prohibiting Muslim families not to raise more than two children going in line as same as families of other communities. Singapore would have been facing disastrous consequences given the small size in its population and the land mass in a few years, had not such a law been imposed. Had this law not been effective, the ethnic composition of Singapore which comprises Chinese and Tamils as the first and second largest communities would have had a completely different outlook with Muslims becoming the majority community in a few years. 

Take another example of Japan which never gives citizenship to Muslims immigrating to Japan from other countries. Given the small geographical size of Japan and the very slow birth rate among Japanese population, the island nation would have become a sitting duck to prey to the huge Muslim population explosion that would have been unleashed by the Muslim immigrants as they have exactly done in many European countries. 

Learning lessons from other countries Australian government has been quite strict in its immigration laws when it comes to Muslim immigrants having known well in advance the terrible consequences that Australian society would have had to face when the population explosion is unleashed by the Muslim immigrants. (Australians can't take chances given its small population size which is similar to Sri Lanka's and very law growth rate). Australia has resorted to take such sever actions despite the fact that the country is blessed with a massive land mass and being a continent. What would have obviously made Australian government to have been cautious was not to disturb the ethnic composition in the country despite the fact the availability of lands has never been a problem to them.                                

Terrible consequences that European countries are currently facing: 

Most of the European countries such as Netherlands, France, the UK, Norway, Belgium and numerous other Scandinavian countries which were lax in their immigration policies towards Muslim immigrants   are now reeling with the terrible consequences of Muslim expansionism and Fundamentalism. Muslim immigrants from Asian and African countries have unleashed such a huge population explosion that the original European inhabitants face the danger of becoming minority communities giving way to Muslims in a few decades. The very low population growth rate among their populations similar to non-Muslim ethnicities in Sri Lanka has led to the emergence of numerous far right movements in Europe solely campaigning against Muslim expansionism and Fundamentalism. So the situation that Sri Lanka faces now is similar to a certain extent what some European countries face now.

Vulnerability faced by Sri Lanka 

Sri Lanka's unique situation in demographically as well as in geographical size makes it vulnerable to face a serious imbalance in ethnic composition in a few years' time if Muslim expansionism in Sri Lanka is not checked.  By encouraging non- Muslim communities to increase the number of children in their families will aggravate problems as the Sri Lanka's land availability has been fast depleting even to accommodate present population.               

PS: The fact that Kaththankudi in Batticaloa District has been identified as having the largest population density per square Kilometer in the entire world underscores the terrible situation that Sri Lanka is in. (Population in Kaththankudi is 100% Muslims and this figure was first reported a few decades ago).