SRI LANKA: Islamic Convert’s Detention Sparks Debate on Tolerance

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Apr 8, 2010 (IPS) – Issues of religious tolerance, the rule of law and freedom of expression in this mainly Buddhist country are being thrown into debate by the detention of a Sri Lankan Buddhist woman who converted to Islam and was writing a book on her conversion.

Sarah Malathi Perera, a 38-year old migrant worker who has lived in Bahrain for 20 years, was detained by police in Colombo under emergency regulations on Mar. 20, ostensibly over a book she had written and published on her conversion to Islam.

But police have since given different versions of the reasons for her detention, saying that the book was offensive to Buddhism or that she was being probed for links to Tamil militants and Musim extremist groups.

On Tuesday, police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody was even more vague. “She has been detained under emergency regulations but I don’t have details as to why she is in detention. Let me check and let you know,” he told IPS. He was the same official who earlier gave different reasons for Perera’s detention.

The incident reflects a cultural and social intolerance that Sri Lankan society has never previously experienced, argues Dayan Jayatillaka, former vice president of the U.N. Human Rights Council and former chairman of the intergovernmental working group on the implementation of the Durban declaration against racism.

“How (else) should we begin to define a country in which an unarmed young woman, a woman who has not harmed anyone, is detained in a police station under emergency laws or anti-terrorism laws, for writing a book, and a book which does not call for violence against anyone?” Jayatillaka said in an interview.

Lakshman Gunasekera, president of the Sri Lanka chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association, says that as journalists, they are concerned that Perera has been arrested under emergency regulations. “Although I have not read her book, this is an issue that concerns freedom of expression,” he said.

He added that this kind of reaction is more often seen in situations of serious religious fundamentalism and extremism like Pakistan, Iran or Afghanistan, where writers have been accused of blasphemy against Islam and subjected to verbal and physical attacks.

“This is a country where all religions are respected and tolerated. So why this intolerance?” said a women’s rights activist who declined to be named. Perera returned to Sri Lanka three months back to settle a land dispute concerning her elderly mother in Colombo. She has said she has analysed the spiritual substance of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity, and published a book entitled ‘From Darkness to Light: Questions and Answer’.

Sri Lanka’s 20 million people comprises 73.7 percent Buddhists, 10.9 percent Hindus, 7.6 percent Muslims and 6.2 percent Christians, and the rest from smaller ethnic groups. Non-Buddhists have the constitutional right to freely practise their religion.

But in recent years, the Jathika Hela Urumaya or JHU (National Heritage Party), a extreme racist party with little support in the country but with huge influence on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has along with allied or similar groups been suspected of being behind attacks against largely Christian places of worship.

Perera, who wears a ‘hijab’ (dress that covers the body from head to toe), alleges that her arrest came after the courier company she was planning to use to send her books to Bahrain, tipped off the JHU, which in turn informed the police. JHU officials were not immediately available for comment.

Lakshan Dias, Perera’s lawyer, says his client has been informed that she is being detained on charges of offending Buddhism and possible links to Tamil militants and overseas Muslim militant groups. “She has been told that she has been detained under a 30-day detention order under emergency regulations. She has not been informed when she would be produced before a magistrate,” he said.

Perera’s case points to a breakdown in law and order more than religious intolerance, some say. “People get arrested over some ideosyncratic issue and then once that happens, the system takes over and you can’t get out,” said Jehan Perera, a columnist in the ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper.

Under the Sri Lankan Penal Code, offences relating to religion include acts such as damaging or defiling a place of worship, uttering words or sounds or making gestures with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings and trespassing in places of worship.

Jayatillake said the response to Perera’s book could have been a critical review of it, not an arrest. “Isn’t this against both Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on freedom of expression as well as the rights and freedoms recognised by the Sri Lankan Constitution? Who decides on arrests like this and what is the law transgressed?” Equally worrisome to some is the government’s use of emergency laws almost a year after its defeat of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

“The Sri Lankan emergency means that people enjoy any personal or legal rights solely at executive convenience and discretion,” said an activist who requested anonymity. “Accordingly, Ms Perera has been detained without trial, charge, bail or much access to family or lawyers and any legal or procedural safeguards.” (END)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50958

“US says Lashkar in Lanka”- Reply

Latheef Farook

Citing PTI report Admiral Robert  Willard, Commander of the US Pacific Command in his testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, has said, in response to a question from Senator George Lemieux, that the Lasker e Taiba group is expanding and specifically positioning in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

He has also said that “we have certainly knowledge of their influence within the region beyond the countries that I just mentioned. The extent of that influence is what we’re taking under study,”
Now that the government has rejected these reports saying there was no evidence to prove that the group was in the island it is extremely important that the US provide details about this so called LET influence in Sri Lanka right away in view of the serious Implications of this disclosure to Sri Lankan Muslims,

That is assuming Robert Willard is speaking the truth and is not doing the dirty work for his country to target Muslim minorities in these countries.
In this regard it is worthy to note that Muslims in Sri Lanka, as rightly pointed out by the island’s former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, remains the only community which never took to arms to realize their grievances even at the peak of their sufferings during the ethnic war when they were evicted from their homes, their lands grabbed, their livelihood deprived, kidnapped, tortured and indiscriminately killed.

This alone would have been cause enough for any group to take to arms. However Muslims refrained from succumbing to violence. There were, however, a few Muslims who acquired weapons to defend themselves against the LTTE atrocities, but they disappeared even before LTTE disappeared. After the elimination of the LTTE the remaining few armed Muslims handed over their weapons to the authorities.

The question now is why the Muslims should take to arms now under LET or any other banner as the LTTE terrorism is defeated and people from all communities are hoping and praying that communities are brought together and move this war battered country ahead to ensure peaceful better future.

Under these circumstances Willard’s statement must be taken with a pinch of salt.

For example, within days after the 9/11 events in New York in 2001, former US President George Bush, together with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accused Al Qaeda of destroying the WTC without any proper inquiry. Exploiting the mood in its wake Bush blackmailed the shocked and confused world, created a coalition and invaded within 27 days the war battered and impoverished Afghanistan where he slaughtered innocent and poverty stricken Afghans in one of the most barbarous military ventures of its kind in modern history.

More importantly Willard’s deception must be viewed in the backdrop of the lies and disinformation that the US media, kowtowing its government agenda, spread to create ‘proper’ environment for the senseless attack on Iraq and the slaughter of its unarmed civilians.

The US accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction which, Bush and Blair claimed, threatened the west and invaded Iraq in 2003 despite United Nations weapons inspectors repeatedly stating that Iraq did not possess such weapons. They turned this once almost developed country into a waste land. Around 1.4 million innocent Iraqis killed so far, hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women were tortured, women indiscriminately raped, infrastructure destroyed and birth, marriage, death, land and vehicle registration offices burnt causing chaos in the society.

Around four million Iraqis who lived in peace were forced into refugee camps in neighboring countries to languish in sub human conditions. More than two million Iraqis were made refugees in their own country. Shiites and Sunnis were put against each other turning Iraq into a killing field where, with the help of a puppet government, western oil companies started looting the country’s oil wealth while the Iraqis starve. And now it turns out that since he stepped down as Prime Minister Tony Blair has pocketed more than $30 million in oil revenues from his secret dealings with a South Korean oil consortium.

Thus the crooks are in Willard’s camp.

The so called US led Western war against terrorism turned out to be a war against Islam and Muslims. Now after Afghanistan and Iraq they have turned their attention on Pakistan which is bleeding .The question is whether this statement is a pretext for US plan to expand its agenda to cover Muslim living as minorities in Sri Lanka and other countries in the region.

The frightening situation worldwide caused by the US led so called war on terrorism is such today that every Muslim with a beard and a head cap and every Muslim woman with a Hijab have been branded as terrorist and humiliated. Muslims have been attacked and killed all over under various pretexts. Muslim refugees walking in sheer desperation in search of shelter with their meager belongings have become frequent common sight worldwide.

Helpless Muslims worldwide are seething with anger at the west.
This is the reason why Sri Lankan Muslims take serious note of Admiral Robert Willard’s disclosures .Sri Lanka has its own share of anti Muslim elements who could exploit this statement to suit their own agendas. So if Wilfred was speaking the truth he must come up with hard evidence so that the authorities in the island can verify.

srilankaguardian

Writer Sarah, still in detention

 Blow for author

A BAHRAIN-BASED author arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly offending Buddhism suffered a new blow yesterday after she was remanded in custody for another two weeks.

Sarah Malanie Perera, detained in the capital Colombo, had been held without charge since being detained on March 20.

Her family had hoped she would be released after appearing before judges, but was never brought to the Supreme Court.

However, she did speak to Notary Public Licences Company secretary and lawyer Lakshan Dias, who is also a human rights consultant.

The 38-year-old, who earlier converted to Islam, was detained after writing two books in Sinhalese, one of which was allegedly offensive to Lord Buddha.

Ms Perera’s lawyers filed a case at the Supreme Court in Colombo on March 30 demanding her immediate release, but it also stalled after police never brought her to court.

She had been due to leave her homeland and return to Bahrain after a three-month holiday on the day of her arrest.

MP Ibrahim Mohammed Busandal is spearheading Ms Perera’s case with the help of other MPs and Discover Islam.

“I was born in Panadura in 1971 and a Buddhist by birth,” said the author in a statement to Mr Dias.

“Later, I became a Muslim due to my personal conviction and I learned a lot on Islam and its spiritual teachings.

“I had a feeling that I was saved before I was going into spiritual disaster and believed that I owed the rest of the world to tell what I have undergone.

“Therefore, I decided to document whatever the spiritual thoughts I have.

“I composed about 17 to 19 such small articles and later decided to compile those as a booklet.

“I wrote all my articles in Singhalese as I am not very fluent in English.”

Ms Perera said she had no intention of offending anyone with her work.

“Certain things I questioned according to my knowledge and I am very much confident that I did not write any thing that insults other religion as Islam says that those who believe in it cannot insult other religions,” she told her lawyer.

“The expressions in my books are according to my beliefs and as part of my journey from Buddhism to Islam.”

Ms Perera also spoke of her fear when she was arrested trying to send a consignment of 500 of her books to Bahrain.

“Suddenly a police jeep appeared, five policemen including inspector Udaya Kumar and a woman police constable and took me into custody,” she said.

The author said for three days she was treated “harshly” and forced to remove my hijab (headscarf).

“They insisted that I had done wrong and wanted me to accept it and I continuously said that I didn’t do anything wrong according to Islam,” said Ms Perera.

“They said I am connected to Muslim militants which I denied.”

Mr Dias said police had a detention order from Sri Lanka defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksha under emergency law to hold Ms Perera for 30 days to investigate her case.

“She didn’t appear in court and if the police don’t bring her to court in two days, we will take legal action against them,” he said by telephone from Colombo.

Reports suggested she was detained as a political strategy of winning votes from the Jathika Hela Urumaya, an extremist Buddhist Sinhalese nationalist and racist organisation, ahead of tomorrow’s elections.

Police reportedly asked Sri Lanka’s most senior Buddhist to read the book, who confirmed there were no offensive words against Buddha.

Ms Perera came to Manama in 1985 to assist her elder sister Mariam, who owned a gifts and flowers shop and embraced Islam in 1999 after studying religion at Discover Islam.

Her father Norbet Perera, mother Soma and sisters Padma, Rasa, Padmani and Malanie, also converted later. aneeqa@gdn.com.bh

gulf-daily-news.com

Lanka slams US war crimes

Sri Lanka has slammed the US saying it has blood on its hands after a shocking video showed a US aircraft firing indiscriminately towards civilians in Iraq killing atleast 25 of them including two journalists. Government Defence Spokesperson Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told Daily Mirror online that while the US has been accusing Sri Lanka of human rights allegations and have repeatedly called for a war crime probe, they seem to have ‘conveniently forgotten’ its own issues in Iraq.

Minister Rambukwella also called on the US to conduct an investigation on it’s own troops before pointing fingers at developing countries.
“These are the world’s so called super powers. They have always tried to bully developing countries but have ignored the blood on their own hands. This is nothing new, it has been happening for years. They say we are guilty but we all know what happened in Iraq,” Minister Rambukwella said.

Further reacting strongly to the video Minister Rambukwella also questioned the UN on its silence and queried why the UN Secretary General was failing to appoint an expert panel to advise him on the US involvement in Iraq. He also said that it was due to this reason, that the Sri Lankan government had always questioned the credibility of the ‘strong statements’ which were released by the west and the UN against Sri Lanka.

The investigative organization WikiLeaks, this week released military video of what it describes as three incidents of an “indiscriminate slaying” by U.S. forces near Baghdad on July 12, 2007. WikiLeaks said the encounters killed as many as 25 civilians, including two Reuters journalists. The U.S. military said in a statement at the time that a total of 11 people died in the strikes conducted by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

The video is shot from two Apache helicopters on patrol in Iraq. The choppers were responding to reports of AK-47 gunfire in the suburb of New Baghdad when military personnel on board spotted a group of nine to 12 people walking through a courtyard. The military contends that the U.S. followed the appropriate “Rules of Engagement” during the incidents.

The video shows military personnel aboard the Apaches indicating they spot the suspects toting several AK-47s and several RPG’s. But WikiLeaks contends that the Reuters photographers were only carrying cameras, which the military mistook for weapons. The helicopters circle multiple times before opening fire. In the second incident captured by the video, U.S. forces open fire again after a van arrives to pick up casualties from the first attack.

Later, American ground troops pull into the courtyard in an armored Humvee and appear to drive over one of the casualties. Soon after, the same helicopters spot several individuals entering a nearby building. U.S. troops receive permission to strike again, this time with Hellfire missiles. Julian Assange, of WikiLeaks, released the video at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He said the behaviour of the pilots is like they’re playing a video game. He also did not say how WikiLeaks obtained the video. A senior military official at the Department of Defense told Fox News on the condition of anonymity that “an investigation of the incidents confirmed our belief that these attacks were justified.”

“The individuals who were killed, apart from the Reuters journalists, were involved in hostile activity,” the official said. (Daily Mirror online)

Family hopeful of author’s release

THE family of a Bahrain-based author arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly offending Buddhism hope she will be released after she appears in court today.

THE family of a Bahrain-based author arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly offending Buddhism hope she will be released after she appears in court today.

Sarah Malanie Perera, detained in the capital Colombo, had been held without charge since she was taken into custody about two weeks ago.

The authorities have yet to give precise details of her offence, but it is understood two of her recently published books allegedly offended ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who account for more than 70 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million population.

Ms Perera’s lawyers filed a case at the Supreme Court in Colombo last Tuesday demanding her immediate release, but it stalled as police never brought her to court.

The 38-year-old, who previously converted to Islam, was detained after writing two books in Sinhalese, allegedly offensive to Lord Buddha.

She had been due to leave her homeland and return to Bahrain after a three-month holiday on the day of her arrest.

MP Ibrahim Mohammed Busandal is spearheading Ms Perera’s case with the help of other MPs and Discover Islam.

Ms Perera was allowed to talk to her 82-year-old mother Aisha for five minutes by telephone last Wednesday, but her elder sister Mariam said the mother had been unable to eat after speaking to her.

“It’s really a relief that finally she would be taken to court, where a decision will take place,” she told the GDN.

“We are hoping that she will be released after appearing in the court for the first time in 15 days,” Ms Mariam added.

Ms Perera will be represented in court by top attorney Lakshan Dias.

“Mr Dias is really a gentleman and didn’t demand any money and said he will charge us only after Sarah is released,” said Mariam.

The family maintain that police had forcibly removed the author’s headscarf and made a video, which was being played on all Sri Lankan television channels.

The London-based Times Newspaper reported that she was detained as a political strategy of winning votes from the Jathika Hela Urumaya, an extremist Buddhist Sinhalese nationalist and racist organisation, ahead of elections on Thursday.

Police reportedly asked Sri Lanka’s most senior Buddhist to read the book, who confirmed there were no offensive words against Buddha.

Ms Perera came to Manama in 1985 to assist Mariam, who owned a gifts and flowers shop in Adliya.

She then worked as a teacher at the Child Development Centre, Juffair.

Born and brought up in a Buddhist family, she embraced Islam in 1999 after studying religion at Discover Islam.

Her father Norbet, mother Soma and sisters Padma, Rasa, Padmani and Malanie, later also converted to Islam at separate times.

Ms Perera’s books From Darkness to Light and Questions and Answers focused on her conversion to Islam and the original teachings of Buddha.

She was reportedly detained after trying to send copies to Bahrain through a cargo company. aneeqa@gdn.com.bh

Gulf Daily News

Kharithathu Ththareeq Road Map of Minister Milinda Moragoda

The Muslim Affairs Circle of the Sri Lanka National Congress launched Kharithathu Ththareeq a road map affecting th Muslim Community in Sri Lanka.

Recently, Kharithathu Ththareeq, a Road Map to address issues affecting the Muslim community in Sri Lanka was presented to the President of the All Ceylon Jammayathul Ulama, AlHaj M.I.M. Rizwe Mufthi, by Minister Milinda Moragoda, Leader of the Sri Lanka National Congress (SLNC) amidst a large gathering of Muslim community leaders at Marine Grand hotel, Marine Drive, Wellawatte.

This roadmap was developed by the Muslim Affairs Circle of the SLNC.

Alhaj Rizwe Mufthi speaking on the occasion, praised Mr. Moragoda for the support he has extended to the Muslim community in strengthening social and educational institutions. He pointed out that by improving the quality of people’s lives, harmony and understanding between different communities can be achieved.

The Muslim Affairs Circle of the Sri Lanka National Congress under the leadership of Mr. Milinda Moragoda has assisted in the release of two mosques (in the Batticola district, and in Trincomalee) from the Security Forces.

Minister Milinda Moragoda together with the Defense Secretary Mr. Gothabaya Rajapaksha, and other relevant authorities, has had extensive discussions regarding the use of the Tamil language in police stations and other government institutions in areas predominantly inhabited by Tamil-speaking populations.

The Kharithathu Ththareeq is an extension to the above and will help address issues affecting the Muslim community in a more systematic manner.

Picture shows Mr. Milinda Moragoda presenting the Road Map to Alhaj Rizwe Mufthi President All Ceylon Jammayathul Ulama.

Sri Lanka belongs to all of us: Diversity is Our Strength:

1. Help create a Political Culture which leads to mutual respect between all Communities.
2. Educate other communities on Muslim culture and the Muslim way of life.
3. Enhance the standards of Muslim National schools and also make available Vocational Training for those who do not wish to pursue academics.
4. Support the All Ceylon Jammayathul Ulama to obtain authority in all matters related to Halal Certification.
5. Assist in the Resettlement of Muslims in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the restoration of Normal Life with Housing and Economic Activity.
6. Assist in the Return and Restoration of Mosques, Schools, etc., in the Northern and Eastern Provinces for the benefit of all.
7. Assist in arranging a monthly meeting with the Security Forces and the Police to discuss and resolve on-going issues and problems faced by the Muslim Community.
8. Assist in obtaining Prayer facilities in Public and other Institutions.
9. Ensure the implementation of the Government circular, which permits the wearing of the Muslim Dress (Hijab) in Schools, Hospitals, and other Government Institutions.
10. Assist in addressing the Drugs & Narcotics related issues faced by the community.
11. Assist in the training of staff in Tamil Language proficiency in Government Institutions where the General Public will interact.
12. Facilitate and address grievances faced by Muslim Tsunami victims.

Sarah Malanie Perera ,Author held in book row

A BAHRAIN resident has been arrested in Sri Lanka after converting to Islam and writing two books in Sinhalese allegedly offensive to the spiritual leader of Buddhism.

Sarah Malanie Perera, 38, was detained in the capital Colombo on Saturday as she was due to leave her homeland after a three-month holiday.

Discover Islam has now issued an international appeal to human rights groups to help secure her release, after being contacted by one of her sisters.

Relatives in Bahrain also fear she may not be allowed to return here as her residence permit expires today.

Ms Perera came to Manama in 1985 to assist her elder sister Mariam, who owned a gifts and flowers shop called Madhuri in The Palace Hotel, Adliya.

She worked there for two years before staying at home to care her sick old mother Aisha.

Ms Perera later worked as an assistant accountant for the US Navy, before becoming a teacher at the Child Development Centre, Juffair.

Born and brought up in a Buddhist family, she embraced Islam in 1999 after studying religion at Discover Islam.

Her father Norbet Perera, mother Soma and sisters Padma, Rasa, Padmani and Malanie, later also converted to Islam at separate times.

They are now called Mohammed, Aisha, Fatima, Raihana, Fowzia and Sarah respectively.

“Ever since she (Sarah) embraced Islam, she was compiling a book on Islam and comparative religion,” said her sister Mariam yesterday.

“In September 2009 she has completed her compilation.

“She has printed it into two beautiful books entitled From Darkness to Light and Questions and Answers.

“During her visit to Sri Lanka, she printed the books and was due to come back to Bahrain on Saturday.

“She was sending some copies of the books through cargo and the owner of the cargo office, who happened to be linked with an extremist racist organisation called Helaurumaya, contacted the police claiming the book was offensive to Lord Buddha.”

Mariam claimed the group forced the police to detain her sister beyond the 24-hour limit before a case must be transferred to the courts.

“Sarah went home after taking three months holiday to finish a property issue, as my father died six years ago and no one was there to care for it,” she said.

“As we all are married and have families plus jobs, it was impossible to go back earlier and thought she would finalise the matter during her vacation.

“But we didn’t know she would be arrested for writing the book.”

A Discover Islam official said the arrest of Ms Perera was unfair and demanded Bahrain’s authorities take action to ensure her quick release.

“We want all the international authorities and human rights organisations to help sister Sarah,” they said.

Relatives say Ms Perera’s books were not abusive to Lord Buddha and merely explained the original teachings of Buddha according to the Buddhist scriptures.

They said she wrote it to explain why she chose to convert to Islam and it was an attempt to bring people of all faiths closer by recognising their similarities.

Ms Perera is being held in Mirihana Police Station, Colombo, while investigations continue. aneeqa@gdn.com.bh

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=274019

Saudi Arabia death row maid in a fight for her life

RIYADH  Rizana Nafeek’s indigent family fell on hard times when civil war forced her father, a Sri Lankan woodcutter, to stop going to his traditional cutting forest. Salvation seemed to appear, however, when a local recruiter suggested that Nafeek, then 17, go to work as a housemaid in Saudi Arabia. The agent put a false birth date on her passport so officials would not see that she was underage. But now Nafeek faces a death sentence after being convicted of murdering a four-month-old infant put in her care by the Saudi family who hired her in 2005. Entering her fifth year in Saudi detention, Nafeek is appealing her sentence. She contends that she did not harm the child and has retracted the confession – written in Arabic, which she does not understand – on which her conviction was based. An Asian human-rights group assisting her appeal says the child’s death was a tragic accident that should not be compounded by executing Nafeek, which would violate international conventions, accepted by Riyadh, banning death sentences for crimes committed by juveniles.

Nafeek “is facing the death sentence for a mistake made while feeding a four-month-old baby which resulted in the death of the child, which sadly has been misunderstood as a crime,” the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission says in an online statement. Nafeek’s ordeal is extreme, but it highlights the perils faced by many women from her part of the world as they seek to escape dire poverty. Rights groups say they are exploited by human traffickers posing as legitimate employment agencies, thrust into a totally foreign language and culture, and work in an environment with few legal protections. Her story also raises the sensitive issue of how an estimated 1.5 million foreign domestic workers, mostly maids, are treated in Saudi Arabia. “While many … enjoy decent work conditions,” others endure “slavery-like conditions” that include “non-payment of salaries, forced confinement, food deprivation, excessive workload, and instances of severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse,” said a report issued in 2008 by the New York-based Human Rights Watch. The report caused a furore in Saudi Arabia, where newspaper columnists and government officials rejected it as one-sided and exaggerated. Last year, the government-appointed Shura Council adopted regulations laying out fair treatment of domestic help. But there is no mechanism to enforce the regulations. About three-quarters of the 500,000 Sri Lankans working in Saudi Arabia are housemaids. This account of Nafeek’s story comes from Saudi newspapers, reports by human-rights organisations, interviews with Sri Lankan diplomats in Riyadh and others familiar with her case. In a 2008 interview, Abdul Mohammed Marleen, who was the Sri Lankan ambassador at the time, said Nafeek came from a “very poor family” in the mainly Muslim village of Muttur in eastern Sri Lanka. Her woodcutter father, Mr Marleen said, was thrown out of work when the Tamil Tiger insurgency took over the forest where he used to chop wood. “Knowing the pathetic situation of the family, a recruiting agency stepped in and said it would send Rizana to Saudi Arabia as a housemaid,” Mr Marleen said. It forged her passport to say she was 23 so as not to violate international anti-human trafficking laws and Saudi labour regulations, he added. In the kingdom, Nafeek was sent to a family in Dawadmi, about 400km west of Riyadh. Although she had no training in infant care, including bottle-feeding, she was asked to look after the family’s infant son. Soon after, he choked to death after being bottle-fed by Nafeek, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. Kifaya Ifthikar, a Sri Lankan woman who regularly visits Nafeek, said she was told by Nafeek that she fed the baby, put him in his cot and went to the kitchen. “She didn’t know he was dead until the mother saw the baby and started screaming,” Ms Ifthikar related.

Nafeek had been with the family less than two weeks when the child died, Mr Marleen said, noting that within this short period “there could not be any motive for her to kill the child out of revenge or anger towards the employer”. Still, the parents accused Nafeek of strangling the child and called police. “In custody, she’s alleged to have confessed to the killing,” Mr Marleen said. “But her position is that she doesn’t know how to speak Arabic.” According to Saudi press reports, the police asked someone who claimed he spoke Nafeek’s native language of Tamil to translate during her interrogation, but that person is no longer in the kingdom. At trial, Nafeek did not have an attorney and her confession was the basis for her 2007 conviction and death sentence. Since then, the case has gone from a local court to an appeals courts and back. One appeals court affirmed the death sentence, but a higher appeals court instructed the Dawadmi court to take another look at the matter. The last hearing, held in December, adjourned without a new date for convening. The Asian Human Rights Commission, which has hired a Saudi lawyer, Kateb Fahad al Shammari, to handle Nafeek’s appeal, says in its online statement that after “careful consideration of all facts we are of the view that what has happened is an enormous tragedy but it can lead to … a further tragedy of an innocent inexperienced teenager being executed”. Nafeek was 17 at the time of the child’s death and the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits execution for crimes committed when an offender is under 18. Although under Saudi law Nafeek could be released if the child’s parents pardon her, they have declined to do so. Bandar bin Mohammed al Aiban, the president of Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission, a government-appointed body, declined to comment on Nafeek’s situation while it is on appeal in the courts. He added that the commission is monitoring the case. Ms Ifthikar, a Sri Lankan dental surgeon who lives in Riyadh, said she decided to regularly visit Nafeek after reading about her. “I felt I should do something as a human,” she said. Nafeek is held in a one-storey house that has been converted into a women’s detention centre, and that generally has between five and seven prisoners, Ms Ifthikar said. She added that Nafeek is being treated well by her Saudi jailers. “She’s being looked after 100 per cent properly,” Ms Ifthikar said. But, she added, “there should be some mercy and she should come out”.

http://www.thenational.ae

Citizen’s Commission: Expulsion of the Northern Muslims by the LTTE in October 1990

Sri Lanka has been increasingly the scene of much ethnic violence. The Northern Muslims are the victims of the earliest large scale act of ethnic cleansing in our history. Close to 80,000 persons, constituting the entire Muslim population of the five Northern Districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi were summarily expelled from the province by the LTTE on one fateful day in October 1990 at a few hours notice. The details of the constraints imposed on the victims varied from location to location depending on the degree of brutality of the local LTTE leadership, but nowhere were those evicted able to sell, transfer or otherwise secure or dispose of their property or to take with them cash or other moveable possessions. The operation was carried out so quickly and with such ruthless efficiency that there was little or no resistance. The state failed to intervene. Sadly, the protests of the national leadership, Tamil and non-Tamil, and of the national and the international community were muted.

“The Law& Society Trust (LST) together with the Community Trust Fund (CTF), the People’s Secretariat (PS) and the Rural Development Foundation (RDF) has setup a Citizen’s Commission to investigate they expulsion of Muslims from the Northern Province by the LTTE in October 1990”. This initiative is a result of the untiring efforts of the Northern Muslim leadership and a few civil society activists coordinated by Dr. Farzana Haniffa. The Terms of Reference of the Commission, of which I am a Member, goes on to set out the objective as “to produce authoritative documentation of expulsion and its consequence”, including in its coverage “the history of the expulsion, the experience of two decades of displacement and expectations, and in some cases the experience of resettlement”.

The largest numbers of those victims were from Mannar district of which I had, much earlier, been Government Agent for 3 years (mid 1965-mid 1968) I have happy memories of close interaction with many families there, both Tamil and Muslim. Inter-ethnic relations in Mannar were a model to the rest of the island. I have visited the district many times in 70s and 80s, and each time I found that inter-ethnic relations continued to be good. There was nothing on the ground to explain why the Northern Muslims were selected by the LTTE for eviction. The distraught evicted persons who I visited in Colombo soon afterwards kept asking it of me and I had no answer. Clearly the reasons were rooted elsewhere. Did the LTTE pick on the Northern Muslims because they were the most vulnerable with no record of ever resisting Tamil leadership?

Immediately after my service in Mannar I served 3 years as GA Batticaloa (mid 1968 – early 1971) and, much later, 3 years as GA Jaffna, then including Kilinochchi (mid 1981- mid 1984). Batticaloa and Jaffna districts also had large Muslim population and there too inter-ethnic relations were very satisfactory. The diversity was salient, e. g. Kattankudy, the largest Muslims town in the island, has very distinctive cultural and economic features sustained over many decades. It was much later that Tamil Muslim conflict in the East was promoted by outsiders who used Muslim home guards, as well as by the LTTE who sought to secure the subjugation of the Muslim population through a series of massacres. Despite these disruptions, most of the Tamil and Muslim populations of the North and East have, by and large, continued to live together in peace. Whenever I go back I feel as comfortable and as welcome in Muslim towns and villages in the North and East as when I was the Government Agent there decades earlier.

All this does not mean that there is no difficulty in reversing ethnic cleansing after a lapse of 20 years. That reversal should have been effected long ago. After a community departs from a locality, their properties progressively degenerate. Further, over the years, others move in to fill the vacant spaces created in the educational, social, economic and political life of that locality. At the other end, the displaced populations get settled in to their new locations with new neighbours, new schools, new economic and social activities, etc. New relationships get established superseding, in due course the old. The younger generation may have no ties at all binding them to the earlier location. With every passing year, reversal of ethnic cleansing becomes more difficult. Without focussed intervention, very few may go back. The appointment of this Commission is very welcome, though long over due.

The task of reversing ethnic cleansing is difficult but necessary. As I see it, the main task of this Commission is to push for and facilitate the resettlement of displaced Muslims back in the locations from which they were evicted. The displaced population needs to be motivated and helped to return. The conditions, facilities and inducements must therefore be attractive and the obstacles to return must be minimized. Particular attention needs to be paid to promote acceptance of the return on the part of the local communities among whom the returnees will resettle.

It will help to place each particular displacement and the return of the displaced in as broad a context as possible. Every act of ethnic cleansing is unique, and so too the related circumstances. If the issue is seen as a zero sum game between the two communities immediately involved, mobilizing comprehensive support for reversal of ethnic cleansing may pose some difficulties. On the other hand if ethnic cleansing is viewed in a broad context as affecting those of all communities, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, and that policies to counter and reverse ethnic cleansing will bring joint gains to all victims, it would be easier to secure comprehensive backing for such policies. A balance needs to be struck between highlighting the special features of each case and the common features of all ethnic cleansing. The principles on which the remedies to all acts of ethnic cleansing are based should be independent of the ethnicity of the perpetrators and of the victims.

To permit any act of ethnic cleansing to stand would amount to withholding justice from the victims, to rewarding the perpetrators, to encouraging such acts in the future and, above all, to perpetuating a national crime and humiliation. On the other hand, no family or individual can be compelled to return to an inhospitable environment. The focus therefore should be on promoting voluntary return. This requires designing and executing the programmes in close interaction with and the participation of both the displaced communities and local community into which they are to return. The remedies must be seen by all concerned as a step towards the restoration of the honour, not only of the victims and the perpetrators, but also of those who stood by and let the eviction occur. This Commission could play a lead role in spreading this message in relation to all acts of ethnic cleansing throughout our island.

http://www.groundviews.org

35 Muslim Organizations Appeal to Make 2010 The Year of Return of Expelled Northern Muslims

35 Muslim  civil organizations representing the 2 million Muslims of the island, have issued a joint press release, on behalf of the Northen Muslim IDPS, demanding the immediate resettlement of Northern Muslims. They are concerned about the lack of urgency in resettling those IDPS after 20 years of displaced life despite the end of war in MAy 2009 and the LTTE is no more there. One of the main demands is the parrallel resetlement of Muslims along with Vanni IDPs and opening the Puttalam-Mannar road to facilitate and encourage Northen Muslims to return.

The complete press release is geven below:

As Sri Lankan Muslims civil society groups we are deeply concerned by the lack of urgency and recognition of the Northern Muslims’ right to return. Despite the end of the war in May 2009 and on-going efforts to resettle Internally Displaced Persons, the expelled Northern Muslim community is still waiting for the announcement of a program that will facilitate their dignified return to their places of origin, free of further trauma. 2010 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the expulsion of the entire population of Muslims from the Northern Province by the LTTE. It will hopefully also be the year of return for the Northern Muslims to rebuild their lives, livelihoods and a shared future with all communities of the North.

With the end of the war there was an expectation within the displaced Northern Muslim community, currently numbering over 100,000, that they would be allowed to and assisted to return. When resettlement did commence in the North it focused on the recently displaced Tamil IDPs. While recognizing and supporting the urgency for the resettlement of Wanni Tamil IDPs, Northern Muslims are worried that there is hardly any acknowledgment of their existence and needs and they are left out of any planning of the entire resettlement process. The Muslim IDPs have had to use their own resources and to negotiate at an individual level to secure permission to return. While there are many challenges to resettlement including de-mining, re-building infrastructure and providing basic assistance, the delay in resettling the Northern Muslims has raised fears that they will be excluded from the current resettlement process; which could result in their losing assistance both at a family and community level, increased conflicts between those currently settled and Northern Muslims trying to claim their original properties. Reintegrating the returning Northern Muslims with the Tamil community should be the priority; unfortunately so far little progress has been made.

In order to ensure a peace that will benefit and create co-existence among all communities, we the undersigned organizations demand of the next President:

• Immediately implement parallel resettlement of Northern Muslim IDPs with the resettlement of the Vanni IDPs.
• Recognise and ensure the right of return of all Northern Muslims, be they those expelled or the children who were born in displacement.
• Give the choice to all Northern Muslims whether to return or opt for local integration in areas where they are currently living.
• Opening of Mannar- Puttalam road to facilitate Muslim IDP return.
• Equally prioritize Muslim villages and expedite the landmine clearance.
• Ensure equity in terms of returnee assistance, rehabilitation and development resources to areas which were inhabited prior to the conflict.
• Ensure community consultation and participation in the rehabilitation and development of the war affected areas.
• Create mechanisms and processes to address potential land problems and disputes, including allocation of public (crown) land, demarcation of village boundaries and sharing and allocation of public resources through inter-community mediating boards.
• Expelled Muslims who have lost their land and public resources due to resettlements that happened after their eviction in 1990 need to be duly compensated.
• Give access to local organizations from the affected districts, and national and international organizations, to areas where resettlement is taking place so that they could play a more proactive role in rebuilding communities. Current restriction on allowing only a handful of relief and rehabilitation agencies should be eased to bring in more help.
• In the event of villages and lands of the Muslims being declared High Security Zones, alternative land and infrastructure should be rebuilt and handed over to the people.
• Devise means of settling land disputes arising from land transactions and land allocations done by LTTE and government in the absence of Northern Muslims in their areas of residence, giving full recognition to the land rights of the Northern Muslims.
• Appoint a truth commission that includes civil society group with a cross section of all communities to investigate the forcible eviction of the Northern Muslims.
• Amend the Prescription Ordinance in the North and East, where large scale displacement had taken place and the inability of the displaced to reclaim the land during the last nineteen years.

Currently Muslims are returning to the north without much assistance from anyone, simply in the hope that they can restart their lives from scratch and co-exist once again with their Tamil brothers and sisters. On behalf of the Northern Muslims the undersigned community based organisations and members of the Muslims community request all the Presidential candidates and others who are involved in northern resettlement, rebuilding and development to fulfil the above requirement to reintegrate the expelled Muslims as part of the northern communities after twenty years.

Dated: January 22 2010

Signed

Civil Society Organisations:

Citizen Committee for Forcibly Evicted Northern Muslims,

Community Trust Fund Puttalum,

CTF Women’s Forum Vavuniya and Mannar,

ORDER – Sri Lanka (Organization for Relief, Development, Education and Equal Rights),

Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy,

Musali Civil Societies for Rights, Media forum for Musali,

Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, National Muslim Assembly,

Mullaithivu welfare Society,

Al Ameen Islamic Cultural Development Association,

Asian Muslim Action Network,

Asian Resource Foundation,

Women Bureau Periyamadu- Mannar,

Peace Networking Committee Puttalam,

Organization for Peace and Education Development (OPDE),

Child Vision Puttalam, APDC- Puttalam,

Social Aid Puttalam,

Social Improvement Foundation- Alankuda Puttalam,

Al-Kafala  and Unity Lanka International

Religious Institutions:

Federation of Mullaithivu Mosques,

Fathuwa Committee Puttalam,

Jaffna Mosque Committee,

Mohideen Jummah Mosque Mannar,

Mannar District Mosques Federation,

Mullaithivu Masjith Trustee Board,

Mullaithivu District Jammiyathul Ulama,

Killinochchi District Trustee Board, Periyamadhu Mosque Federation,

Veppankulam and Vidathalthivu Mohideen Jumma Mosque,

Periya Karisal Mohideen Jumma Mosque

Periyamadu Ilmiya Arabic College Committee.

Posted by transCurrents on January 22, 2010 12:35 PM in transcurrents.com

Mosque Federation President writes to presidential candidates on problems facing Muslims

The president of Mosques Federation and Muslim Organisations of eastern province Mowlavi S.L.M. Haneefa has written two separate letters to the Presidential candidates Mahinda Rajapakse and General Sarath Fonseka mentioning 13 unresolved problems facing the Muslims.

In his letter to President  Mahinda Rajapakse he had stated that the Muslim community would be grateful if the unresolved problems of the Muslims existing for the past 17 years are resolved before the presidential election.

Mowlavi Haneefa in his letter addressed to General Sarath Fonseka had pointed out the lapses on the part of previous governments in solving these problems for the last 17 years and requested him to express his view and future activities with regard to the unresolved problems of the Muslims publicly. The problems stipulated in his letter are given below.

1. Stop planned colonisations in Oluvil, Pottuvil, Sengamam, Saasthraveli, Sammanthurai, Ismailpuram in Ampara district and Muthurnagar, Arafanagar, Kiranthimalai, Pulmoddai and Kurangupanchan in the Trincomalee district.

2. Permit the Muslims to involve in agricultural activities in their thousands of acre lands in Paduwankarai areas of the Batticaloa district.

3. Resettle all those displaced from their places of living during the three decades war due to threats in the east and provide them with all the infrastructure facilities and livelihood assistance to continue their livings in their own places.

4. Expedite the resettlement of the forcibly evicted Muslims of the north.

5. Remake the official flag of the eastern provincial council to represent the majority Muslims living in the east.

6. Make arrangements to settle the Muslims affected by tsunami in houses constructed solely for the Muslims at Akkaraipattu Nuraichcholai with financial assistance from the government of Saudi Arabia.

7. Absorb Muslim youths in the civil protection force of the Sri Lanka Police service and the three national security forces according to the ratio of Muslim ethnicity.

8. Provide justice to the Muslim community affected unjustifiably during the activities of demarcation of jurisdictional boundaries, protecting national resources and sacred land programmes.

9. Remove the restriction to use loud speakers during functions in religious places under noise pollution law.

10. Relax the continuing strict activities practiced when transporting and slaughtering of cattle for food and Qurbani purposes.

11. Remove the difficulties the Muslims are put to face at present in performing their Haj pilgrimage due to the involvement of government ministers with their stubborn actions.

12. Considering the development of religious education among Muslim students, appoint Arabic teachers regularly in future to teach the Quran and religion.

13. Take action to maintain the ethnic ratio correctly and efficiently considering the continuing disregard for Muslim students in university admissions and fill up vacancies created due to shortages of teachers in Muslim schools.

muslimguardian

Evicted Northern Muslims will be resettled by May – President

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said all Muslim civilians who were forcibly evicted from the North 20 years ago will be resettled in their original places of residence with all infrastructure facilities. President Rajapaksa was speaking at the All Ceylon Muslim Congress Northern Convention – 2009 at Alankuda, Kalpitiya yesterday.

The President in his address at the convention which was organised by Minister Rishard Badiudeen said: “When the innocent Muslims were harassed and forcibly evicted from the North by the LTTE, no one came forward to stop this displacement. Instead of addressing the plight of his own people, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem went to the extent of signing an MoU with the terrorist outfit. “During my visit to the United Nations, I pointed out the plight of the displaced Muslims from the North to the international community. “Now, with my Government putting an end to terrorism, all efforts will be made to resettle the Muslims who were displaced from the North by May next year.

My Government will not let down the innocent Muslim civilians in the North who lost all their belongings at the hands of the LTTE 20 years ago.” “We will ensure that innocent Muslim civilians who had to leave their original places in the North due to LTTE threats will be resettled in their own properties. Their houses, schools and business establishments will be rebuilt with all necessary infrastructure facilities,” the President said.

Engineering career with just O/Ls

The BCAS campus offers a solid foundation programme in Engineering known as International Engineering Foundation programme. (IEF) to enable students who do not have the required qualifications to gain entrance to engineering programmes in UK universities . The IEF is ideal for students after O/Ls to pursue the career in the field of Engineering or Quantity Surveying degree programmes. The course syllabus has extensive coverage on, Engineering Mathematics , Engineering Science, Software Application, Communication Techniques , Fundamentals of Measurements, Civil Engineering Construction, Engineering Physics and is delivered through a balance mixture of academic study and practical course works and projects. Successful completion of the course certificate will be awarded from Edexcel UK as BTEC National Diploma in Engineering.

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Following progressions are available at BCAS Campus in Sri Lanka .
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Israel admits to organ thefts

Israel has admitted that it harvested organs from the dead bodies of Palestinians and Israelis in the 1990s, without permission from their families. The admission follows the release of an interview with Jehuda Hiss, the former head of Israel’s forensic institute, in which he said that workers at the institute had harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers.

In the interview, which was conducted in 2000 when Hiss was head of Tel Aviv’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, he said: “We started to harvest corneas … Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family.” Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who conducted the interview, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Hiss had said the “body parts were used by hospitals for transplant purposes – cornea transplants. They were sent to public hospitals [for use on citizens].

Guidelines ‘not clear’ “And the skin went to a special skin bank, founded by the military, for their uses”, such as for burns victims.

The practice is said to have ended in 2000. The interview was also reported on Israel’s Channel 2 television, which quoted an Israeli military statement that said: “This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer.”

Israel’s health ministry said in the Channel 2 report that at the time the guidelines for transplants “were not clear” and that for the last 10 years “Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law”. Scheper-Hughes, who is a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, said that she made the interview public because of the controversy last summer over allegations of organ harvesting made by a Swedish newspaper. In August the Aftonbladet newspaper ran an article alleging that the Israeli army had stolen body organs from Palestinian men after killing them.

Israel denied the claims, calling them anti-Semitic, and the incident raised tensions when Sweden refused to apologise for the article, saying that press freedom prevented it from intervening.

‘Conflict deaths’

Donald Bostrom, the journalist who broke the story in Aftonbladet, told Al Jazeera: “UN staff came to me and said that you have to look into this very serious issue. Palestinian young people were disappearing in the areas and five days later they appear back in the villages with an autopsy done on them against the will of the families. “We need to know who are the victims. Mothers need to know what happened to their sons.”

Bostrom said that there is no proof that people were killed for their organs but that an investigation is needed to find out whether there was a policy in place or if the bodies used were random. Bostrom added that Hiss is the “main key” to solving such unanswered questions, but that there would also be other people involved who could help uncover the truth.

Scheper-Hughes said that some of the dead Palestinians from whom organs were harvested were killed during military raids.

“Some of the bodies were definitely Palestinians who were killed in conflicts,” she told Al Jazeera. “Their organs were taken without consent of families and were used to serve the needs of the country in terms of hospitals as well as the army’s needs.”

‘Technically illegal’

She said that Hiss told her “that the people who did the harvesting were sent by the military. They were often medical students”.

“He did it informally and without permission, and it was technically illegal,” she said. The military establishment gave their “sanction and approval” to the procedures, according to Scheper-Hughes. During his interview with Scheper-Hughes, Hiss said that the eyelids of bodies were glued shut to prevent the removal of corneas being found out.

Hiss was dismissed as head of Abu Kabir in 2004 over irregularities in the use of organs, but charges against him were eventually dropped. He still holds the position of chief pathologist at the institute.

al jazeera

Islamic Banking and Finance Education

Professional membership of an internationally recognized body:

First Global Knowledge Centre (FGKC), the pioneer in Islamic Banking and Finance education in Sri Lanka has introduced another innovative programme of study in this rapidly expanding field.

Branded as iBanker, this is a unique diploma level course which covers not only Islamic Banking and Finance but also conventional banking, risk management, and investments. The emerging industry of Islamic Finance needs qualified people who can contribute positively towards the success of the field. But unfortunately statistics show there is an acute shortage of such a knowledgeable workforce at present. One objective of the introduction of this course by FGKC is to assist the industry by filling this void. For those who wish to pursue higher studies in Islamic Banking or Finance the course will be a stepping stone; which is another objective of the course designers. more..

Another feature of this course is that it covers the syllabus of the popular world recognized Islamic Finance Qualification exam (IFQ) of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, UK. Therefore, this can be considered as a two-in-one programme which allows a student to get a recognized diploma and also to sit the IFQ (UK) exam.

FGKC is the only accredited training provider in Sri Lanka for the prestigious Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), UK which offers the Islamic Finance Qualifications (IFQ). It is also accredited to offer IFQ in the Maldives, Qatar, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (UK) is the largest and most widely respected professional body for those who work in the securities and investment industry. Formed as the “Securities Institute” in 1992 by the members of the London Stock Exchange, the Institute got charter status in November 2009.

For those who are interested in obtaining professional membership of an internationally recognized body in the shortest possible time, IFQ is the ideal route. The IFQ course at FGKC is of 3 months’ duration and at its conclusion, one can sit the exam which is conducted in collaboration with the British Council, Colombo.

The faculty of First Global comprises of practising and highly qualified experts and academics with a flair for teaching. The students immensely benefit by the lecturers’ industry exposure as they gain an insight into the real life applications of theory learnt. The facilities of the institution include comfortable AC classrooms, a comprehensive library, IT facilities with access to numerous valuable E-Materials related to Islamic banking, finance and related subjects.

Islamic Banking Finance is an ideal discipline for those who are interested in pursuing a career in a dynamic and vibrant environment. A world of opportunities awaits those who have the vigour and passion to take up the challenge.  The financial and other career benefits that can accrue from one’s involvement in the industry are tremendous.

sundaytimes