COLOMBO: The National Unity Alliance headed by Azath Salley has complained to Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe of the grievances of the Muslim community and has appealed to resolve them amicably.
In an open letter addressed to the president, Salley said : ” We appreciate and congratulate you on your bold timely leadership to address the economic and social crisis that we faced when you took over the leadership of the country. Our prayers and blessings are with you on all your challenges ahead. We have no doubt that your continued leadership will bring stability and prosperity to Sri Lanka for many more years to come.
The Muslim community looks forward to continue to work and support your Excellency in addressing the numerous challenges faced by our beautiful nation.
As we see signs of economic stability, we wish to bring to your attention some of the core issues faced by the Muslim community.
Easter Sunday Attack of April 2019
1 As you are aware, the Muslim community has faced unprecedented harassment and threats to our security and livelihood since the end of the ethnic war in 2009. This was exasperated with the unfortunate Easter Sunday bomb attack of 21st April 2019 by terrorists with Muslim names. They Muslim community did not condone the dastardly act by these misguided youth and no mosque in the country gave them even an Islamic funeral. Since this fateful day, the entire Muslims community lived in fear which has had a major psychological affect on the young and old Muslims.
There is no closure of this dastardly terrorist attack of 2019 and to this day, the entire Muslim community is seen as terrorists by a large percentage of our population. We firmly believe that the 21/4 attack was a political strategy undertaken to harness the Sinhala buddhist votes inferring that there was a threat of Islamic terrorism. To this day, and after many commissions of inquiry, no Muslim has been found guilty of Islamic terrorism . Of course the terrorist bombers were Muslims by name, but we do not believe that they caused that violence in the name of Islam or Muslims. We earnestly request you to release all volumes of the report of the Presidential Commision of Inquiry (PCoI) for the public to judge so that the truth behind the 21/4 carnage will be better known to the population.
2 Closure of Mosques and Madrasas
In the aftermath of the 21/4/19 tragedy, a number of mosques and madrasas were forcibly closed by the authorities and Police. There has been no evidence of any form of radicalisation in any of these institutions of religious learning,. Four years on, the police has not been able to charge any of these institutions, hence we kindly request you to give necessary instructions to allow them to function if there is no evidence against them.
Forced Cremation of Muslim Covid Deaths
3 The forced cremation of Muslim covid deaths continues to haunt the Muslims as a violation of Islamic religious practice during the COVID pandemic. With the current disclosures of the Minister of Health in parliment and outside that the technical committee mislead the government and forced the cremation of Muslims, we kindly request you to appoint a committee to inquire into, and bring to justice any member who of the health ministry’s technical committee who had deliberately misled and forced the Muslim bodies to be cremated. Every Muslim covid dead who was cremated should be compensated and an apology tendered by the government for this un-islamic act.
4 Incarceration of Dr Shafi and Lawyer Hejaaz Hisbullah
These two Muslims were social activists who committed their time, money and professional expertise to serve anyone who needed their professional services. Young Hejaz fought his very seniors in the bar during the constitutional crisis when Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa took over the premiership from your your excellency. To this day, Hejaz is targeted because of his defence of democracy. Dr Shafi was another victim of a racist agenda of the then government. Both these warrant an independent inquiry and those liable should be brought to justice.Even today, the CID continue to harass innocent Muslims forcing them to give evidence against Hejaaz compromising his integrity.
5 Muslim Public Trusts
There has been a number of conflicts within Muslim trusts or Waqf properties by benevolent donors. A case in point is the Gafforiya school property in Maharagama. Some 4th generation members of the Abdul Gaffoor family have taken control over the school and have sold the Sulaiman nursing home property which was donated to support the school.Three transfers for one billion rupees had taken place in one single day, ie from Gafforiya to soft logic to ODEL. This in itself prove the ulterior motives of the 4th generation Gaffor family. The Waqf board and Waqf tribunal have declared these as waqf property.
6 Detained Muslim Youth:
Many Muslim youth arrested on suspicion of terrorism and are still languishing in jails. The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka initiated a dialogue with the Ministry of Defence to fast-track the investigations and release them if there were no serious allegations of involvement in terrorist activity. The Defence ministry’s investigation has identified many who could be released after a brief community based reorientation programme but due to the sudden political crisis in 2022, this proposal has been suspended. We would greatly appreciate your Excellency’s kind intervention to restart this process.
7 The Muslim Department of Religious Affairs:
This department plays a very important role in Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs and Muslim community expect this to be depoliticised and manned by professional staff The building constructed for the Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs department on Railways land is now been allocated to house other religious departments. Kindly allow it to function as a centre for Muslims and house MRCA, The Waqf Board, Waqf Tribunal an the offices of Quazi’s of the Colombo region as well as the Quazi Courts for the above. A young energetic SLAS officer should be appointed to understudy the current director who is due for promotion within the next 6 moths. The current director and his understudy could undertake urgent reforms in consolation with Muslim religious, Academic and Civil Society participation.
8 Appointment of Muslim Public Servants to Higher Administrative Positions:
There is a dearth of Muslim officer in senior positions in government administration such as Ministry Secretaries, Chief Secretaries, District Secretaries, Director Generals, or State Ministry Secretaries. We kindly appeal to your excellency to consider appointing at least one Muslim officer to each of these positions.
9 Discussions with minority politicians
We welcome your bold initiative to find political solutions of minorities in the North and east. We understand that your negotiations with the Northern and Easter politicians have been fruitful. We kindly urge you to discuss solutions with the Muslim and upcountry politicians so that the decisions you make will be acceptable to all.
One of the positive outcome of the (Aragalaya) protests was the rubbishing of the hate campaign that had divided our nation. All communities came together to reestablish Sri Lanka as a multi ethnic, multi cultural and multi religious nation. The youth have given the Muslim community hope. We sincerely hope your Excellency will continue to support an all inclusive Sri Lanka
We thank you for your Excellency’s kind consideration of the above. We look forward to an early meeting preferably after the 10th of June for Muslim civil, religious, academic, professional and business leaders to meet your excellency and discuss solutions to the above.”
