firedragon
Veteran Member
They wore my label, but I don't wear theirs!!
“Wake up angel, wake up” he was thinking because he couldn’t speak. But she was silent. Her eyes were closed. She wasn’t breathing. An angel went away because of the evil that came in the guise of a martyr.
Maybe two years ago a few men probably thought of themselves as martyrs, and got in touch with another group somewhere who was looking for people to support their fanatical cause, and found them. Secretly they communicated and grew the indoctrination like a beard that takes time to grow. Don’t weed, don’t shave, let it grow and it grew.
The country is Sri Lanka. One of the most versatile countries with many ethnicities, forced or out of choice. We had a 30-year war that ended as we perceive in the year 2009 but of course those who kept the hatred continued on hiding it in Sri Lanka, but opening up around the world. We have been seeing it on a daily basis everywhere. A hatred not because of natural born racism but a hatred mongered by invaders who made us think this is natural born. When you repeat the same lie a hundred times it becomes the truth. I would say that if you repeat everywhere, everyday it becomes more than truth. It becomes reality. It becomes religion. It becomes faith.
The king Pandukabhaya in his time had “Yona Sabhaa waatthu”, of course for the Greeks and they were called Yona I was told by a history teacher and master’s degree holder in history, wife of my best friend who was a catholic. Sri Lanka was a country that had global interaction and a country that had a lot of invasions and war. But we prevailed. And we will prevail. But imagine my plight when another human being carrying the label of religion that I carry hurt my friend or his family who did more for me than one could calculate!
A man’s child was killed yesterday. A mother, a sister, a father, a grandfather, godparents, god children, family, friends, angels and saints were killed yesterday. There was no discrimination while with a weapon that spreads its horror wide it is impossible to discriminate. Oh but there was discrimination. People targeted Christians. So they say that it was done as a retaliation for the so called killings of Muslims in New Zealand. But you see my friend, Muslims were killed randomly inside a mosque some time ago by another group of people in my country, but you didn’t care. Why do you kill my people in my country for a thing that happened in another country now? Don’t you see you are hypocrites?
The NTJ, SLTJ and ACJU
Back in 2015, the secretary of the SLTJ (Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaath) movement spoke openly against the majority Muslims and it sounded a bit harsh. Their main argument was similar to the reformation era Martin Luthers protest against the church (Against some Muslims practicing supplication and belief to saints). He also spoke of a letter received by the SLTJ from the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU - the largest registered Islamic body in Sri Lanka founded in 1924) suggesting that the visit of P Jainulabdeen, the leader of the TNTJ (Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath in India) to Sri Lanka should be avoided because there is a bit of tension in the country and this visit might be an aggravation. It seems like a mild request but the SLTJ secretary Abdur Razik rejected the request like a fly on a knee. Thus it is evident that the representation of the majority were telling the SLTJ to subdue their activities and were against them. Which shows clearly the majority of Sri Lanka was also against the TNTJ who just yesterday issued a request from everyone to not associate them with this new group NTJ (National Thowheedh Jamaath alleged with the Easter massacre in Sri Lanka) which clearly shows Sri Lankan Muslims will be, and is completely and utterly against the NTJ.
Most Sri Lankans heard about this so called NTJ only after the terrorist attacks that took place on the 21st. But some Muslims did know about them and have been protesting against them for a number of years. They held billboards, banners and protested by the sides of roads against the NTJ along with pictures of the main brain, propagator of this Terrorist Attack, called them out for inciting hatred and adherence for probable terrorist activities. Of course, they were not noticed because like one who has escaped a harsh desert to a tropical haven we were drunk with the freedom and could not believe what we escaped from could overtake us again. How did we end up letting a serpent crawl under our sheet while our pets and siblings all screamed “Snake! Snake!”?
The kiss of death
A young man was born with a silver spoon and got education most cannot afford. He studied in England, finished his degree and flew to Australia to pursue post graduate studies. An interview with his sister reveals that he was a normal young man with a good sense of humour, even after he came back from England. She says that his period in Australia changed him into a loner with extreme religious ideas. How did this man lose his sanity?
It is due to top of mind awareness created by frequent repetition of phrases that pushes people to so easily associate an action with a religion. But if one analyses deep, the reasons are mostly secular. Blaming an act like this on a religion, do you believe if you eradicate that particular religion from the planet these actions will end? There are very few people who have made that research and written about it. Out of that few, it is only a select few who make rational decisions based on the findings of their research and state facts without bias. If you think clearly, take the past century and imagine a world without Islam. No Muslims in this universe. Do you think violence, wars, terrorism and suffering would be much lower? Now you as a reader must be all kinds of images you saw on TV, the internet, social media, etc. and would shake your head and smirk in denial. But think of all the images you did not see yet.
Religion
A man named Robert A. Pape, PhD and founder of Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, a very well-known political scientist from the United States of America compiled a database of all suicide attacks from 1980 to 2003 with an extensive research of news in all available media outlets. His book was called Dying to Win, The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism and in the introduction section he says
“The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions. In fact, the leading instigators of suicide attacks are the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion. This group committed 76 of the 315 incidents, more suicide attacks than Hamas. Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organisations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective. Three general patterns in the data support my conclusions. First, nearly all suicide terrorist attacks occur as part of organized campaigns, not as isolated or random incidents. Of the 315 separate attacks in the period I studied, 301 could have their roots traced to large, coherent political or military campaigns.”
Robert Pape goes to explain various levels of terrorism while suicide terrorism is the most extreme. He gives an example “One LTTE suicide attacker was motivated by the thought that the Sinhalese Buddhists would destroy the Hindu temples near her village, even though she had never visited them.”
He says “Two main explanations have been offered thus far. The first argues that local competition between the LTTE and other Tamil guerrilla groups encouraged the LTTE to use the extreme tactic of suicide to distinguish itself from its rivals. The second explanation stresses the “cult-like” behaviour of the group in which the Tamil Tigers separate their fighters from the general population and brainwash recruits to follow the leader’s orders without conscious choice.”
Follow the leader’s orders without conscious choice. Sounds like a sane explanation of the insanity.
Religion is used as a language to achieve certain goals a state or a group has as foundation to further their cause. Their root 'cause' is made of secular goals but their communication takes the language of religion. Even secularism has been used in the past as the language that leaderships have used for their cause. Take Joseph Stalin for example. He was a secular atheist with a secular state and he butchered Christians, Christian pastors and people who had a Bible at home during his reign. He was instrumental in the deaths over 15 million people and is deemed only second to Mao Zedong in the number of human deaths caused by them and their regime. And it may come as a surprise to many when they learn Joseph Stalin persecuted homosexuals by jailing them up to five years and that’s in the 20th century while the so called Muslim khalifate, the Ottoman Empire gave them full rights way back in 1858. The scale of totalitarianism tips this way and that way but what we remember top of mind is what we see every day on TV.
Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod compiled the comprehensive book on wars in history called “Encyclopedia of Wars”, a great read, clearly shows that only 7% of all wars ever recorded in history were motivated by religion.
ISIS/DAESH and Shariah
Go on the internet and you will quickly find statements that speaks of this so called Shariah as an evil, totalitarian system that breeds terrorism. This is not the time or the platform to understand the Shariah, but how surprised would one be if he was told that the Shariah is unanimously against ISIS? Everyone would know that there is a sudden uprising against this ‘so called’ Shariah school in Sri Lanka and you would see this frequent statement “it should be banned and that it breeds terrorists”. These are completely false statements. To a normal Muslims these statements will sound strange and funny. There could be certain mosques and schools that teach fanatical views like gender inequality, inappropriate clothing, division, etc., and it’s true that they should be identified and monitored, especially since the terrorist attacks a few days ago, but there is no terrorism promoting activity here unless they are very secretive, hidden away and secluded. If they are in Colombo, Muslims don't have a clue. Which means it’s not regulated, which is if found and affirmed is a problem should be addressed immediately. There has to be a regulation in everything. If people don’t know what’s going on at a branch of a body, there is a serious lapse of control.
(Continued in next comment)
“Wake up angel, wake up” he was thinking because he couldn’t speak. But she was silent. Her eyes were closed. She wasn’t breathing. An angel went away because of the evil that came in the guise of a martyr.
Maybe two years ago a few men probably thought of themselves as martyrs, and got in touch with another group somewhere who was looking for people to support their fanatical cause, and found them. Secretly they communicated and grew the indoctrination like a beard that takes time to grow. Don’t weed, don’t shave, let it grow and it grew.
The country is Sri Lanka. One of the most versatile countries with many ethnicities, forced or out of choice. We had a 30-year war that ended as we perceive in the year 2009 but of course those who kept the hatred continued on hiding it in Sri Lanka, but opening up around the world. We have been seeing it on a daily basis everywhere. A hatred not because of natural born racism but a hatred mongered by invaders who made us think this is natural born. When you repeat the same lie a hundred times it becomes the truth. I would say that if you repeat everywhere, everyday it becomes more than truth. It becomes reality. It becomes religion. It becomes faith.
The king Pandukabhaya in his time had “Yona Sabhaa waatthu”, of course for the Greeks and they were called Yona I was told by a history teacher and master’s degree holder in history, wife of my best friend who was a catholic. Sri Lanka was a country that had global interaction and a country that had a lot of invasions and war. But we prevailed. And we will prevail. But imagine my plight when another human being carrying the label of religion that I carry hurt my friend or his family who did more for me than one could calculate!
A man’s child was killed yesterday. A mother, a sister, a father, a grandfather, godparents, god children, family, friends, angels and saints were killed yesterday. There was no discrimination while with a weapon that spreads its horror wide it is impossible to discriminate. Oh but there was discrimination. People targeted Christians. So they say that it was done as a retaliation for the so called killings of Muslims in New Zealand. But you see my friend, Muslims were killed randomly inside a mosque some time ago by another group of people in my country, but you didn’t care. Why do you kill my people in my country for a thing that happened in another country now? Don’t you see you are hypocrites?
The NTJ, SLTJ and ACJU
Back in 2015, the secretary of the SLTJ (Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaath) movement spoke openly against the majority Muslims and it sounded a bit harsh. Their main argument was similar to the reformation era Martin Luthers protest against the church (Against some Muslims practicing supplication and belief to saints). He also spoke of a letter received by the SLTJ from the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU - the largest registered Islamic body in Sri Lanka founded in 1924) suggesting that the visit of P Jainulabdeen, the leader of the TNTJ (Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath in India) to Sri Lanka should be avoided because there is a bit of tension in the country and this visit might be an aggravation. It seems like a mild request but the SLTJ secretary Abdur Razik rejected the request like a fly on a knee. Thus it is evident that the representation of the majority were telling the SLTJ to subdue their activities and were against them. Which shows clearly the majority of Sri Lanka was also against the TNTJ who just yesterday issued a request from everyone to not associate them with this new group NTJ (National Thowheedh Jamaath alleged with the Easter massacre in Sri Lanka) which clearly shows Sri Lankan Muslims will be, and is completely and utterly against the NTJ.
Most Sri Lankans heard about this so called NTJ only after the terrorist attacks that took place on the 21st. But some Muslims did know about them and have been protesting against them for a number of years. They held billboards, banners and protested by the sides of roads against the NTJ along with pictures of the main brain, propagator of this Terrorist Attack, called them out for inciting hatred and adherence for probable terrorist activities. Of course, they were not noticed because like one who has escaped a harsh desert to a tropical haven we were drunk with the freedom and could not believe what we escaped from could overtake us again. How did we end up letting a serpent crawl under our sheet while our pets and siblings all screamed “Snake! Snake!”?
The kiss of death
A young man was born with a silver spoon and got education most cannot afford. He studied in England, finished his degree and flew to Australia to pursue post graduate studies. An interview with his sister reveals that he was a normal young man with a good sense of humour, even after he came back from England. She says that his period in Australia changed him into a loner with extreme religious ideas. How did this man lose his sanity?
It is due to top of mind awareness created by frequent repetition of phrases that pushes people to so easily associate an action with a religion. But if one analyses deep, the reasons are mostly secular. Blaming an act like this on a religion, do you believe if you eradicate that particular religion from the planet these actions will end? There are very few people who have made that research and written about it. Out of that few, it is only a select few who make rational decisions based on the findings of their research and state facts without bias. If you think clearly, take the past century and imagine a world without Islam. No Muslims in this universe. Do you think violence, wars, terrorism and suffering would be much lower? Now you as a reader must be all kinds of images you saw on TV, the internet, social media, etc. and would shake your head and smirk in denial. But think of all the images you did not see yet.
Religion
A man named Robert A. Pape, PhD and founder of Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, a very well-known political scientist from the United States of America compiled a database of all suicide attacks from 1980 to 2003 with an extensive research of news in all available media outlets. His book was called Dying to Win, The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism and in the introduction section he says
“The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions. In fact, the leading instigators of suicide attacks are the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion. This group committed 76 of the 315 incidents, more suicide attacks than Hamas. Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organisations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective. Three general patterns in the data support my conclusions. First, nearly all suicide terrorist attacks occur as part of organized campaigns, not as isolated or random incidents. Of the 315 separate attacks in the period I studied, 301 could have their roots traced to large, coherent political or military campaigns.”
Robert Pape goes to explain various levels of terrorism while suicide terrorism is the most extreme. He gives an example “One LTTE suicide attacker was motivated by the thought that the Sinhalese Buddhists would destroy the Hindu temples near her village, even though she had never visited them.”
He says “Two main explanations have been offered thus far. The first argues that local competition between the LTTE and other Tamil guerrilla groups encouraged the LTTE to use the extreme tactic of suicide to distinguish itself from its rivals. The second explanation stresses the “cult-like” behaviour of the group in which the Tamil Tigers separate their fighters from the general population and brainwash recruits to follow the leader’s orders without conscious choice.”
Follow the leader’s orders without conscious choice. Sounds like a sane explanation of the insanity.
Religion is used as a language to achieve certain goals a state or a group has as foundation to further their cause. Their root 'cause' is made of secular goals but their communication takes the language of religion. Even secularism has been used in the past as the language that leaderships have used for their cause. Take Joseph Stalin for example. He was a secular atheist with a secular state and he butchered Christians, Christian pastors and people who had a Bible at home during his reign. He was instrumental in the deaths over 15 million people and is deemed only second to Mao Zedong in the number of human deaths caused by them and their regime. And it may come as a surprise to many when they learn Joseph Stalin persecuted homosexuals by jailing them up to five years and that’s in the 20th century while the so called Muslim khalifate, the Ottoman Empire gave them full rights way back in 1858. The scale of totalitarianism tips this way and that way but what we remember top of mind is what we see every day on TV.
Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod compiled the comprehensive book on wars in history called “Encyclopedia of Wars”, a great read, clearly shows that only 7% of all wars ever recorded in history were motivated by religion.
ISIS/DAESH and Shariah
Go on the internet and you will quickly find statements that speaks of this so called Shariah as an evil, totalitarian system that breeds terrorism. This is not the time or the platform to understand the Shariah, but how surprised would one be if he was told that the Shariah is unanimously against ISIS? Everyone would know that there is a sudden uprising against this ‘so called’ Shariah school in Sri Lanka and you would see this frequent statement “it should be banned and that it breeds terrorists”. These are completely false statements. To a normal Muslims these statements will sound strange and funny. There could be certain mosques and schools that teach fanatical views like gender inequality, inappropriate clothing, division, etc., and it’s true that they should be identified and monitored, especially since the terrorist attacks a few days ago, but there is no terrorism promoting activity here unless they are very secretive, hidden away and secluded. If they are in Colombo, Muslims don't have a clue. Which means it’s not regulated, which is if found and affirmed is a problem should be addressed immediately. There has to be a regulation in everything. If people don’t know what’s going on at a branch of a body, there is a serious lapse of control.
(Continued in next comment)
