CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Right of Reply by Ranga Jayasuriya- LAKBIMANEWS

Ranga Jayasuriya

I wish to respond to several comments made by Mr Noor Nizam in your website regarding a news story – Jihadists on the warpath- which appeared in LAKBIMANEWS under my byline.

It would have been rather gentlemanly for Mr Nizam to write to LAKBIMANEWS, which published the original news story if he had any disagreement with the said news story. LAKBIMANEWS is bound to publish his right of reply no matter how absurd and ludicrous it maybe.

That is the standard practice in journalism and I am rather sorry that Mr Nizam who claims to be a media teaching professional, according to his profile, could not live up to these fundamentals.

The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the East has been witnessed in recent years. Following are a few incidents:

In June 2002: bitter ethnic clashes between Tamils and Muslims erupted after LTTE operatives posing as arms sellers lured two members of the nascent Muslim militant outfit known as the Osama Group into a Tamil village offering to sell them weapons and killed them.

31 October 2004: orthodox Muslim youth torched a mosque belonging to the Islamic Sufi sect led by a cleric known as Abdul Payilvaan in Kattankudy. Police said the angry crowds were mobilised by the loudspeakers from orthodox mosques. Payilvaan is an Islamic scholar who has been critical of wahabism, preached by graduates returning from Saudi religious schools.

December 2006: sectarian violence engulfed Kattankudy for over a week as orthodox Muslims carried out a spate of attacks against members of the Sufi sect. Violence erupted after the death of Payilvaan. Orthodox Muslims demanded that the body of Payilvaan be removed from the cemetery where it was buried. A protestor was killed and scores of others were wounded when protestors clashed with police.

May 2008: Two TMVP cadres, including an area leader were stopped and killed allegedly by Muslim militants in the heart of Kattankudy, close to the bus stand.

An increasing number of youth returning from religious schools of Saudi Arabia are promoting a strict set of Islamic teaching known as wahabism.

These are the hard facts on the rise of Islamic militancy in the East.

However I am not surprised by the ignorance displayed by Mr Nizam. I have indeed come across a number of jokers masquerading as journalists. The blogosphere provides an endless space for freedom of expression, a development which I am highly impressed with and whole heartedly support. However it is also true that the blogosphere has become a fertile land for some dwarf minds.

Mr Nizam claims that verification at the highest levels proved that the article was "false and improper" and that security forces are shocked that their image has been tarnished. Let's make it clear. Mr Nizam, you are not the spokesman of the security forces; there is a man appointed to that duty in the capacity of military spokesman. You are only a cub boy desiring greater heights.

Let the military spokesman clarify if there are indeed factual inaccuracies - which he hasn't done yet and we will respond to him with the hard facts. I stand by my story.

Muslims should demand an inquiry about my story, Mr Nizam says. What is abundantly clear again is his ignorance. The majority of Muslims do not represent wahabism, which is advocated by a highly articulate microscopic minority that remains not only a threat to the civil liberties of ordinary Muslims, but also a potential threat to the security of the Sri Lankan nation. Mr Nizam's dwarf mind could not see the difference. It is true that Sri Lanka has produced some great minds, but we have also produced some of the most ludicrous jokers, many of them with inflated egos. I am therefore not surprised by the ignorance of Mr Nizam.

I however wish him a saner mind and wish to end this communication once and for all.

Ranga Jayasuriya

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