INTER-RELIGIOUS PEACE FOUNDATION CONDEMNS ATTACKS

While condemning Easter Sunday’s bomb attack on churches and hotels, the Inter-religious Peace Foundation said the killing of hundreds of innocent people which is not merely an attack on specific religion but strikes at the heart of the country’s pluralistic and multi-ethnic social fabric.

Issuing a statement, its convener Latheef Farook said there had been no history of animosity between Christians and Muslims in Sri Lanka.

“The failure of the authorities to prevent the carnage despite the advance and prior information raises many questions and puzzles everyone. It is a very serious lapse on the part of the authorities, which is inexcusable.

We also note that Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, which swiftly condemned and distanced itself from this barbarity of a handful of people who have nothing to do with the mainstream Muslim community, remains saddened and disturbed.

We, the members of the InterReligious Peace Foundation

comprising erudite scholars, priests, intellectuals, lawyers and journalists from the Buddhist, the Christian, the Hindu and the Muslim communities owe a deep debt of gratitude to Ven. Archdeacon Rienzie Perera of the Church of Ceylon (The Anglican Church) for promoting harmonious inter-religious co-existence among the above communities including convening an emergency meeting of the Foundation on April 25. We also commend his enlightened leadership and repeated appeals for compassion and tolerance.

The purpose of the above meeting has been to critically analyse the Easter Sunday tragedy, to enlighten the minds of those prejudiced and stand in solidarity with the Muslim community.

We appeal to our fellow Sri Lankans to act with restraint and desist from taking the law into their own hands.

Let us stand united as otherwise, we will yield to the terrorists. We also call upon the state agencies to effectively investigate these criminal acts and bring the offenders to justice swiftly and effectively,” he said.