Home › content

Sri Lanka Guardian: Mississippi burning

Wed, 2009-11-25 03:49 — Robyn

(November 25, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) On the 5th of November 2009 a mob led by some extremist monks attacked the Jesus Never Fails Good News Centre, No.351, Kaduwela Rd, Koswatta, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. This event had been captured on a film ( Watch )and broadcast worldwide. This incident brought Sri Lanka a huge black mark damaging the country’s image. We were seen as a society, which is hostile and intolerant to religious and ethnic diversity. In this film we see Rev Athraliye Rathana , Rev Ellawala Medananda of the JHU who had participated in the protest. These monks represent the Parliament of Sri Lanka and therefore it carries an immense weight to the incident. The protesters stated that this religious center was conducting healing sessions converting Buddhists and two women had died during a healing service in Colombo.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Buddhist Monks Attack a Church

Comments

Wed, 2009-11-25 06:24 — ABN

Buddhism and Extremism

The following is from the linked article above.

Buddhism is the most tolerant religion and extremism has no place in true Buddhism. What those monks demonstrated at Koswatta, Battaramulla, had nothing to do with Buddhism. In this film we see no difference between the mob and the extremist monks who behaved like thugs. Actions on the film reminded me the Chrystal night.

When I was working in the Combat Trauma Treatment Center at the Military Hospital a young soldier came to me and said he wanted to become a suicide bomber and kill Tamils. I stated that the Sri Lanka Army does not train suicide bombers and we don’t do such things. But he kept on insisting. Then I looked into his psychosocial background. First I thought he was from an endangered villages like Gomarankadawala, Gonagala etc where the LTTE used to attack civilians. But he was not from these arias and never had any bad experience with Tamils.

This soldier was ordained as a monk when he was five years old and spent his time until the age of 18 in various temples in Kandy, Ampitiya and Colombo. He told me that since he entered the robes most of the nights he was sexually molested by older monks. Some nights he was raped by five or six monks. He disrobed and joined the military as an escape route. The traumatized soldier focused his anger not towards his abusers but towards the Tamils. After hearing this firsthand account whenever I see monks go in to violent protests I suspect the elements of sexual trauma.