Sri Lanka and New Zealand: The Real Link

The carnage in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday has been condemnedby people everywhere. Individuals and groups from different faith traditionshave not ceased to emphasise that the mass slaughter of at least 321 persons inchurches attending Easter services and in hotels on 21st April is a heinouscrime in the eyes of any religion.

It is important to highlight this because there are voices —among them from the Sri Lankan government — that are saying that the carnage inSri Lanka was revenge by a local extremist Muslim group, the National ThowheethJama’ath for the massacre of Muslim worshippers at mosques in Christchurch, NewZealand by a White supremacist on the 15th of March 2019. How can a littleknown group in Sri Lanka claim to take revenge on behalf of the 51 who perishedin Christchurch when some of the closest relatives of those killed in themassacre have asserted in public that they have forgiven the supremacist?Compassion and empathy for Muslims from New Zealanders a sizeable segment ofwhom are Christians reciprocated by Muslims in the country and elsewhere with aprofound sense of appreciation and respect for the people of New Zealand andespecially its Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern set the tone of the post massacreatmosphere. Revenge and hatred were banished to the margins of society. Seenfrom another angle, an Australian academic has argued that the revenge theoryis “nonsense” and has been trotted out to cover up for the inability of adysfunctional government to manage security.

   

If one is looking for motives for the Sri Lanka carnage,they may be related to other factors. The positive atmosphere that emerged andevolved from the Christchurch tragedy is anathema for those bigots and fanaticswho are hell-bent on fuelling hatred and conflict between communities. Suchelements can be found among both Muslims and Christians. Even others, includingthose who are aggressively atheistic have at different times in historydeliberately sought to drive a wedge between the two communities. I see the SriLanka carnage as a well-orchestrated manoeuvre to thwart Christian- Muslimamity which manifests itself in Palestine and is growing in the Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement directed against Israeli occupation.This then is the real link between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The carnage inSri Lanka allegedly perpetrated by a Muslim group has been manipulated tonegate and nullify the positive vibes between Muslims and Christians emanatingfrom the aftermath of the New Zealand massacre.

There is perhaps another reason which also explains the SriLanka episode. It serves the purpose of perpetuating the image of Islam andMuslims as inclined towards terrorism and violence. This image of the religionand its followers has been assiduously cultivated by religious followed bysecular elites in Europe for more than 1000 years and precedes even thecrusades. Perpetuating it has become even more imperative today sincenon-violent modes of struggle — like the BDS movement —- are becoming moreprominent. As they gain traction especially among Europeans, Israel and theUnited States are becoming increasingly desperate. It is more difficult now toconvince even some of their allies that Israel’s existence is threatened bymilitant, terror oriented Palestinian and other groups. After Christchurchwhere Muslims were victims of violence, some have taken it upon themselves toremind the world that Muslims are, all said and done, still perpetrators ofviolence.

Indeed, the Sri Lanka carnage compels us to develop a deeperunderstanding of terrorism itself. Since ISIS claims to be behind the carnage,one has to ask searching questions about ISIS itself. How did ISIS emerge? Whois helping to sustain ISIS? Who created Daesh ? Or for that matter, who siredAl-Qaeda? Isn’t it obvious that many of the terror outfits we know today arelinked to geopolitics and the pursuit of global dominance and power?

In the face of such cynical manipulation of terrorism by thepowerful and their readiness to resort to unfettered violence, it is incumbentupon the adherents of all religions to accord much more emphasis to the valuesand principles that they share in common. It helps to repudiate any attempt toplay one religious community against another. In the process, it reinforces amoral bond that transcends conventional religious boundaries and enhances ourcollective consciousness as human beings committed to justice and to a sharedhuman dignity.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is a member of the TRANSCEND Networkfor Peace, Development and Environment, and president of the InternationalMovement for a Just World (JUST). He is the author of the e-book WhitherWANA?-Reflections on the Arab Uprisings.

TRANSCEND Media Service

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