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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

ISRAEL PERSECUTES CHRISTIANS IN PALESTINE


Wednesday 27 November, 2013

Israel Persecutes Christians in Palestine
Hameed Abdul Karim

“We  as  Palestinians  had  not  been  responsible  for  the  suffering  of  the  Jews  in  Europe,  yet  we  were  the  ones  who  were  chased  out  of  our  land  and  made  to  suffer  so  the  world  could  soothe  its  conscience  and  pretend  to  repair  the  evil  done  against  the  Jews.”   
-         Archbishop Elias Chacour

Thursday, November 14, 2013

THE HIZMET MOVEMENT


Thursday 14 November, 2013 

The Hizmet Movement
Hameed Abdul Karim

‘Be so sympathetic and tolerant that your bosom becomes as wide as the ocean. Be inspired with faith and love your fellow human being. Let there be no troubled souls to whom you do not offer a helping hand and about whom you remain unconcerned’
-          Fethullah Gulen

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

THE MIDDLE EAST: TWO STATE TRAP




Thursday 22nd May, 2008


The Middle East: two state trap

by Hameed Abdul Karim

This might sound strange. But ever since 'peace' talks began between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the Jewish state has built more settlements on land stolen from the Palestinians and has continued its campaign to kill as many Palestinians as it can. Annapolis is a recent reminder that proves the point. Even before the Palestinian peace negotiators could creep back into their refugee camps, the Zionist state of Israel announced it was going to build three hundred more units in occupied Palestine. With this announcement Israel's real intentions - or its ulterior motives - in peace dealing lay bare for the whole world to see.

Friday, November 1, 2013

ANIMAL SACRIFICE, LEATHER PRODUSTS, LIQUOR AND CASINOS

Colombo Telegraph
Friday 1 November, 2013

On Animal Sacrifice, Leather Products, Liquor and Casinos 
Hameed Abdul Karim

What instantly came to my mind when I read Shenali Waduge’s article on animal sacrifice was a scene from an old movie where we had the fascist Adolf Hitler furiously slamming his desk with his fist, his face  as hideously contorted as you can imagine, saying ‘It is NOT right’.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

THE GENERAL'S SON SPEAKS OUT



Thursday 29 October, 2013


The General’s Son Speaks Out

Hameed Abdul Karim

He is a story of an atrocity and a crime against humanity.

‘The unit commander ordered everyone out of their homes.  Then he sent the women and children under 13 years of age back into their homes. The others he brought to another part of the camp, where the soldiers lined them up against a wall and shot them. Next the officer went and shot each one again in the head, more than 30 of them, including a 13-year-old boy and an 86-year-old man. Then he had the bulldozer run over the bodies until they were unrecognizable’.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

WAS IT LASKAR-E-TAIBA OR.............?


Thursday 3 October, 2013 

Was it Lashkar-e-Taiba or………?

Hameed Abdul Karim

Dinouk Colombage in his interesting column ‘Global Perspective’ in ‘Ceylon Today’ (Wednesday 25 September 2013) says that it was the ‘Pakistan based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that carried out the Mumbai attack’ dubbed as India’s 9-11. Whilst nobody in his or her right mind will ever condone any attack of terror whether big or small, it must be said that Mumbai attack is fraught with mysteries and contradictions.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

OF MOGULS AND KING ASOKA

THIS WAS IN RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE THAT APPEAR D IN THE CEYLON OBSERVER

Of Moguls and King Asoka
Hameed Abdul Karim

In recent times any article on Buddhism is not without an insult or a vilification of other faiths. It seems that to make Buddhism more authentic other faiths and ethnic groups have to be compared and showed in poor light in comparison to Buddhism.

ISRAEL WHERE 'A' STANDS FOR APARTHEID

                                                              

12 September, 2013

Israel: Where ‘A’ Stands for Apartheid
Hameed Abdul Karim

Supposing Iran imposed strict regulations on its Jewish community telling them there are places in the country they cannot go to, or gives them special coloured number plates for their cars which identifies them as Jews or constructs a ‘barrier’ around their residences restricting their movements and effectively blocking them from accessing other parts of Iran, or make a strict checkpoint system where Jews would have to queue up for hours to get a permit to go to taboo places for legitimate business or to visit a sibling or to take a patient to hospital.

Monday, August 26, 2013

PEACEFUL MOORS, SINHALA WAHABIS AND THE SILVER LINING...

Peaceful Moors, Sinhala Wahabis And The Silver Lining Among ‘Wahabis’

August 23, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion | Posted by: 
 
Hameed Abdul Karim
Responding to A.R.M. Imtiyaz’s ‘Moors of Sri Lanka are Not Perfectly Peaceful’
For the life of me I cannot imagine why my good e-pal Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz Razakwould want to write an article feeding on the same thrash that racist bigots in Sri Lanka, under various guises, throw at Muslims to propagate their doomsday scenarios in his article ‘Moors of Sri Lanka are Not Perfectly Peaceful’ that appeared in your popular ‘Colombo Telegraph’.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

OMG, ITS TONY BLAIR





Tuesday 23 July 2013

OMG, Its Tony Blair!


Hameed Abdul Karim

For those of us who think we have seen and heard just about everything we had another ‘think’ coming when we heard Tony Blair support the army coup in Egypt. There he was on Aljazeera grinning away from ear to ear in the smile made famous by Christopher Lee in Dracula movies, the only difference is that Lee had to make an effort to bring about that frightening smile, but to our Tony Blair it comes natural. No effort needed there. 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

THUS SPOKE THE HYPOCRITE

Tuesday 9 July, 2013

Thus Spoke the Hypocrite
Hameed Abdul Karim

When Barack Obama visited Africa the people there did not give him the kind of welcome you would expect when a village kid who has made it good in the big city comes a calling. Probably that was what the first black US president had expected, but he was to be disappointed.

Nelson Mandela’s family did not see it fit to allow him a hospital visit as the anti-apartheid icon battled for his life. Before his departure Obama had said he was hoping to see his ‘inspiration’ Nelson Mandela.  So the spin was that he did not want to visit the great man because he did not want to disturb his ‘peace and comfort’.   

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

STIRRING THE POT

This was in response to an article that appeared in the Daily News, but going on information I have received, this rebuttal will not be published in the said paper. My thanks to Colombo Telegraph for coming to my rescue. Please spread this around. Thanks. 



Colombo Telegraph



Stirring The Pot

June 26, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion | Posted by: 
 
Hameed Abdul Karim
If anybody was looking for reasons why India split into two creating Pakistan and later Bangladesh or why Kashmir wants to be free of Indian rule, Ram Madhav of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) provides the perfect answer in his pro-Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) article that also contained intimidating views on Muslims that appeared in the state owned Daily News of Monday 17th June 2013. Ram Madhav’s article is essentially for sections of a Hindu audience in India pandering to the strongly cultivated prejudices that have been created in their minds against Islam and Christianity. The Hindus in Sri Lanka would be bewildered over Madhav’s claims about the Bodu Bala Sena and maybe laugh away his white washing of this anti-minorities organisation.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Boston Bombing: Sting Operation Gone Wrong?




Thursday 6 June, 2103

Boston Bombing:

Sting Operation Gone Wrong?

Hameed Abdul Karim                      

In the recent past the FBI had carried out quite a few sting operations netting in would be ‘terrorists’ with the guile and ‘open cheque’ resources at its command.

This raises a question. Was the Boston bombing a sting operation that went wrong? A lot of issues that have cropped since the bombing give rise to this speculation.

It is now indisputably established that both the CIA and the FBI were well aware of what Tamerlane Tsarnaev was up to prior to the bombing. The Russians had alerted them well in advance and indeed the FBI had confessed that they had flagged him for a year or so and found the information against him provided by the Russians was not reliable. Tamerlane Tsaranev had been cleared by both the CIA and the FBI!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

ALL ARE ALLAH'S BANDAS


  Daily News Online
Tuesday 16 April 2013

'All Are Allah’s Bandas' 

Fifth and final response to Shenali Waduge

Hameed Abdul Karim

It is with a lack of enthusiasm that I respond to Shenali Waduge and, mine good editor I assure you this would be my last one no matter what she says. Because all she can do is repeat herself and her claims over and over again without any recourse to facts as they stand. We keep going round circles and honestly all this is getting a tad too stale for my liking.

Friday, March 29, 2013

DR. DAYAN J DROPS A BOMBSHELL - THE ISRAELI CONNECTION


                                        




Tuesday 26 March, 2013
Dr. Dayan J Drops a Bombshell
The Israeli Connection
Hameed Abdul Karim

At a lecture at the OPA on the 20th of March, 2013 our former permanent representative at the UN dropped a bombshell when he said the Israeli ambassador to Sri Lanka and stationed in New Delhi flew down to Colombo to present a 5 page diplomatic note to the government over his (Dr. DJ’s) criticism of Israel’s monstrous attack on Palestinians in Gaza in 2012. A bewildered Dr. Dayan Jayatileke said that among the many points discussed on Sri Lanka’s close relations with Israel in that note there was one that stole the show. He said the note had mentioned a feature that dealt with Israel’s ‘co-operation’ with Sri Lanka on ‘Homeland Security’ that he and many others in the political establishment were blissfully unaware of.

Friday, March 15, 2013

MUSLIM PHILOSOPHY: PEOPLE CONVERT TO THIS RELIGION OF PEACE



Daily News Online

           Friday March 15, 2013



Fourth response to Shenali Waduge :

MUSLIM PHILOSOPHY : People convert to 

this religion of peace


Hameed Abdul Karim

Amidst her usual racist ranting and hypothetical hyperbole that somehow Islam will subtly subdue ‘Sinhala Buddhism’ in Sri Lanka, Shenali Waduge (Daily News February, 28, 2013) challenges me to show her if there is ‘any Christian or Muslim country in the world where the State has contributed to building a Buddhist place of worship’.

What I want to know is does Shenali Waduge think that a Christian or Muslim nations’, standard or place in civilisation is to be gauged as advanced or otherwise depending on whether they had built a Buddhist temple or not. This is absolutely silly. What kind of logic is this if logic is the word I want? I know what she’s getting at. She will now tell us that the Sri Lankan government is constructing mosques for the Mithya Drusthika variety called Muslims. Well, the fact of the matter is that the government is repairing mosques and in one instance rebuilding one which was completely destroyed during the war.

If, and I say this as a Muslim, the government abandons its funding for repairing mosques, then I am sure we Muslims can raise the funds needed for this purpose. We don’t need government funding.
Shenali Waduge says that the kovil in Dubai I referred to had been demolished in 2005. This is a blatant lie as any recent Hindu visitor to Dubai will tell you. If the good editor chooses to publish Waduge’s response to this piece of mine then I request that she apologises for misleading the public not only this time but on previous occasions as well. Since I have always felt that one of the agendas of ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ supremacists is to cause rifts between all minority communities, this blatant lie is one such effort in that direction.

Christians, Tamils and Muslims continue to be harassed and all of us in minority communities, which include non-racist Sinhala Buddhists like my bosom pals Rohith Dias, Ajith Bodinagoda, Nanda Kaluthanthri, Arunika Wickremasinghe, Tissa Jayasinghe and Mahinda Hattaka to name just a few, feel like tourists who have overstayed our visas in Sri Lanka. With all this hate speech we are on pins wondering whether we’ll be kicked out once the patience, charity and goodwill of the ‘magnanimous majority community’ reaches its end.

Iconoclasm

Let me tell your readers, if not Ms. Waduge, that the Taxila institute of Asian Civilisations, under the leadership of Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Khan, of the Quaid-i-Azam University has commenced archeological excavations on a newly discovered Buddhist monastery in Badalpur. Among the exciting finds so far are remains of an assembly hall, kitchen, stores and steward rooms. A good number of antiquities dating between 1st century and 4th century CE were also discovered. So there you are Muslims are not the iconoclasts that Shenali Waduge accuses them of.

There are hundreds of Buddhist temples spread all over Malaysia. There are at least two Sinhala Buddhist temples in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and they have been repaired over and over again by the state. These two temples are run by Sri Lankan Sinhala Buddhist monks. In Kelantan where the Buddhist population is barely 3 per cent there are nearly 200 Buddhist temples. One of the temples boasts of the largest reclining statue of the Buddha in South East Asia. A noteworthy feature is that the reclining Buddha was built in the 1980s while the state of Kelantan was and continues to be governed by PAS which is an Islamic political party.

So there you have another example about Muslims not being iconoclasts. Hope your readers will get a better perspective of Muslims with this bit of information. And for sure I will be the first to say that the Taleban were iconoclasts just as much as those ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ who destroyed the Muslim shrine in Anuradhapura or those who want to destroy Daftar Jailani in Balangoda are. On the one hand we have Shenali Waduge tell us she and her fellow travellers have no scruples with ‘Sufi’ Muslims and on the other they want to destroy a Sufi shrine! Or is this an attempt to split Muslims on the lines of Sufism and Wahabism or any other ism?

Quoting Mullah Omar, like does our friend Shenali, is like quoting the head of the Bodu Bala Sena to support anyone’s arguments against Buddhism! From what I gather the BBS does not have any support from among practicing Buddhists.

Confusion confounded


I am so happy that Shenali Waduge agrees with me that there were Arabs and Persians and Yona womenfolk here before the advent of Islam. This is what I have been telling her all along, and by extension, all your readers when she accused me of distorting history to gain an advantage when I grieved over the destruction of the Sufi shrine in Anuradhapura. In her rebuttal she said there were no Muslims during the Anuradhapura era.

Now she seems to agree with me that Persians and Arabs were here before the birth of the beloved Prophet Muhammad (pboh). She seems to hate Arabs so much that she is hesitant to accept history which clearly says that they married Sinhala as well as Tamil women and as Lorna Dewaraja says the King of that time helped the Arabs get Sinhala brides.
He had advised the Arabs to ‘abduct’ Sinhala girls and helped them hide the lasses in his palace. That’s how close the Sinhala Buddhist kings and Muslims were! When the parents of the girls came to a complaining the king persuaded them to let their daughters marry the Muslims. Have a change of heart, Ms Waduge. Start loving people. It will make your life happy.

Have a look at the 1,000 rupee note issued during the J.R. Jayewardene presidency. It depicts a man wearing a cap leading an elephant. The man is a Muslim and he gifted ‘Raja’ to the Dalada Maligawa where he ‘reigned’ supreme during every Esala Perehera till he died. The name of the Muslim was Umar Lebbe Panicker and he was from Eravur. That’s how close Muslims and Sinhalese are. Why the this need to bring Muslims to heel using ‘halaal’ as a pretext? Or does Ms. Waduge see in this gesture of goodwill yet another attempt to ‘subtly subdue’ ‘Sinhala Buddhism’?

I have noticed that Shenali Waduge always refers to Muslim countries like the Maldives, Malaysia and Indonesia as ‘former Buddhist countries’ and not include India in her tirade. After all virtually the whole of India was Buddhist at one point in history. And then the Brahmins came and gradually grabbed their lost power back from the Buddhists. Is it because she doesn’t want to upset Delhi - Tel Aviv –Washington axis? Or does she not want to upset the Brahmins? Or is because hitting out at Muslims is her only pursuit in life?

Sinhala Buddhist country


I would the happiest person alive if somebody took Shenali Waduge fairly seriously and converted Sri Lanka into a Buddhist state, if it’s not one already, provided all what Gautama Buddha had preached is implemented immediately. I could go to my club and tell my Buddhist friends to stop drinking and stand outside casinos and call for their closures. Demand the state shut down its own distillery corporation also.

I could go around telling people not to drink or gamble with being accused of being an Islamic fundamentalist, but rather as one perpetuating precepts of Buddhism! Sri Lanka is reported to be one of the top most boozing nations in the world! Frankly I thought the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) would stand up against at least these two vices and have them banned by the state. But no, that didn’t happen. I was disappointed that far from campaigning to close the distilleries corporation the JHU went and voted for the casino bill! It seems the JHU is not for safeguarding Buddhism.

Their only aim was to get into Parliament and enjoy the benefits of office, like luxury cars and other perks like most politicians. They have got a bit active lately because of the competition from the BBS.

Kings


There is a general aura of piety about the kings of the past being portrayed. But they were no better than their counterparts elsewhere. There were no halos over their heads. King Pandukhabhaya had to kill eight of his uncles to come to sit himself on the throne.

Moreover, the Mahavamsa records that ‘the Sinhalese Kings of the so called ‘Great Dynasty’ (543 BC – AD 275) all but a few were weak and inept. Of the 54 kings of this dynasty, 15 ruled less than a year, 30 were killed in battle and 22 were murdered by their successors.
The dark dismal record of the early Sinhalese kings was of incessant struggle for the throne, fratricidal and parricidal slayings, conspiracies and internal strife’ (The National 
Question and the Tamil National Struggle –page 231)

During the fraternal struggle between Mayadunne and Bhuvenaka Bahu the latter sought the help of the Portuguese to defeat his ambitious brother.

The Muslims rallied round Maydunne whom they considered a national leader, because of Bahu’s treachery. Mayadunne sought the help of the leader of Calicut who sent him three Muslim generals to fight the Portuguese. The Portuguese and the Sinhalese largely supported Buhavenuka Bahu whilst the Muslims stood firm with Mayadunne. Eventually Mayadunne lost to his brother who was helped by the Portuguese. Tell me who the traitor was?

Tidbits


As a condition for surrender the Portuguese demanded that Mayadunne hand over the three foreign Muslim generals. He obliged to save his skin. The Portuguese beheaded these generals and the people of Calicut (now Khozikode) never forgave Maydaunne for his ingratitude and betrayal. Come to think of it, if the descendants of these three generals were to launch a hate campaign against the Sinhalese similar to the hysterical one that Shenalai Waduge and her fellow travellers have started against Muslims, this act of ingratitude and of betrayal by Mayadunne would be an excellent starting point!

Waduge claims that since Tamil is the mother tongue of Muslims they must have married only Tamils and not Sinhalese women. Well, the answer to that is that the seat of learning Islam at that time was in Southern India and that is how ‘Arabic’ Tamil became the lingo of the Muslims as narrated by Dr. M.A.M. Shukri in the book Muslims of Sri Lanka – Avenues to Antiquity.

Cat never in the bag


Ms. Waduge then wants me to explain the ‘Oluvil Declaration’ that the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) had made. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I am no apologist for any political party least of all the SLMC. So I kindly request her to pose her question to the SLMC’s leader. I don’t hold her responsible for the Bodu Bala Sena’s (BBS) Maharagama Declaration do I? Why then should she hold me responsible for the declarations the SLMC makes, for God’s sake?

Shenali says that M.B.M. Zubair has let the cat out of the bag when he said that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Actually and specifically it’s the fastest growing religion in the West, though there have been converts here as well as in India. I know a Roshan Madwala who is a Muslim and we all know Tilakarathe Mahanama Dilshan used to be Tuan Mohammed Dilshan. So now what can we do about these things. Such things will happen, but they are not going to change the stats. We must handle such things in a civilised way and without paranoia.

As far as Islam’ spread is concerned the cat was never in the bag. Since the day the Prophet Muhammad (pboh)proclaimed the message there have been converts to the faith every day for the past 14 centuries or so. Recent high profile converts to Islam include Indian Prof. Periyar Dasan, journalist Yvonne Ridley, Lauren Booth, the sister of Tony Blair’s wife, Hollywood film director Sean Stone, the son of the famous Jewish director Oliver Stone who had told his son ‘Allah be with you’ when he told him of his conversion.

The famous musician A.R. Rahman is also a convert to Islam. Rap and hip hop artistes from Ice group to Snoop Dogg have converted to Islam. Just yesterday (March 7, 2013) a notorious anti Muslim formerly belonging to that racist party of Geert Wilders (the Dutch version of BBS) in the Netherlands converted to Islam. His name is Arnoud Van Doorn (check the net).

Meanwhile according to an al-Jazeera story, British university reported the number of converts in the UK has nearly doubled in the last decade to about 100,000 people. Muslims need not be apologetic about the spread of Islam. From day one when the Prophet declared his divine message Islam attracted converts every day. One of the primary reasons was the simplicity of the message and its stand on social and economic equality for all without caste, colour or creed considerations, according to author Karen Armstrong. Today the number of Muslims stands at over 1.5 billion with over 300 million in the SAARC region alone.

The Prophet came more than 600 years after Jesus Christ and he was the last of the Divine messengers. Islam is today the second largest religion in the world after Christianity including Catholicism. If Catholicism and Protestantism were separated Islam would be the largest religion in the world. Islam is a culmination of all faiths, say Muslim scholars.

According to the Qur’an God almighty had sent messengers to all nations and tribes with the message of Islam, which, in its spiritual connotation means, submission to the Will of God almighty. Up until today, as far as I know, our Veddas have no graven image; neither do the Aborigines of Australia which suggests they have had some message given to them at some point of time in history.

As a Muslim I can say without being contradicted by my co-religionists, that is, that Gautama Buddha could have been a prophet of God! Shenali Waduge might have a different take.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

KEEP YOUR KIRIBATH, MR. GAMMANPILA



The following article was in response to one written by JHU’s strongman Udaya Gammanpila, but for two weeks now it has not been published.

‘KEEP YOUR KIRIBATH, Mr. GAMMANPILA’

Hameed Abdul Karim

Reading the preamble of Mr. Udaya Gammanpila’s article titled ‘Halalization and end of Sri Lanka food culture’ (‘Ceylon Today’ 24 February, 2013) I got the impression that he was beginning to turn a new leaf in his approach to Muslims and Christian communities living in Sri Lanka, though the title kept nagging at the back of my mind telling me such a transformation was not possible.

All that soppy babble about how it was unnecessary for the Norwegians to teach us religious amity was intended to take another shot at the Muslims via the halaal bogey. If we are to take the word of this self confessed Sinhala nationalist it were the Muslims who shattered the bonhomie that existed between all communities in the country by insisting that their food be ‘halaal’.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

HISTORY, HARPING AND MUSLIMS

Daily News Online

     Tuesday 12 February, 2013

HISTORY, HARPING AND MUSLIMS
Third Response to Shenali Waduge

Hameed Abdul Karim

This halaal certificate affair keeps coming up in Shenali Waduge’s every argument, despite the fact that I explained this in my very first response. So I am compelled to repeat myself. The halaal issue popped up when non-Muslim restaurants like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC opened shop here. It was they who approached Jamaithul Ullama for this endorsement so that they could cater to Muslim clients fearing that if they didn’t have this certificate they would lose out on the Muslim consumer. As far as I know only these three establishments ‘hang’ these certificates. I can understand her ‘grievances’ if you find halaal certificates ‘hanging’ in Saiva or Sinhala Kamay Kades dotted all over the country. The halaal certificate is not compulsory as Shenali would have us believe. A popular biscuit factory, a soap factory and a foreign food outlet have rejected the halaal certificate. No Muslim is complaining. But of course you wouldn’t expect Muslims to buy these products or eat at outlets that proclaim they are not halaal. And I don’t think anybody should find fault with us over this.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

ALLAYING SINHALA BUDDHIST FEAR



Daily News Online



        26 January, 2013
DAILY NEWS 26 JANUARY, 2013

Allaying Sinhala Buddhist Fears
           Response to Shenali Waduge      

Hameed Abdul Karim

‘Oh you who believe if a wicked person comes to you with any news ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done’ Qur’an 49:6

The above is advice from the Qur’an. But for all intents and purposes these words could have come out of the lips of the ever content Buddha. 

Truth is sacred and truth has no religion. Shenali Waduge must abide by this tenet if she is true to her conscience.

Let me point out one of many of her glaring untruths. She claims that Premanath Pereralage (Thungasiri) is awaiting execution for having a Buddha statue in his room at his work place. This is an absolute fabrication that was propagated by an extremist Sinhala Buddhist group. Waduge has swallowed this falsehood hook, line and sinker whether mistakenly or not is left to speculation. A senior official at our embassy, according to Arab News dated Sunday 8 July 2012, had slammed this story as a total fabrication. What had happened was that Pereralage was involved in a dispute over a housemaid who he had said was a relative. When things got out of hand the police arrived and took him into custody. 

Friday, January 25, 2013

RESPONDING TO 'THE RIZANA SAGA'



                          Monday 21 January, 2013


Responding to ‘The Rizana Saga’

( a response to Shenali Waduge)

Hameed Abdul Karim

Reading Shenali Waduge’s article titled ‘The Rizana Saga…’ in Ceylon Today dated Thursday 17 January, 2013 I got the impressions that the writer had changed tacks and had had a change of heart, especially when she blamed the External Affairs Ministry for the plight of our women in the Middle-East and the Gulf.

But when I got towards the end of the piece I realised I was sadly mistaken and I got this suspicion that it wasn’t any concern for poor Rizana’s family’s that motivated her to write but rather she found an opening in her family’s plight to indulge in her favourite pastime of punching Muslims and their faith.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

DEFENDING ISLAM AND MUSLIMS


 Inline image 1

   Saturday 19 January, 2013

Defending Islam and Muslims
Response to ‘Laws and Religion - Some Concerns of Sinhala Buddhists’

Hameed Abdul Karim

Shenali Waduge’s article on ‘Laws and Religion: Some Concerns of Sinhala Buddhists’ appearing in the Daily News on the 12th of January 2013 is the latest in a long series of scaremongering among Sinhala Buddhists against Sri Lankan Muslims. Any first time reader would get the impressions that we Muslims are a bunch of good for nothing types living off the generosity of Sinhala Buddhists with a view to wipe out ‘Sinhala Buddhism’ from the country. Our centuries old long, cordial and peaceful existence with all communities in the country seems to count for nothing in her uncalled for vituperative remarks. 

Much of what she has said has already appeared on hundreds of racist hate spewing websites in Sri Lanka and around the world.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

YOU WILL BE IN GARDENS WHERE RIVERS FLOW




Sunday 13 January 2013

You Will Be in Gardens Where Rivers Flow

Dear Rizana,

I dreaded this day and though I knew it was coming there was always a flutter of hope in my heart that you would come home and be with your family and neighbours living your life of misery with sparks of happiness every now and then like most of us who have to trudge through life till we meet our Creator.

When the news of your conviction for alleged murder broke out I couldn’t fathom the Quazis’ decision to sentence you to death, try hard as I might. How was it possible for them to sentence a little girl from a backward village without giving thought to your pitiful circumstances? And I wondered how the brutes here at home went about their functions to forge documents to make you 18 when you were barely 17? I can’t help but imagine it was filthy lucre that motivated them. Little did they know what horrible results their evil deed would entail!

Monday, January 7, 2013

LET EGYPT BE EGYPT





Wednesday 2 January, 2013 

Right of Reply

Responding to Tom Friedman of NYT: Egypt: The Next India Responding or the Next Pakistan’

Let Egypt be Egypt

Hameed Abdul Karim

Edward Said had said that any Westerner in politics or media can never discuss the Middle East without the usual prejudice against Islam or Muslims. It seems that Thomas Friedman of the New York Times too falls into this category when he compares Egypt with India and Pakistan in his article titled ‘Egypt: The Next India or the Next Pakistan’ (Ceylon Today 25 December, 20102). Why on earth couldn’t he draw a parallel with Turkey instead of Pakistan is confusing.

It’s true that Pakistan is a bad advertisement for both Islam and democracy. But India is no better.  With over 25% of ‘honourable’ members of parliament having criminal records, India certainly is not a good sort of thing that Friedman can quote to help lift the flag of democracy for the world to see. Moreover, we have the frightening prospect of Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister in the not too distant future. It was under his watch that over 2000 Muslims were slaughtered and their economies devastated in an orgy of communal violence in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. Modi and his cronies picked up prime properties owned by Muslims and to this day Muslims languish in refugee camps in their home state as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s). They are not allowed to return to their areas of residence where once their homes stood and no prospect of any hope, much less compensation. Their fate is similar to that of the Palestinians. And ironically Ariel Sharon became Israeli premier after he personally supervised the slaughter of Palestinian refugees in Shabra and Shatilla. The number of dead in these two atrocities is not too dissimilar. 

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A COLLEAGUE AS PRECIOUS AS AMILA






    Thursday 27 December, 2012

 

Letters to the Editor

A Colleague as Precious as Amila 

Hameed Abdul Karim 

It was deeply grieving to hear of the tragic demise of Amila Jayasinghe. Reading the stories about her written by the staff at Ceylon Today it would only be a hard heart that wouldn't break. Poor thing. So young and like a flower about to bloom.

Having a daughter her age, my heart goes out to her parents and the rest of the family in this terrible heart rending moment of their lives. No father, and here I speak as a father, should suffer the agony of having to bury his child. It's just not fair. Our children are supposed to bury us and not the other way around.

Oh, but such is life...and I guess we can philosophise  as much as we want, but our hearts ache all the while. But then we do that just to make the pain bearable. Her parents....how shall they bear the pain? How does one move on in life after a tragedy like this? Is there another day tomorrow?

Poor Amila will forever be in their hearts and minds. And all the while her soul, as she says in her poetry, 'will be locked inside an invisible cage, but neither of us will find the key to ours and be free'. How prophetic here words were! And as we mull those words of a girl in the tender years of her youth, we wonder if  they were premonitions, informing the world in advance of her early departure.

I pray to God almighty that He gives Amila's folks and those of you at Ceylon Today the courage and fortitude to bear the the pain of losing a daughter and a colleague as precious as her. And may God guide and bless you all.


CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST?

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                                        Appeared in Lakbimanews Sunday 30 December, 2012




Chickens Coming Home to Roost?

Hameed Abdul Karim

Watching Barack Obama on TV, wiping a tear in his left eye as he spoke in his usual Harvard eloquence at the memorial service for the little children who died in the dreadful terror in Newtown Connecticut, reminds those of us who have seen the movie ‘Godfather’ of Marlon Brando giving out a short but heart rending sob on hearing of his son Sonny’s assassination in the movie ‘Godfather’. Obama’s lump in the throat speech must, of a necessity, move us all who still claim to be human for indeed this was a tragedy beyond comprehension.
So was it Obama the politician that was crying or was it the human in him that was moved to tears? That’s a tough question, maybe even rude and insensitive. But hard questions have to be asked. Here is a president who for the first time in history had ordered the extra judicial murders of US citizens without batting an eyelid.