Mosques, Muslim Businesses Attacked In Sri Lanka After Facebook Row

04 June 2019

Various Agencies

Several dozen people threw stones at mosques and Muslim-owned stores and a local man was beaten in the town of Chilaw on Sri Lanka's west coast Sunday in a dispute that started on Facebook, sources told Reuters.

Three weeks ago in Sri Lanka bombers blew themselves up in four hotels and three churches, killing more than 250 people. Since then Muslim groups say they have received dozens of complaints from across the country about people being harassed.

"A police curfew has been imposed in Chilaw Police area with immediate effect until 6 a.m. tomorrow to control the tense situation," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told Reuters. The police later said the curfew would be lifted at 4 a.m.

A screenshot of the alleged Facebook exchange seen by Reuters showed a user had written in Sinhalese "It is difficult to make us cry" and added a local slur against Muslim men.

A Facebook user identified as Hasmar Hameed, whom two locals said was the man later arrested, replied in English: "Dont laugh more 1 day u will cry."

Authorities said they arrested the author of a Facebook post, identifying him as 38-year-old Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hasmar. Locals in Chilaw, a majority Christian town, said Hasmar's post was interpreted as menacing and an angry crowd beat him.

Reuters was unable to determine what the original conversation was about or to contact Hasmar for comment.

"Later they pelted stones at three mosques and some Muslim-owned shops. Now the situation has calmed down, but we are scared of the night," said one local Muslim man who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

One mosque suffered extensive damage, he said. Video footage circulating online shows several dozen young men shouting and throwing stones at a clothes store called New Hasmars, which locals said belonged to Hasmar.

Some communities say they are fearful that the government, which failed to act on successive warnings about looming attacks, has not caught all potential militants.

A week ago in Negombo, where more than 100 people were killed during Easter prayers, a violent clash erupted between local Muslims and Christians after a traffic dispute.

Unlike after the Negombo clashes, the Sri Lankan government did not impose a ban on social media platforms on Sunday.

Sri Lankan mob burns Muslim-owned factory north of Colombo

A mob set fire to a factory owned by a Muslim in Sri Lanka, another instance of violence in a flare-up of anti-Muslim riots that have come in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings.

In footage published by the BBC on Tuesday, the factory, located in the Minuwangoda town 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo, can be seen scorched with fire, while flames continue to burn at one end of the building.

The incident comes one day after a 45-year-old Muslim man was killed by a sword-wielding mob who attacked his carpentry shop in the Puttalam district. Monday's riots prompted the government to impose another nationwide curfew and temporarily block social media.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, has condemned the anti-Muslim attacks across the country and called for all ethnic and religious groups to unite.

He told Muslims in Sri Lanka, "Do not be afraid of such malicious attacks and be patient."

"We must build a new Sri Lanka, where all the races and religions live together," Ranjith said, referring to the country's Tamil, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu populations.

He called the Easter attacks a "bad page" in Sri Lanka's history, pleading with the nation to keep emotions in check and not let "the situation get out of control."

Authorities have arrested 74 people, including three leaders of non-governmental organizations, suspected of involvement in or incitement of anti-Muslim attacks in Minuwango, Matara and Puttalam.

Tensions have been running high in the Buddhist-majority Indian Ocean island nation since the April 21 attacks by seven suicide bombers who struck two Catholic and one Protestant church and three luxury hotels. Daesh terror group claimed responsibility for the attacks, carried out by a local terrorist group.

Mosques and Muslim-owned properties in the country have been widely attacked, especially by Sinhalese Buddhists. Sri Lanka's Muslims make up about 9% of its population of 21 million people and mostly live in the east and center of the island.

Sri Lanka has a dark history of communal tensions. For more than a quarter century it was embroiled in civil war as Tamil Tiger rebels fought to create an independent state for or ethnic minority Tamils. When the conflict ended 10 years ago the U.N.'s conservative estimates said about 100,000 people had been killed. 

©  EsinIslam.Com

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