The Dambulla mosque fracas engineered by the militant elements of Sri Lankan Buddhists, the reaction to it by local Muslim politicians and Muslim religious leaders, the former threatening to withdraw their inconsequential support to the government while the latter urging Muslim masses to pray to Allah to restore the status quo, and the conflicting messages from the nation’s prime minister and the president, both of them without condemning the perpetrators but trying to mollify the aggressor and the aggrieved, demonstrate yet again the toxic mix of militant Buddhism (perhaps a contradiction in terms) and national politics. The Muslim community is precariously placed between militant Buddhism and political ineptitude.  

The Sinhala-Buddhist identity of Sri Lanka is rooted in history. From the ancient times Buddhism always played a deterministic role in the island’s state formation. However, the 52 South Indian invasions in 14 centuries (2nd Century B.C. to 14th Century A.D.) according to one source, and nearly 450 years of uninterrupted Western Christian colonial rule (1505 to 1948) had obviously injected a feeling of political and cultural victimization in the Buddhist mindset. It was this feeling of victimization that led to the Buddhist revivalist movement in the country during the last quarter of the 19th Century and in that movement there was also an element of militancy. The Muslim community was the first to suffer in the hands of a militant Buddhist mob in 1915.

After independence however, practically every government that ruled Sri Lanka exploited this militant element whenever it felt threatened by the swelling of public discontent against government policies. The final victory in the 26 year old civil war, of a predominantly Sinhala-military-naval-police-power over an uncompromising Tamil enemy was celebrated with triumphalism and schadenfreude by the same militant elements and they became even more assertive in their demand for the total subjugation of the minorities. Instead of showing compassion and magnanimity towards the vanquished, as demonstrated by the Bhuddist monarchs in the ancient past, their modern avatars, by pandering to the whims of militant-Bhuddism, have become unyielding even to the minimum demands of the Tamil minority. As the former President Chandrika Kumaratunga said in a recent speech in Paris, “Anti terrorist emotions have been successfully linked with anti-Tamil and now anti-foreign and anti-everybody else concept, by means of a massive State-led publicity campaign.”

Precariously poised

Muslims and Muslim politics in Sri Lanka, both increasingly obsessed with the idea of preserving and promoting an ethno-religious identity at the expense of creating a Sri Lankan Muslim national identity are now precariously poised to confront a triumphalist and militant Buddhism.  The Dambulla incident was the latest of a series that happened over the last few decades. As noted earlier it was in 1915 during the British colonial regime that the Muslim community experienced its first taste of militant Buddhism when an unruly urban mob of Buddhist thugs in Colombo and its suburbs rampaged and destroyed Muslim property and life. They were driven into action by the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Buddhist firebrands like Anagarika Dharmapala, who described the “Mohamedans” as “aliens” and demanded that they be repatriated to Arabia. The immediate provocation for the riots came of course from an equally intolerant group of Muslim fanatics in Gampola by refusing to allow a Buddhist procession with music to pass along the site of a mosque. 

After that incident and under an independent Sri Lanka, Muslim politics adopted a different strategy to survive. With ethnic politics driving a wedge between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities, Muslim leaders resorted to a businesslike strategy of aligning with the ruling party and distanced themselves from the Tamils. “Keep them divided we will swim, and allow them to unite – we will sink” was the very words of a former Muslim minister. Although this strategy won the community some concessions from the rulers, especially in the fields of education and culture, Muslim peasants and farmers in the Eastern Province and elsewhere were losing their traditional lands like the Tamils, all in the name of national economic development. Muslim politicians of that time who were mostly based in the heart of Colombo did not even dare to raise their voice against these losses in the periphery. It is sad that this aspect of Sinhalizatiion escaped even the attention of The Social Architects who recently published in the International Policy Digest of March 2012 an otherwise excellent monograph titled, Salt on Old Wounds: The Systematic Sinhalization of Sri Lanka’s North, East and Hill Country.

That Muslim political strategy of fishing in troubled waters, sometime more respectfully called politics of pragmatism, completely lost its vitality with the conclusion of the civil war. In a triumphalist and populist government virtually ruled by the dictates of a cabal surrounding the president, even the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, one component of the ruling coalition and a political party originally formed with the intention of playing the same old ethnic game but under a new and united team, has ended up disunited and dysfunctional descending into a bunch of cheer-leaders. On the other hand, militant Buddhism with support from elements in the military and police forces have become indispensable to a government whose geo-political manoeuvres and domestic economic policies are driving the country to a dead end.  This explains why the government is dilly dallying with the Dambulla issue.  

Are the Muslims also contributing to the rise of militancy among the Buddhists? In this context, attention should be drawn to another variable that has the potential to make the situation even more volatile, and that is Islamism. Islamism is a religiously expressed protest movement that normally thrives under oppressive conditions but varies in its structure and operation depending on local conditions. It can be active or passive, peaceful or violent, moderate or extreme.  It is not a monolithic creature as portrayed by the West. Yet, the common denominator to all forms of Islamist protest is that it is expressed through Islam.

Self-alienating

Although Islamism has not yet taken a definite political shape in Sri Lanka, yet, decades of evangelical work by the Tabligh Jamaat to ‘Islamise’ the Muslims and the infusion of Salafist or Wahhabi ideas after the 1970s through Middle East contacts have unfortunately created a situation in which a growing section of the Muslim community is self-alienating from main stream Sri Lanka. Muslims are fast losing their national identity without realising it. This self-alienation is demonstrated through the life and actions of community members and their leaders. The attire of Muslim men and women who have embraced the teachings of the Jamaat and Salafism for example is foreign to the country in which they live and so are the names and architecture of some of their institutions and building structures. The manner in which some Islamic religious practices are observed, quite contrary to the teachings of the original sources, disregard the sensitivities of other communities. Similarly, what is the national relevance of planting expensive date palms that are native to the Middle East along the roadsides of Muslim towns in Sri Lanka? Why is the attempt to write street names in Arabic? Why should Muslim schools have a religiously determined school calendar separate from other national schools? These issues, some of them may sound trivial, are obviously isolating the Muslim community. It is this tendency to shape local Muslim life through a Middle East design that is totally alien to Sri Lanka that is providing substance to the various anti-Muslim demands of militant Buddhism. Muslim politicians are absolutely incompetent to tackle these issues.

Muslims, like the Tamils have genuine economic, social and cultural grievances against the ruling regime. Government take-over of traditional farm lands, unemployment, administrative discrimination, underfunded and substandard educational institutions, discriminatory behaviour of the security forces, and above all a militant Buddhist challenge are common to all minorities in the countries. These have to be fought not by each community in isolation but by all, and more importantly in union, with the progressive forces among the Sinhalese community itself. Not all Buddhists are militant and not all Sinhalese are anti-Muslim and anti-others. One should not forget that in the 1950s and 1960s it was the progressive Sinhalese who cried for parity of status for the Tamil language and equality for all citizens. Their leaders were above any ethnicity or religion. Unfortunately they were not supported by the minorities. Unless the Muslims and Tamils learn the lessons from history a proper solution to their grievances will remain a distant dream. Neither India nor the Middle East, or for that matter not even a super power is going to come to their aid. 

a.ali@murdoch.edu.au

Source : http://www.lakbimanews.lk

Buriyani

A favourite rice dish which figures prominently in local Muslim feasts is the buriyani, a rich and delectable dish made with fragrant basmati rice cooked in ghee with meat (usually beef or chicken) and potatoes, spiced with various condiments, scented with rose water and coloured yellow. It may also be embellished with green peas, cashew nuts and raisins.

Buriyani has its origins in Moghul India. The very term itself is of Indian origin and has derived from the Hindustani biryani. Abul Fazl in his 16th century treatise on Moghul India, Ain-I-Akbari gives biryan as a meat dish made from sheep with ghi and spices such as saffron, pepper and cuminseed. He also mentions a rice dish known as duzdbiryan made of rice, meat and ghi. The term biryan from which biryani evidently derives is a Persian loan in Hindustani meaning ‘fried, roasted, broiled, parched, grilled’.

The earliest reference to its use in Sri Lanka is perhaps an advertisement placed by Kamal Pasha Hotel of Maradana in 1923 in Crescent magazine of Zahira College where we read of ‘buriyani rice’ and ‘fried fowls’ being offered by the hotel, suggesting that the dish would have been introduced from India for commercial purposes and that it was only later that it gained currency as a domestic dish. Elsie Cook (A Geography of Ceylon.1931) noticed the dish figuring among local Muslims a few years later. She says “Their mode of cooking rice, with sultanas and fat, making a dish called burriana, has become characteristic in Ceylon”. 

Kunafa

Kunafa is a savoury cake comprising of several layers of shredded pancakes interspersed with minced beef filling. The dish is of Arab origin, though surprisingly it seems to have originally been a sweet rather than savoury dish. In the story of Ma’aruf the Cobbler occurring in the Thousand and One Nights we find kunafah figuring as a sweet dish made of vermicelli cake, fried with clarified butter and sweetened with treacle or bees’ honey. Edward Lane says in his Modern Egyptians (1836) has this to say: “A favourite sweet dish is koona’feh, which is made of wheat-flour, and resembles vermicelli, but is finer; it is boiled, and sweetened with sugar or honey”.

Samosa

Samosa is a triangular pastry filled with minced beef. It is also known among the Muslims of North India by the same name. This item may however have an Arab or Persian origin. In some Arab countries sanbusak refers to a small meat pie of a half-moon or triangular shape. Arab cookery books of the 11th-13th centuries refer to it as sanbusak  or sanbusaj, terms that have their origins in the Persian sanbosag. Although probably Persian in origin, it seems to have been known among the Arabs for a considerable time. For instance, we have Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim Al-Mausili of the 9th century referring to sanbusaj while Giambonino da Cramona (13th century) in his collection of Arab recipes taken from an Arabic treatise on gastronomy by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad (11th century) describes sambusaj as a triangular pasta container filled with ground meat.

Vattalappam

Vaṭṭalappam is a favourite dessert comprising of a rich pudding made with eggs, coconut milk, jaggery and cardamoms, This brown pudding is prepared by adding a mixture of heated jaggery, coconut milk and ground cardamoms to a stock of beaten eggs after which the whole is poured into bowls and steamed till it assumes a firm consistency. The term is evidently a corruption of the Tamil vaṭṭil  ‘cup’ + appam ‘cake’, hence vaṭṭilappam ‘cup-cake’.  The dish is however unknown to the Tamils. Rather it is in all likelihood a borrowing from the Malay world, having derived from that sweet dish known as serikaya among the Malays of Indonesia and Malaysia. Serikaya is a steamed custard made of eggs, coconut milk, palm sugar and pandan or screwpine leaves, though it is also often consumed as a jam. The similarity between the two however suggests a common origin so that we may have to suppose vattalappam to have originated from this Malay dessert.

Firni

Firni is a semolina, vermicelli, milk or custard pudding embellished with cashewnuts and raisins. This pudding probably has its origins in the Hindustani firni, a sweet dish made of milk, sugar and ground rice. It is quite possible however that the dish has its ultimate origins in the farni of some Arabian Gulf countries and the islands off Africa. In the Gulf region, farni comprises of an eggless rice pudding prepared with milk, sugar, powdered rice, cardamom powder, saffron and rose water and garnished with nuts or dried fruit. It also seems to have been known in Zanzibar for Harold Igrams (Arabia and the Isles.1942) refers to a plate of farne which he describes as a kind of ground rice with special flavouring and sweet.

Jalabi  

Jalabi is a golden-coloured, spiral, tubular sweetmeat made of a batter of wheat or rice flour, gram flour and curd fried in oil and soaked in a thick sugar syrup while still hot whereupon it absorbs the sugar which forms a sweet liquid inside while crystallizing on the surface. Although a well known Hindustani sweetmeat, jalabi probably has its origins in the zalābiya of the Arabs among whom it has been known for centuries. For instance in the Tale of Dalilah the Crafty and her daughter Zaynab occurring in the Thousand and One Nights we come across a reference to these honey-fritters (zalābiya bi asal) being consumed in Baghdad.

Maskat

Maskat is an oily sweetmeat made of wheat flour, ghee, sugar and cashewnuts and coloured green, red or yellow. It is often cut into square or rectangular pieces and is usually characterized by a soft crust that forms on the sides of its outer surface. Maskat appears to be of Arab origin and may have taken its name from the capital of Oman, Muscat which has been renowned for this sweetmeat. Robert Binning (A Journal of Two years travel in Persia, Ceylon etc.1857) says that in Muscat is made a kind of sweetmeat composed of the starch of wheat, fine sugar, rasped almonds and clarified butter. He adds that this sweetmeat is made in large quantities and exported to different parts of India and Persia where it is greatly esteemed.

Faluda

Faluda is a refreshing drink made of milk and rose syrup and often embellished with black basil seeds. The beverage is very likely of Arabian, Persian or Indian origin, though it seems to have its origins in an ancient Persian sweetmeat. In Arabic falud or faludaj means ‘a sweetmeat of flour, water and honey’ and is said to have been introduced to the Arabs by a traveller named Abdullah Ibn Jud‘an who had been at the Sassanid court before the triumph of Islam in Persia. It probably derived from the Pahlavi or Middle Persian paludag which meant ‘starch jelly’, ‘flummery’. In Persian paluda eventually came to mean ‘a kind of sweet beverage made of water, flour and honey’ while its Arabic inspired usage faludaj which was itself of Persian origin seems to have been applied to a concoction of ground almonds, sugar and rose water. In India faluda came to refer to a popular drink made of rose flavoured milk and vermicelli strands.

Saruvat

Saruvat is a sherbet made with rose syrup though it may also refer to a fruit juice made of the juice of citrus fruits such as lime or orange embellished with pieces of pineapple and black basil seeds. This drink is of Arab origin, derived as it is from the Arabic sharbat meaning a drink or beverage. In the Thousand and One Nights we come across references to rose sherbet as in the tale of King Umar Al-Numan, sugared sherbet scented with rose-water as in the tale of Khalifah and sherbet flavoured with rose- water, scented with musk and cooled with snow as in the tale of Nur Al-Din Ali and his son. Edward Lane in his Modern Egyptians (1837) tells us that the Egyptians have various kinds of sherbets, the most common kind being called simply shurbat or shurbat sookhar which is merely sugar and water. Nevertheless, sherbets made of the essence of roses seem to have been much favoured. For instance, we have Charles Addison (Damascus and Palmyra. A Journey to the East.1838) referring to sherbet of roses, a pink sherbet kept in tins and sold in round cups with a lump of snow in it.

This article is largely based on the book Sarandib. An Ethnological Study of the Muslims of Sri Lanka by Asiff Hussein. Sarandib, now in its third expanded. Written in a lucid style, it is the culmination of much research, inquiry and field studies on the society and culture of Sri Lanka’s Muslims. The work contains detailed information on aspects like ethnic origins, language, settlements, customs and traditions, dress and ornamentation, culinary fare, medical remedies, names and titles, occupations, social organization, ceremonial observances and religious and folk beliefs. 

Sarandib. An Ethnological Study of the Muslims of Sri Lanka by Asiff Hussein

Publisher: Neptune Publications; pp:784 + 54 B&W & Colour plates

UNITED NATIONS, May 15, 2012 (IPS) – The 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution – described as "historic" – requesting the five permanent members (P5) of the Security Council to consider "refraining from using their vetoes on action aimed at preventing or ending genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity".

But the P5 has already indicated that the General Assembly, the U.N.'s highest policymaking body, has no business offering such recommendations to the Security Council. 

The resolution, being co-sponsored by five of the world's smallest member states, namely Costa Rica, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Singapore and Switzerland, is aimed at "enhancing the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of the Security Council" with the long list of recommendations. 

The five countries, who describe themselves as the "Small Five" (S5) are in a virtual battle with the P5. A vote is expected later this week. 

"It's an uneven battle," an Asian diplomat told IPS, "but still, let's see how the voting goes." 

The resolution is being strongly backed by a coalition of non- governmental organisations (NGOs), including the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), a court that tries those accused of war crimes and genocide. 

Asked how confident he was that the Security Council will go along if the resolution is adopted, William Pace, convenor of the CICC told IPS the S5 resolution properly asks the General Assembly to make recommendations to the Security Council, as one principal organ to another. 

Such a resolution, he said, would not be binding, but the political and moral impact of such a resolution over time could be tremendous. 

"If the General Assembly were to adopt the S5 resolution, and the Council to implement the 20 recommendations, it could result in one of the most important advances in the Security Council," Pace said. 

As a result, he said, millions of lives would be saved and scores of wars and rebellions could be prevented during the next 30 years. 

In a statement released here, James Christie, chair of the Council of the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy, said his organisation "strenuously disagrees" with the P5 contention that the General Assembly should keep out of Security Council affairs. 

"That the General Assembly elects 10 (non-permanent) members of the Security Council every two years and that the General Assembly authorises the budgets proposed by the Security Council are only two major reasons such a view of the P5 is irrational," he added. 

Pace commended the S5 for having the courage of its convictions to co-sponsor the five-page resolution which recommends several measures "for consideration by the permanent members of the Security Council". 

These include "explaining the reasons for resorting to a veto or declaring its intention to do so, in particular with regard to its consistency with the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations and applicable international law. 

"A copy of the explanation should be circulated as a separate Security Council document to all members of the organisation," he said. The resolution has taken added importance in view of the two vetoes cast last year by Russia and China over a Western-sponsored resolution threatening sanctions against Syria for the killings of civilians. 

According to U.N. figures, more than 7,500 civilians, on both sides of the conflict, have died since the uprising began in March 2011. 

The Security Council was also slow in reacting to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where over 500,000 were killed. 

In April 1994, the Council condemned the killings but refused to describe it as "genocide". 

Pace told reporters that the S5 resolution has no bearing on the ongoing negotiations for the reform and expansion of the Security Council which he described as "divisive" because it also involves an amendment to the U.N. charter. 

In a statement released here, Dr. Andres Serbin, chair of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, said Article 24 (2) of the U.N. charter clearly requires that all decisions of the Security Council, including the use of the veto "must be made in a manner that are consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations". 

Tragically, he pointed out, almost every year and even at present, the international community witnesses Council deliberations where use of the veto (or its misuse) is inconsistent with these provisions – a situation that this measure in the resolution attempts to address. 

Meanwhile, in a letter to member states, the S5 say that a draft text of the resolution was presented about a year ago "hoping to engage the Security Council on a constructive dialogue about our proposals. 

"After a year of consultations, we believe that the time is ripe to give the General Assembly an opportunity to pronounce itself on the issue." 

The only self-interest the S5 has, the letter says, is to make the United Nations work a little better. 

Currently, the Council has 15 members: the P5 and 10 non-permanent members which are elected every two years on a geographical basis. 

The letter adds: "Most of us are (non-permanent) members of the Security Council once in a lifetime. Some have never been or will never be. 

"Now, we are offering you a toolbox which allows the wider membership to be better informed and consulted on what is going on in the Council." 

Seeking support from the membership, the letter says: "Would you keep things as they are or would you rather prefer to be treated with some more transparency and openness. The choice is yours." 

Sibel Edmonds' new book, "Classified Woman," is like an FBI file on the FBI, only without the incompetence.

The experiences she recounts resemble K.'s trip to the castle, as told by Franz Kafka, only without the pleasantness and humanity. 

I've read a million reviews of nonfiction books about our government that referred to them as "page-turners" and "gripping dramas," but I had never read a book that actually fit that description until now.

The F.B.I., the Justice Department, the White House, the Congress, the courts, the media, and the nonprofit industrial complex put Sibel Edmonds through hell.  This book is her triumph over it all, and part of her contribution toward fixing the problems she uncovered and lived through.

Edmonds took a job as a translator at the FBI shortly after 9-11.  She considered it her duty.  Her goal was to prevent any more terrorist attacks.  That's where her thinking was at the time, although it has now changed dramatically.  It's rarely the people who sign up for a paycheck and healthcare who end up resisting or blowing a whistle. 

Edmonds found at the FBI translation unit almost entirely two types of people. The first group was corrupt sociopaths, foreign spies, cheats and schemers indifferent to or working against U.S. national security.  The second group was fearful bureaucrats unwilling to make waves.  The ordinary competent person with good intentions who risks their job to "say something if you see something" is the rarest commodity.  Hence the elite category that Edmonds found herself almost alone in: whistleblowers.

Reams of documents and audio files from before 9-11 had never been translated.  Many more had never been competently or honestly translated.  One afternoon in October 2001, Edmonds was asked to translate verbatim an audio file from July 2001 that had only been translated in summary form.  She discovered that it contained a discussion of skyscraper construction, and in a section from September 12^th a celebration of a successful mission.  There was also discussion of possible future attacks.  Edmonds was eager to inform the agents involved, but her supervisor Mike Feghali immediately put a halt to the project.  

Two other translators, Behrooz Sarshar and Amin (no last name given), told Edmonds this was typical. They told her about an Iranian informant, a former head of SAVAK, the Iranian "intelligence" agency, who had been hired by the FBI in the early 1990s.  He had warned these two interpreters in person in April 2001 of Osama bin Laden planning attacks on U.S. cities with airplanes, and had warned that some of the plotters were already in the United States.  Sarshar and Amin had submitted a report marked VERY URGENT to Special Agent in Charge Thomas Frields, to no apparent effect.  In the end of June they'd again met with the same informant and interpreted for FBI agents meeting with him.  He'd emphatically warned that the attack would come within the next two months and urged them to tell the White House and the CIA.  But the FBI agents, when pressed on this, told their interpreters that Frields was obliged to report everything, so the White House and other agencies no doubt already knew.

One has to wonder what U.S. public opinion would make of an Iranian having tried to prevent 9-11.

Next, a French translator named Mariana informed Edmonds that in late June 2001, French intelligence had contacted the FBI with a warning of the upcoming attacks by airplanes.  The French even provided names of suspects.  The translator had been sent to France, and believed her report had made it to both FBI headquarters and the White House. 

Edmonds translated other materials that involved the selling of U.S. nuclear information to foreigners and spotted a connection to a previous case involving the purchase of such information.  The FBI, under pressure from the State Department, Edmonds writes, prevented her from notifying the FBI field offices involved.  Edmonds has testified in a court deposition, naming as part of a broad criminal conspiracy Representatives Dennis Hastert, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Bob Livingston, Stephen Solarz, and Tom Lantos, and the following high-ranking U.S. government officials: Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Marc Grossman.

When Edmonds was hired, she was the only fully qualified Turkish translator, and this remained the case.  In November 2001, a woman named Melek Can Dickerson (referred to as "Jan") was hired.  She did not score well on the English proficiency test, and so was not qualified to sign off on translations, as Edmonds was.  Melek's husband Doug Dickerson worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency under the procurement logistics division at the Pentagon dealing with Turkey and Central Asia, and for the Office of Special Plans overseeing Central Asian policy.  This couple attempted to recruit Edmonds and her husband into the American Turkish Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, offering large financial benefits.  But these were organizations that the FBI was monitoring.  Edmonds reported the Dickersons' proposal to Feghali, who dismissed it. 

Then Edmonds discovered that Jan Dickerson had been forging her (Edmonds') signature on translations, with Feghali's approval.  Then Edmonds' colleagues told her about Jan taking files out of other translators' desks and carrying them out of the building.  Dickerson attempted to control the translation of all material from particular individuals.  Dennis Saccher, who was above Feghali, discovered that Jan was marking every communication from one important person as being not important for translation. Saccher attempted to address the matter but was shut down by Feghali, by another supervisor named Stephanie Bryan, and by the head of "counterintelligence" for the FBI who said that the Pentagon, White House, State Department, and Congress would not allow an investigation.

Had Edmonds understood the truth of that statement, it might have saved her years of frustration and stress, but it would have denied us the bulk of the revelations in her book.  Dickerson threatened Edmonds' life and those of her family.  Edmonds lost her job, her reputation, her friends, and contact with most of her family members.  She watched Congress cave in to the President.  She watched the government protect the Dickersons by allowing them to flee the country.  She listened to Congressman Henry Waxman and others in 2005 and 2006 promise a full investigation if the Democrats won a majority, a promise that was immediately broken when the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.  Edmonds was smeared in the media, and her story widely ignored when media outlets got parts of it right.  The Justice Department claimed "States Secrets" and maneuvered for a cooperative judge (Reggie Walton) to have cases filed by Edmonds dismissed.  The government classified as secret all materials related to Edmonds' case including what was already public.  The Justice Department issued a gag order to the entire Congress. 

And Congress bent over and shouted "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"

As less confrontational approaches failed, Edmonds became increasingly an activist and an independent media participant and creator.  Her story and others she was familiar with were rejected and avoided by the 9-11 Commission.  She worked with angry 9-11 widows and with other whistleblowers to expose the failures of that commission.  Disgusted with whistleblower support groups that only offered to help her when she was in the news and never when she needed help most desperately, Edmonds started her own group, made up of whistleblowers, called the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.  She started her own website called Boiling Frogs Post. 

When an unclassified version of a report on Edmonds' case by the Justice Department's Inspector General was finally released, it vindicated her. 

Edmonds has received awards and recognition.  Her story has been supported (with rhetoric, not action) by Congress members and backed up by journalists.  It appears in this forthcoming film.

Coleen Rowley, another FBI whistleblower, one who was honored as a Time magazine person of the year along with two others, told me: "What I find so remarkable is Sibel's persistence in trying every avenue and possible outlet in trying to get the truth out. When going up the chain of command in the executive branch and Inspector General internal mechanisms for investigating fraud, waste, and abuse went nowhere, she sought judicial remedy by filing lawsuits only to be improperly gagged by 'state secrecy privilege'.  Along the way she also sought congressional assistance, testified to the 9-11 Commission, and engaged with various media and other non-governmental organizations.  It's somewhat ironic that Sibel herself demonstrated such enormous energy and passion throughout this decade quite the opposite of the 'boiling frog' idiom she uses for her website as a warning to others.  If her book can inspire readers to summon even 1/100th of the determination and resolve she has modeled, there's hope for us!"

Yet, thus far, no branch of our government has lifted its little finger to fix the problem of secrecy and the corruption it breeds, which Edmonds argues has grown far worse under President Obama.  That's why this book should be spread far and wide, and read aloud to our misrepresentatives in Congress if necessary.  This book is a masterpiece that reveals both the details and the broader pattern of corruption and unaccountability in Washington, D.C.  Edmonds has not exposed bad apples, but a rotten barrel of toxic waste that will sooner or later infect us all — not just the whistleblowers like Sibel and the thousands of people in our government who see something and dare not say something for fear that we will not have their back.  

Let's have their back.

]]> http://www.sailanmuslim.com/news/911-abby-martin-classified-woman-fbi-rt-sibel-edmonds-finally-wins-by-david-swanson/feed/ 0 http://www.sailanmuslim.com/news/rizvi-muthis-call-for-compromise-on-dambula-mosque-rewarding-hooliganism-and-sell-out-of-the-community-by-latheef-farook/ http://www.sailanmuslim.com/news/rizvi-muthis-call-for-compromise-on-dambula-mosque-rewarding-hooliganism-and-sell-out-of-the-community-by-latheef-farook/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 07:53:04 +0000 Sailanmuslim http://www.sailanmuslim.com/news/?p=8098  

All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama President M.I.M. Rizvi Mufthi’s speech in Riyadh on Friday 4 May 2012 on the attack on the Dambulla Mosque has shocked the island’s Muslim community. For a moment I asked myself whether he has been dispatched by the mob leader Innamaluwa Sumangala Thera for canvassing in favour of demolishing the mosque.

In his speech, published in the Jeddah based “arabnews” and reproduced in Sri Lankan dailies-Daily Mirror and Ceylon Today- on 7 May 2012, Rizvi Mufthi has called for resolving the Dambulla issue, imposed on the Muslim community by violence, amicably through tolerance and COMPROMISE.

Justifying this call he said the Line Mosque in Kandy was demolished for society development projects and the Nimal Road Mosque at Bambalapitiya was demolished, and built far away, to accommodate the highway that was constructed in the neighborhood.

This was   misleading. Muslims in Kandy point out that no Mosque in Kandy, including Line Mosque, was ever demolished or shifted.  

Even in the case of Nimal Road Mosque the owners of the land said that it was not built far away. Instead the new mosque was built few yards away from the site where the old mosque was located. They explained that the old mosque was located few yards from the railway line. In the subsequent years the old mosque was   expanded to conduct Ahadiya classes. However the mosque paved the way for the marine drive and the present mosque was built few yards behind, leaving space for the construction of Marine Drive. The beauty of this is that this was done peacefully and not on the instigation of unruly mobs.  

In suggesting for a peaceful solution Rizvi Mufthi had spoken on the need for “compromise” which suggests the demolition of the Dambulla mosque. If this is what he implied then it is simply rewarding of hooliganism. What he has failed to highlight is that the call for the demolition of Dambulla Mosque was not made by the Sinhalese in Dambulla or the mainstream Sinhalese community in the country which feels embarrassed by saffron vandalism.

While the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe still remains silent the UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa said in public that this has nothing to do with Buddhism. Meanwhile numerous Sinhalese columnists dismissed the attack on the Dambulla mosque as a despicable act and one columnist even went to the extent of describing the mob as “mad men of Dambulla”.

This vandalism is suspected to be the work of a small minority of   ultra nationalists who managed to get into influential positions in the government.    Ever since the military defeat of the LTTE these ultra nationalists unleashed a vicious campaign community against Islam and Muslims inciting the majority.

It began using ten Sinhala language and nine English language websites. They also produced a documentary on Daftar Jailani, Kuragala, accusing Muslims of grabbing this land which they claim belong exclusively to Sinhalese

In view of the threat to communal harmony I   highlighted this in an article in Sunday Times in September 2011.As usual Muslim politicians, theologians and all others slept. Then a mob taken from outside destroyed a Muslim shrine in Anuradhapura. Here too Buddhist monks led the mob. And now comes the move to demolish the Dambulla mosque. Even in this case though the mob leader was a local monk the mob was brought in from outside the area.

What these unruly elements do not realize is that this destructive anti Muslim campaign has all the potentials to tear apart the country which has just emerged from a   three decade of savage ethnic carnage.

It was in this context one needs to view Rizvi Mufthi’s call for compromise.

Long before Muslim politicians and theologians came to the scene, the spontaneous response of the entire Muslim community to the vandalism at Dambulla Mosque has been” peaceful and dignified”. Their only slogan was” communal harmony”.

However compromise in this case, as claimed by Rizvi Mufthi, means rewarding lawlessness as Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne’s office had done when it ordered the demolition of the mosque within 24 hours after the mob attack. It would also set an extremely dangerous precedence. Any dispute between communities, not with mobs, need to be solved in a civilized manner within the framework of the laws of the land and the entire Muslim community insisted on this with one voice.  

This is a burning issue which is to be sorted out within six months as decided by a committee of Sinhalese government officers. No Muslim was involved in taking this decision .Under the circumstances, it would have been appropriate for Mufthi Rizvi to place facts before the audience, rather than suggesting solution which, it appears, would be at the expense of the rights of Muslims.  

It appears Mufthi Rizvi has overstepped his limits. As the president of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema, not a Vatican with a Pope, his job is to guide the community according to religious principles. However here he has entered the corrupt, criminalized and commercialized field of politics. This is a dangerous   and already people are talking of the need to clearly earmark the role of the Jamiyyathul Ulema as a religious, and not a political, organization.

There is also a growing feeling among the Muslims that Jamiyyathul Ulema should consult the community before taking any decision on behalf of the community.

Rizvi Mufthi owes an explanation to the community.

The results of the elections in France and Greece have made it abundantly clear that there is a tremendous backlash against the austerity approach that Germany has been pushing.  All over Europe, prominent politicians and incumbent political parties are being voted out.  In fact, Nicolas Sarkozy has become the 11th leader of a European nation to be defeated in an election since 2008.  We have seen governments fall in the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Greece.  Whenever they get a chance, the citizens of Europe are using the ballot box to send a message that they do not like what is going on.  It turns out that austerity is extremely unpopular.  But if newly elected politicians all over Europe begin rejecting austerity, this puts Germany in a very difficult position.  Should Germany be expected to indefinitely bail out all of the members of the eurozone that choose to live way beyond their means?  If Germany pulled out of the euro tomorrow, the euro would absolutely collapse, bond yields for the rest of the eurozone would skyrocket to unprecedented heights, and without German bailout money troubled nations such as Greece would be headed directly for default.  The rest of the eurozone is absolutely and completely dependent on Germany at this point.  But as we have seen, much of the rest of the eurozone is sick and tired of taking orders from Germany and is rejecting austerity.  A lot of politicians in Europe apparently believe that they should be able to run up gigantic amounts of debt indefinitely and that the Germans should be expected to always be there to bail them out whenever they need it.  Will the Germans be willing to tolerate such a situation, or will they simply pick up their ball and go home at some point?

Over the past several years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have made a formidable team.  They worked together to push the eurozone on to the path of austerity, but now Sarkozy is out.

Francois Hollande, the new French president, has declared that the financial world is his "greatest enemy".

He may regret making that statement.

One of the primary reasons why Hollande was elected was because he clearly rejected the austerity approach favored by the Germans.  Shortly after winning the election in France, he made the following statement….

"Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option"

Hollande says that he wants to "renegotiate" the fiscal pact that European leaders agreed to under the leadership of Merkel and Sarkozy.

But Merkel says that is not going to happen.  The following Merkel quotes are from a recent CNBC article….

"We in Germany are of the opinion, and so am I personally, that the fiscal pact is not negotiable. It has been negotiated and has been signed by 25 countries," Merkel told a news conference.

"We are in the middle of a debate to which France, of course, under its new president will bring its own emphasis. But we are talking about two sides of the same coin — progress is only achievable via solid finances plus growth," she added.

So instead of being on the same page, Germany and France are now headed in opposite directions.

But if the French do not get their debt under control, they could be facing a huge crisis of their own very quickly.  The following is from a recent article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard….

“They absolutely must cut public spending and control the debt,” said Marc Touati from Global Equities in Paris. “It will soon be clear that we are in deep recession. If they don’t act fast, interest rates will shoot up and we will have a catastrophe by September,” he said.

Without German help, France is not going to be able to handle its own financial problems – much less bail out the rest of Europe.

Germany is holding all of the cards, but much of the rest of the eurozone does not seem afraid to defy Germany at this point.

In Greece, anti-bailout parties scored huge gains in the recent election.

None of the political parties in Greece were able to reach 20 percent of the vote, and there is a tremendous amount of doubt about what comes next.

New Democracy (the "conservatives") won about 19 percent of the vote, but they have already announced that they have failed to form a new government.

So now it will be up to the second place finishers, the Syriza party (the radical left coalition), to try to form a new government.

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Syriza party, is very anti-austerity.  He made the following statement the other night….

"The people of Europe can no longer be reconciled with the bailouts of barbarism."

But at this point, it seems very doubtful that Syriza will be able to form a new government either.

PASOK, the socialists that have been pushing through all of the recent austerity measures, only ended up with about 13 percent of the vote.  In the 2009 election, PASOK got 44 percent of the vote.  Obviously their support of the austerity measures cost them dearly.

So what happens if none of the parties are able to form a new government?

It means that new elections will be held.

Meanwhile, Greece must somehow approve more than 11 billion euros in additional budget cuts by the end of June in order to receive the next round of bailout money.

Greece is currently in its 6th year of economic contraction, and there is very little appetite for more austerity in Greece at this point.

Citibank analysts are saying that there is now a 50 to 75 percent chance that Greece is going to be forced to leave the euro….

Overall, the outcome of the Greek election shows that it will be very difficult to form a viable coalition and to implement the measures required in the MoU. Particularly, the identification of the 7% GDP of budget savings for 2013 and 2014 by the end of June looks very unlikely to us. As a consequence, in a first step, the Troika is likely to delay the disbursement of the next tranche of the programme. Note that for 2Q 2012, disbursements of €31.3bn from the bailout programme are scheduled. If Greece does not make progress, in a second step, the Troika is likely to stop the programme. If that happens, the Greek sovereign and its banking sector would run out of funding. As a consequence, we expect that Greece would be forced to leave the euro area. With the outcome of the election, to us the probability of a Greek exit is now larger than our previous estimate of 50%, and rises to between 50-75%. However, even after the elections in Greece, France and Germany, we regard the probability of a broad-based break up of the monetary union as very low. We continue to expect that in reaction to Greece leaving the euro area, more far-reaching measures from governments and the ECB would be put in place.

But if Greece rejects austerity that does not mean that it has to leave the eurozone.

There is no provision that allows for the other nations to kick them out.

Greece could say no to austerity and dare Germany and the rest of the eurozone to keep the bailout money from them.

If Greece defaulted, it would severely damage the euro and bond yields all over the eurozone would likely skyrocket – especially for troubled countries like Spain and Italy.

If Greece wanted to play hardball, they could simply choose to play a game of "chicken" with Germany and see what happens.

Would Germany and the rest of the eurozone be willing to risk a financial disaster just to teach Greece a lesson?

But Greece is not the only one that is in trouble.

As I wrote about recently, the Spanish economy is rapidly heading into an economic depression.

Now it has come out that the Spanish government is going to bail out a major Spanish bank.  The following is from a recent Bloomberg article….

Rodrigo Rato stepped down as head of the Bankia group as a government bailout loomed after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy retreated from a pledge to avoid using public money to save lenders.

Rato, a former International Monetary Fund managing director, proposed Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri, ex-president and chief operating officer of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA), as Bankia executive chairman, he said in a statement today in Madrid. The government plans to inject funds into the lender by buying contingent-capital securities, said an Economy Ministry official who declined to be named as the plan isn’t public.

But this is just the beginning.

Major banks all over Europe are going to need to be bailed out, and countries such as Portugal, Italy and Spain are going to need huge amounts of financial assistance.

So does Germany want to keep rescuing the rest of the eurozone over and over again during the coming years?  The cost of doing this would likely be astronomical.  The following is from a recent New York Times article….

Bernard Connolly, a persistent critic of Europe, estimates it would cost Germany, as the main surplus-generating country in the euro area, about 7 percent of its annual gross domestic product over several years to transfer sufficient funds to bail out Europe’s debt-burdened countries, including France.

That amount, he has argued, would far surpass the huge reparations bill foisted upon Germany by the victorious powers after World War I, the final payment of which Germany made in 2010.

At some point, Germany may decide that enough is enough.

In fact, there have been persistent rumors that Germany has been very quietly preparing to leave the euro.

A while back, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party approved a resolutionthat would allow a nation to leave the euro without leaving the European Union.

Many believed that this resolution was aimed at countries like Greece or Portugal, but the truth is that the resolution may have been setting the stage for an eventual German exit from the euro.

The following is an excerpt from that resolution….

"Should a member [of the euro zone] be unable or unwilling to permanently obey the rules connected to the common currency he will be able to voluntarily–according to the rules of the Lisbon Treaty for leaving the European Union–leave the euro zone without leaving the European Union. He would receive the same status as those member states that do not have the euro."

Most analysts will tell you that they think that it is inconceivable that Germany could leave the euro.

But stranger things have happened.

And Germany has made some very curious moves recently.

For example, Germany recently reinstated its Special Financial Market Stabilization Funds.  Those funds could be utilized to bail out German banks in the event of a break up of the euro.  The following is from a recent article by Graham Summers….

In short, Germany has given the SoFFIN:

1. €400 billion to be used as guarantees for German banks.

2. €80 billion to be used for the recapitalization of German banks

3. Legislation that would permit German banks to dump their euro-zone government bonds if needed.

That is correct. Any German bank, if it so chooses, will have the option to dump its EU sovereign bonds into the SoFFIN during a Crisis.

In simple terms, Germany has put a €480 billion firewall around its banks. It can literally pull out of the Euro any time it wants to.

So has Germany been quietly preparing a plan "B" just in case the rest of the eurozone rejected the path of austerity?

Most people have assumed that it will be a nation such as Greece or Portugal that will leave the euro first, but in the end it just might be Germany.

And the "smart money" is definitely betting on something big happening.

Right now some of the largest hedge funds in the world are betting against the eurozone as a recent Daily Finance article described….

Some of the world's most prominent hedge fund managers are betting against the eurozone — and not just the peripheral countries everyone knows are in trouble. They're taking positions against the core countries, economies that — until now — everyone has assumed were rock-solid.

Yes, the countdown to the break up of the euro has officially begun.

A great financial crisis is going to erupt in Europe, and it is going to shake the world to the core.

If you were frightened by what happened back in 2008, then you are going to be absolutely horrified by what is coming next.

This article was first published at Economic Collapse

Group of Sixties, an associate body of the Old Boys Association of Zahira College, is pleased to announce this scholarship for ten best students who have obtained excellent grades at the G.C.E. (O/L) 2011 exams. The selected students will be admitted to the new A/L (2012 – 2014) classes at Zahira College, Colombo beginning end of May. This announcement is made with the full collaboration and approval of Zahira College 

They should have the following qualifications to be awarded the full scholarship.

1. A minimum of 5A s in the O/L

2. Must have an A for Science and Mathematics

Selected candidates for this scholarship will receive the following benefits

· Facilities fees for 2 years waived off

· Admission fees waived off

· Free lodging to be could be considered.

· A monthly grant of Rs 3000/=

Applicants are invited to come for walk-in interview to be held, 02nd or on 3rd May 2012 at 9.00 am at the College Ghafoor Hall with your certificates.