Category Archives: jihad

The Demons within Sri Lanka: Long-Term Methods of Abatement?

Michael Roberts

Here I reproduce the second half of a longer article presented in October 2018 where I pinpointed the hidden dangers to Sri Lanka resting within the implications of Mark Field’s visit to the island then — conveying a message that was one part of the continuing Western nation-cum-UNHRC project to punish Sri Lanka and foist a devolutionary political system on the island. Obviously, this essay was coined before the explosive manifestation of another divisive time-bomb within the Sri Lankan body politic: that of Islamic extremists motivated by the Wahhabi ideology hostile to specific ‘pinnacles’ in any Westernized body politic – such as (a) the Papacy and (b) high-rise hotels marking wealth and ‘debauchery’.**

This traumatic moment on Easter Sunday 21st April 2019 reminds us of two earth shattering moments: the LTTE attack on the Central Bank in Colombo on 31st January 1996 and the Al-Qaida attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on 9th September 2001 (9/11 in shorthand).***

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The Skirmish at Sainthamaruthu and the Suicidal Deaths of Some Wahhabi Jihadists -Jeyaraj as Investigative Journalist

DBS Jeyaraj, in Daily Mirror, 2 May 2019, where the title is “Battle of Sainthamaruthu Zahran’s family members dead in Sainthamaruthu skirmish between security forces and Islamic State terrorists”

Sri Lanka’s security forces have engaged in many battles and armed confrontations during the long war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 brought an end to the conflict. Thereafter for ten years, the country has been experiencing peace and relative tranquillity. The armed forces too were confined to barracks most of the time as there was no enemy to combat. The Easter Sunday suicide bomber attacks on Churches and Hotels on April 21st shattered this blissful situation. Sri Lanka was in peril and once again the sacred duty of guarding the nation beckoned to the armed forces after the guns of the Tigers were silenced a decade ago.

  • The firing went on for about three and a half hours from 7.30 p.m. to 11 P.m. 
  • fifteen bodies consisting of six men, six children and three women were found amidst the wreckage
  • One came outside & threw bundle of 5,000 notes in the air As the currency notes scattered the youth shouted out

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Bishop Illangasinghe’s Pastoral Sermon encompassing People of All the Faiths in Lanka

Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe, with this title in Colombo Telegraph, 27 April 2019, Post Easter Reflections 2019″

“Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”.   Luke 23:34

Sri Lanka is once again in deep shock and saddened by the attacks on the peaceful worshippers on Easter Sunday and the innocent visitors from abroad and from within Sri Lanka, who were at the hotels. The carnage is unprecedented in the recent times, when as a nation Sri Lanka was struggling to emerge from the depths of racial, ethnic and religious divide. This is the largest number of innocent civilians in the recent history of the country who have been killed in one day. It is the most vulnerable in the community, the women, young people and children, who have been mainly affected.

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A Muslim Lankan’s Thoughts on the Atrocities and Their Implications

Irfan Husain, in Sri Lanka Guardian, 29 April  2019, where the title isJihadis in Sri Lanka

Whenever there’s a terrorist attack anywhere, I pray that Muslims weren’t involved. And if they are, I cross my fingers and wish none of them were Pakistanis. In the horror stories emerging from Sri Lanka, I seem to have got my second wish. However, this is scant consolation for the mayhem unleashed by a little-known Islamist group, the National Towheed Jamaath (NTJ), backed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

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Muslim Jihadist Protest in London in March 2018 targets Buddhism and Sri Lankan Government

A friend in Sri Lanka who sent me this reference and I myself were misled in thinking this protest occurred this April 2019. But Arun Dias Bandaranaike directed me towards a reconsideration and I believe now that this was action that occurred after the anti Muslim riots and attacks carried out by Sinhalese after an incident at DIGANA in Sri Lanka in March 2018. Hence the targeting of Sinhala Buddhists and the Sri Lankan government intheir slogans and battle cries.

That said, note the (1) fervency of protest and the total commitment; (2) the outrageous exaggerations — such as “genocide.” In my reading this body of Muslims probably includes several who would be willing to take the jihadist path of suicidal attack in a cause deemed a  service to the Muslim people of this world.

 

THE BATTLE CRIES & SLOGANS on PLACARDS

  • Hands off Muslims

* Muslims  stand up …. Muslims speak up

* Muslim Nation is one Nation

* We see the true colours of Buddhism.

* Sri Lankan govt is the enemy of the Muslim Nation

* Stop the Genocide

  • …. we see the true colours of Buddh
  • *********

A NOTE from Jane Russell in London, 4 May 2019

Noted…again, this is how communalism is transmitted via fake rumour and hyped gossip. And now by using trick photos/videos…it is becoming more and more difficult to become a trustworthy historian when archives and evidence are so contaminated!,

 

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Sheridan’s Concise Overview of Security Failures and the Islamic Extremist Threat in Sri Lanka … and This World

Greg Sheridan, in Weekend Australian, 27/28 April 2019, where the title is “Eternal vigilance is the price of keeping Islamist terror at bay”…. with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor

India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, tried for two years to tell its Sri Lankan colleagues they faced a growing threat of Islamist terrorism. But the Colombo authorities weren’t interested. If there was any threat, they believed it came from the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But the Tamil Tiger threat ended 10 years ago.

We don’t have a problem with our Muslims, the Sri Lankans insisted. By and large they were right about their Muslims. But out of maybe two million Sri Lankan Muslims, there was a problem with at least a couple of hundred, of whom a dozen or so became hard-boiled terrorists. Nine became suicide bombers, 10 if you count the bomb that one suspect detonated as police approached her home. That was more than enough. A Muslim man prays while perched on the roof of a mosque to spot possible hostile people during Friday prayers in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 26. Picture: AP

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The Emergence of Salafi Jihadists in the Kattankudy Locality in the Eastern Province

 Ameen Izzadeen and Abdullah Shahnawaz from Kattankudy, in Sunday Times, 28 April 2019, where the title reads “Lightning, thunder and a blast: On the trail of terror leader”

April 17: A man walks into the Kattankudy police station to complain that something unusual had happened on his land at Palamunai.  Police visit the scene and discover a Scooty motorcycle has been blasted using explosives. It had been blasted the previous day, April 16.

April 18: A young Kattankudy woman visits her old parents living in a house in a nearby area to give them lunch. That was the last time she saw them. She assumes the father who was complaining of a leg pain, has gone, accompanied by the mother, to see a native physician in Kinniya. But he never goes anywhere without informing the daughter.  This puzzles her, but on April 21, she pieces the puzzle together and realises her family’s involvement in the worst ever terror attack to shake this country.

              The face of terror: Zahran Cassim

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Double Standards among Liberals in the West: No RAGE from Sri Lankan Horrors in Contrast with Reaction to Christchurch

Brendan O’Neill, in Weekend Australian, 27 April 2019, with this title “Hierarchy of Victimhood: The slaughter of Christians elicits grief not outrage “

Where is the anger over the apocalyptic barbarism visited upon Christians in Sri Lanka? Where is the fury? Where are the tweets and blog posts and viral videos offering solidarity to Christians and slamming the bombers as a members of a global fascistic movement? Such wrath has been notable by its absence, or at least its rarity, in the aftermath of the extremist slaughter that killed at least 253 people, the majority of them Christians marking the resurrection of Christ at Easter Sunday ­services.

Yes, there has been sorrow. And there has been some very strong media coverage. People want to know the stories of those who were killed, and feel the pain of the those they left behind. But rage? There has been very little.

A woman is overcome with grief during a funeral for a victim of the Easter Sunday attack on St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: Getty Images Continue reading

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Mother of Satan Explosives and Wellampitiya Copper Factory

News Item Daily News, 25 April 2019,

The explosive triacetone triperoxide, dubbed ‘Mother of Satan’ by Al Qaeda for its destructive power, which was supposedly used in Sunday’s attacks, was allegedly made in a copper factory owned by one of the suicide bombers. The factory in Wellampitiya belonged to ‘calm and devout’ Inshaf Ahamad, who is understood to have blown himself up at the Cinnamon Grand, the UK’s Daily Mail Online reported.

Inshaf’s brother-in-law said the businessman drove a brand-new white Land Cruiser and came from a middle-class background. Speaking to MailOnline, Ashkhan Alamdeen (29) said he had brought shame on their family. “They have ruined our family and taken the lives of hundreds of people from all over the world,” Alamdeen said. “We had no idea what they were planning. If we had, we would have immediately told the police.” Continue reading

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Suicide Bomber Abdul Latheef Jamal Mohamed: His Transformation Abroad –in UK and Australia

Paul Maley & Primrose Riordan, in The Australian, 26 May 2019, with this title “Sri Lankan bomber in Aussie terror net”

The Sri Lankan suicide bomber who studied at a Melbourne university was one of the subjects of a ­terrorism investigation by Australian security authorities after ­intelligence emerged linking him to ­Islamic State operative Neil Prakash.The Australian can reveal that Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, one of nine suicide bombers ­responsible for a string of attacks across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, was investigated by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team in 2014

The Australian can reveal that Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, one of nine suicide bombers ­responsible for a string of attacks across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, was investigated by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team in 2014. The investigation was triggered by intelligence that linked ­Mohamed to several counter-terrorism targets, including Prakash. Continue reading

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