Category Archives: life stories

April 27, 2019 · 11:01 am

Wakes in Australian Churches for Terror-Victims in Sri Lanka via Lankan-Aussie Initiatives

Sri Lankan Australians in all the cities  have initiated gatherings to grieve and honour those killed in the merciless attacks on Churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019. I reproduce one notice from Dr. Charitha Perera, Hon. Consul for Sri Lanka in Adelaide. I will be adding illustrative photographs from some of these events in the next few days and request friends to send striking snaps of these sad moments of ANGUISH and REMEMBRANCE (coinciding as they do with the reflections of ANZAC DAY).

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April 27, 2019 · 10:26 am

Where End Goal and Zeal produce a Deadly Cocktail

  Chandre Dharmawardena, in Colombo Telegraph, 6 April 2019, where the title is “Why Do “Educated” Youth Join Extremist Terrorist Movements?”

It is often asked  why educated youth “coming from good homes” join extremist organizations. Simple  references to “brain washing”, or the stupidity of the young are no explanations. There is no scientifically recognized   process called “brain washing”. It is also  naive to assume that  educated youth  join the IS (Islamic state)  to go to heaven and get their 21 virgins! Many youth radicalized in British Universities ended up fighting for the ISIS. At least one of the Sri Lankan Muslim Kamikazi had a British training, had four children, a flourishing business and lived in a million dollar home in Colombo. A British education in a narrow subject like “information technology” not touching any  broad scientific or cultural subjects, given in a British “red Brick” university can have no effect on already acquired belief systems. Don’t our “most educated” ministers go to Tirupathi, India,at the drop of a pin?

https://www.doneeractie.nl/moskee-madrassa-in-sri-lanka/-28538

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April 26, 2019 · 2:31 pm

Kattankudy Muslims reach out in Sri Lankanness … and denounce Zahran Hashim

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE FEDERATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS, KATTANKUDY – RELEASED ON APRIL 25TH, 2019

At a time when our mother land, Sri Lanka, is grieving at the tragic deaths of our Christian brothers and sisters, and also other innocents from this country and abroad, who have fallen victims to the atrocities of terrorists in certain parts of this country, we release this communiqué with a heavy heart, while expressing our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and those suffering at hospitals.

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April 26, 2019 · 11:24 am

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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April 26, 2019 · 9:01 am

“Eating Bitterness Again” — Captain Elmo’s Lament pinpoints Crass Incompetence at the Top

Capt Elmo Jayawardena

I will make this article short, simply because what I am writing is extremely sad. 350 plus totally innocent people died on Easter Sunday morning due to random bomb explosions. 500 or more were maimed and are fighting for their lives in hospitals. The extremists who are responsible would have had their own reasons for creating this terrible tragedy. Everyone has reasons for everything they do: but does that give them the right to kill innocent people? They planned, they came, they bombed, and the ones who paid the price were people who had gone to church on this Black Easter to pray and those who sat at a table to enjoy a celebrative breakfast.

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April 26, 2019 · 8:46 am

Waleed Aly’s Violent Misreadings of the Sri Lankan Scenario on DISPLAY

Waleed Aly, in The Age,  25 April 2019, entitled “The Sri Lankan attacks are uniquely senseless”

Every terrorist attack in which innocent people are killed is devastatingly tragic. Every one of them is heinous. But what we’ve seen in Sri Lanka this week exists on a rarefied level of depravity. Of course, there’s the supreme violation of slaughtering people in worship – now an established feature of terrorism and particularly Islamic State’s violence in places like Egypt or the Philippines. Then there’s the nauseating symbolism of the day itself. Easter Sunday: perhaps the holiest day on the Christian calendar, but more than that, the day Christians mark the resurrection. The very idea of life’s triumph over death deformed into a day of death above all else.

Catholic nuns and others participate in a vigil outside Sacred Heart Cathedral in remembrance of victims.
Catholic nuns and others participate in a vigil outside Sacred Heart Cathedral in remembrance of victims.CREDIT:AP

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April 26, 2019 · 7:32 am

Indian Alerts Just Before: An Indian TV Discussion of Some Value

Courtesy of Ranga Wimalasuriya on Facebook ….

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Filed under Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry

April 26, 2019 · 7:05 am

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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April 26, 2019 · 3:48 am

The Wahhabi Islamic Killers in Sri Lanka in Pictures

Jake Wallis Simons in Daily Mail, 25 April 2019 …..

  • Wealthy brothers Inshaf and Ilham Ibrahim bombed the luxury Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday terror attack
  • Suicide bomber brothers were the sons of a millionaire spice trader and were privately educated in Colombo
  • Their attacks claimed the lives of at least 41 foreigners, including eight British holidaymakers – three of whom were children
  • As police raided their £1m mansion in an exclusive neighbourhood of Colombo, Ilham’s pregnant wife Fatima blew herself up, killing her three children and three officers
  • Inshaf, a successful businessman, owned a copper factory thought to be where the suicide bombs were made
  • At least 321 people were murdered in the massacre, 45 of them children, while more than 500 were injured
  • Chilling footage shows Ilham and an accomplice bomber attack the Shangri-La while guests had breakfast
  • Second clip earlier showed different bomber patting a girl on the head before launching attack on a church
  • ISIS has claimed responsibility and released footage of the fighters swearing allegiance to the jihadist grou

Suicide bomber brothers Inshaf Ibrahim (left) and Ilham Ibrahim (right) calmly walked into the luxury Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels on Easter Sunday morning and detonated their vests, killing guests having their breakfast

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April 25, 2019 · 2:58 pm

Security and Governance Failures Everywhere: A Concise Review by Gus Mathews

EMAIL NOTE  from Gus Mathews in London, 25 March 2019 commending the Article by Rajeewa Jayaweera (see below)

Rajeewa,

Thank you for this incisive analysis. Irrespective of the atrocities committed on Easter Sunday I am afraid the blame lies entirely with the government of the day. This government is slipshod, non-functional and above all complacent. While many will indicate the toxic relationship between the President and PM as the main fault it is much more than this simple issue. The security apparatus has been run down deliberately since the end of the Eelam war to appease the minorities and the West. Is it any wonder that it took the horrific murder of 359 innocents and the wounding of over 500 for this government to come to its senses. When it came down to security the last regime was on the ball and the security services would have heeded not only the International warnings but acted on it swiftly.

in Feb 2019- AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

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