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Following the Supreme Court determination regarding the Proposed Bill on Prohibition of Forcible Conversion, Buddhists have expressed dissatisfaction with the Constitutional provision... [MORE] The Supreme Court delivered a determination in August this year on a challenge to a Private Member's Bill which sought to incorporate an order of nuns of the Roman Catholic Church. The Supreme Court has in recent years dealt with two very similar cases wherein Bills for the incorporation of two Christian bodies were held to be unconstitutional. This bench followed those rulings in substance while also invoking for the first time since this Constitution was promulgated in 1978, the foremost place of Buddhism guaranteed by Article 9.... [MORE] Watching the film of Victor Hugo's book 'Les Miserable' on TV a few days ago, I was reminded of one of the most moving and inspiring encounters ever described. It is the moment when Monseigneur Bienvenu the saintly Christian Bishop saves Jean Valjean from being returned to the galleys by telling the police that the silver plates stolen from him by the dissolute fugitive were a gift, and giving him the silver candlesticks as well. With the words "Jean Valjean, my brother, you belong no longer to evil but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I with-draw it from dark thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!" Monseigneur Bienvenu launches the conversion of Jean Valjean. It is a dispiriting thought that in terms of the narrow unenlightened degeneracy of Sinhala Buddhist extremism that is relentlessly driving the thrust for anti conversion legislation,... [MORE] |
What I see as the illiberal spectre of anti-conversion legislation has loomed into focus once again with the preparation by the JHU of a private member's bill, and the UPFA government responding with a bill of its own. It appears that the worst aspects of majoritarian nationalism are driving the agenda on this issue. Jejune political leadership on the part of both major parties that has failed to inspire a celebration of the diversity of the Sri Lankan polity, have enabled the politics of the mainstream to be hijacked by procrustean agendas of groups such as the JHU....[MORE]
An Interview with the General Secretary Q. Mr. Yogarajah, if you are to make a one sentence comment about the proposed anti-conversion Bill, what would it be? A. It is a violation of one's fundamental and human rights. Q. How can these laws affect the Sri Lankan community, particularly the Church? A. There are two bills, one by JHU and the other by the Minister of Buddha Sasana, Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. The JHU bill is already gazetted and tabled in Parliament. We have just seven days to challenge it before the Supreme Court, and we have already petitioned the courts.... [MORE] How the JHU Anti-Conversion Law
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