This land will always have no shortage of problems !

“But tragically, the end of one form of terrorism has given way to the rise of another equally frightening form of terror. This time round the terrorists are clad in saffron robes. They have brought ridicule and disgrace to Buddhism – a noble religion that places great emphasis on tolerance, non-violence and compassion to all living beings.”

This is incorrect. The end of the LTTE did not give rise to “another equally frightening form of terror” – that terror was always there and was what caused the anti-tamil riots since independence. The Sinhala Buddhist monks have played political roles and encouraged violence throughout history to further their perceived duty to maintain the entire island as a Sinhala Buddhist island. Buddhist monks spewing racist venom was there way back when even before the 1956 anti-tamil riots – there was no tolerance and compassion from them even then. The rise of the tamil militancy and LTTE just made this terror take a back seat so as not to tip international opinion in favour of the tamils. Even during the LTTE period, Buddhist monks used to spew racist venom on religious TV channels in Sri-Lanka – they just weren’t allowed to take it to the next level of violence. Now that the LTTE is gone, and tamil resistance is pretty much over, this dormant terror has come to the forefront again to continue work on its perceived duty. One point though is that not all Buddhist monks and chapters in Sri-Lanka are this way – the monks who truly follow the Buddha’s teachings are busy with their spiritual practices out of sight of the general public and politics. The ones with the mics and the yelling, cursing, spewing racist venom and call to arms though are the ones that pull the strings in Sri-Lanka.