Sri Lanka makes arrests in anti-Muslim hate crimes?
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(Vatican Radio) The Sri Lankan government is showing it is taking seriously the growing phenomenon of hate crimes against the country’s minority Muslim population. Police said on Sunday they have arrested 4 people, including a Buddhist monk and a police officer, accused of taking part in an attack on Muslim properties in May. The four belong to the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a hardline Buddhist organization. which Muslim groups blame for attacks on their businesses and mosques. BBS denies the allegation.Police spokesman Priyantha Jayakody told reporters the four were caught in a CCTV footage while setting fire to a Muslim-owned book shop and a mosque in Panadura, a suburb of the capital Colombo on May 17. Describing the monk and the police officer as “prominent members of the Bodu Bala Sena” Jayakody said they were arrested with a sword, a hockey stick and equipment used to make petrol bombs. He said they are close associa...
(Vatican Radio) The Sri Lankan government is showing it is taking seriously the growing phenomenon of hate crimes against the country’s minority Muslim population. Police said on Sunday they have arrested 4 people, including a Buddhist monk and a police officer, accused of taking part in an attack on Muslim properties in May. The four belong to the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a hardline Buddhist organization. which Muslim groups blame for attacks on their businesses and mosques. BBS denies the allegation.
Police spokesman Priyantha Jayakody told reporters the four were caught in a CCTV footage while setting fire to a Muslim-owned book shop and a mosque in Panadura, a suburb of the capital Colombo on May 17. Describing the monk and the police officer as “prominent members of the Bodu Bala Sena” Jayakody said they were arrested with a sword, a hockey stick and equipment used to make petrol bombs. He said they are close associates of extremist BBS leader, Buddhist monk Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera. An arrest warrant has been issued for the arrest of Gnanasara Thera, who is hiding in a safe location, after police linked him to dozens of hate crimes against Muslims establishments since April.
President Maithripala Sirisena's government has come under fire from opposition groups and diplomats for not doing enough to crack down on hardline Buddhist groups and protect Muslims. More than 20 attacks on Muslims, including arson at Muslim-owned businesses and petrol-bomb attacks on mosques, have been recorded since April 17. Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe have ordered police to uphold the law, but violence has continued.
Buddhists make up about 70 percent of Sri Lanka's population of 21 million, compared with around 9 percent for Muslims. Some hardline Buddhist groups accuse Muslims of forcing people to convert to
Jayakody said police had arrested eleven people for hate speech offences this month, including a Muslim for a Facebook post against Buddhism and a Tamil accused of attacking a mosque.
Sri Lanka's Cabinet of Ministers last week directed the law enforcement authorities and the Attorney General to take immediate action against instigators and perpetrators of violence and hate speech against religious and ethnic groups.
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Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
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Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
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Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...