Rishad responds to allegations at PSC

Former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen says that the Quran does not state that non-Muslims must be killed and that it is a false accusation being made by certain individuals.

Testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee today (28), he said nowhere in the Quran does it ask Muslims to carry out violent acts such as the cruel and inhumane Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. 

“It completely goes against the religion of Islam,” he said. 

He charged that certain individuals are engaged in a hate campaign to destroy the coexistence between Sinhalese and Muslims in the country by connecting these two things.

Bathiudeen also said that Islam does not tell Muslims to divide the country or to establish a separate state or to cause any trouble or harm for followers of other religions and that neither will they ever do such things.

He says that no one has ever attempted to bring Saudi Arabia’s laws to Sri Lanka and if anyone is trying to do such a thing it is completely wrong according to Islam. 

He said that Islam says you have to respect the laws within your country and that it urges Muslims to respect the Constitution.

“Islam says we cannot go beyond the Constitution,” he said, adding, that this is the reasons why they as real Muslims decided not to help establish a government out of the Constitution. This was in reference to the last year’s constitutional crisis.

Responding to a question regarding newspaper reports alleging his coordinating secretary being arrested following the Easter Sunday attacks, the MP denied the arrested suspect was his coordinating secretary.

“Hanoon is not a coordinating secretary of mine. That is a lie”. However, the parliamentarian said that after these questions cropped up, he looked in to the issue by requesting a ‘B report’.

Bathiudeen said that the B report states that Hanoon is a former Pradeshiya Sabha member of his party, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC). 

He said that around 400 suspects were arrested from across the country on suspicion at that time after the attacks and that this former local politician was among them.

He stressed that the ‘B report’ clearly states that Hanoon was arrested on suspicion and released after investigations had proven that he was innocent. 

Asked about reports which had alleged that a house belonging to his sister at Enderamulla, Wattala was leased out to terror suspects, the former minister said that neither he nor his sister had anything to do with this. 

He said that one of his two surviving sisters has been living in Canada for the past 4-5 years. He said that she does not own a house in Wattala, but her father-in-law’s house is in Wattala.

He said they left that house 5 years ago and now it is taken care of by a brother of his brother-in-law, who acts as the caretaker and frequently gives it on rent. 

“After this incident I looked into what actually happened.”  He said that the house had been advertised online to be leased and was taken by an individual for a period of one year for Rs 60,000 per month.

He had signed a lease agreement for a year, he said, adding that the house was rented out by a brother of his sister’s husband in February and that they had no involvement in the deal.

The ACMC leader further stated that there are a few MPs and religious leaders in the country who level false accusations to harm the unity among the country’s communities. 

He said that despite the fact that there are a large number of Buddhist monks in the country who are actually working for Buddhism and its principles, certain media channels only show the same 4 or 5 monks each day and only broadcast their statements “as if they have accepted a contract.” 

He said that the Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith did his utmost to prevent another ‘Black July’ in the country. However due to the false accusations leveled by some against Muslim leaders, the Muslim-owned shops in Mawanella were torched, he charged. 

“All accusations against me are false. I never met Zahran. I have never supported terrorism. In fact I and my family were victims of terrorism,” said Bathiudeen during his testimony, 

He added: “The photos being circulated saying that I met terrorist bomber Zahran are in fact photos of me meeting a certain Moulevi Nisthar in October 2015, whose appearance is somewhat similar to Zahran. Moulevi Nisthar has now lodged a complaint with Nittambuwa Police against these false allegations.”
 
Regarding a question on street name boards in the country displaying Arabic lettering, the minister agreed that it is not fair to use Arabic in road names and that using the languages of Sinhala, Tamil and English is sufficient in Sri Lanka. 

“In Arabic colleges they teach in Arabic. Arabic letters are required by those colleges to teach, but for just roads that is not necessary,” he said.