The faith of the people of a whole nation cannot be put at stake due to terrorist acts of few extremists, says President Maithripala Sirisena.

He has said that it is the responsibility of everybody to view the actions taken by the security forces to destroy the wretched terrorism with understanding and trust as these are aimed at ending the period in which people look at each other with suspicion and fear, the President’s Media Division said.

President Maithripala Sirisena made these remarks at a meeting held with the leaders of Islamic Civil Society at the President’s official residence yesterday (06). The Islamic Civil Society leaders have stressed that the traditional Islamic community no way accepts such barbaric acts and the traditional Islamic people live in harmony and cooperation with the other religious communities.

Due to the incident on April 21st, the public has suspicious eyes on the whole Islamic community and they have fallen into a very embarrassing state, the leaders explained to the President and suggestions were presented in order to build peace and reconciliation between all ethnic groups.

Thus they have extended their fullest cooperation for the operations carried out by security forces to eliminate terrorism and expressed their strong dedications to control and cease every possibility for emergence of extremism. In order to eradicate certain religious myths that prevail among certain Islamic devotees, the true version should be propagated to them to become more realistic and programs regarding this have already been commenced, they added.

The Islamic Civil community was grateful for the President for taking the precise steps at this moment not letting any harm happen to the reputation of the public and mentioned that the reconciliation program carried on by President Sirisena since 2015 was of utmost value to maintain peace and reconciliation in the country in such a critical moment, the President’s Media Division stated.