Sri Lankan Muslims remember the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks
The head of the Negombo Grand Mosque said that Muslims “decided to show our solidarity.” Hence, they picked “the seniors home run by Catholic nuns in Negombo. We gave them medicines, food rations, healthcare products and more. We donated 100 bags of rations worth 2,000 rupees each to the church in Katuwapitiya, to be handed out to the needy in the village affected by the attack.”
Colombo (Asia News) – Several Muslim community and youth groups, as well as school children, recently commemorated the victims of last year's Easter Sunday attacks. To remember all of them, even to console wounded hearts, they raised money for those in need, and two songs were released to build hope.
“Muslims have been offended, accused of the ruthless attack on Easter Sunday. But it's not true,” said Movulavi Mohomad Salman, head of the Grand Mosque in Negombo, speaking to AsiaNews.
“We have had good relations with Buddhist and Christian communities for many years. In particular, in Negombo we know nuns, religious, Buddhist monks and lay people. But this was upset by the absolutely wicked behaviour of a group of extremists.
“We have been attacked,” he noted. “We want to make people understand that the Muslim community is not like that and it does not stand with the attackers. We also want to show our love, respect and generosity for our Buddhist and Christian brothers and sisters.”
For this reason, "the Negombo Muslim mosque committee has decided to show our solidarity and our love for people, but people really in need, with the aim of remembering all our brothers and sisters killed in the attacks on Easter Sunday on 21 April 21.”
“We have therefore chosen the seniors home run by Catholic nuns in Negombo. We gave them medicines, food rations, healthcare products and more. We donated 100 bags of rations worth 2,000 rupees each to the church in Katuwapitya, to be handed out to the needy in the village affected by the attack.”
“The difficult situation of people facing the lockdown period was forgotten. Hundreds of food kits were distributed at the Negombo police station, the Angurukaramulla temple, HQI police, Dalupotha church, the Grand Street church as well as in the Jaela and Negombo areas.”
Another group of young men and women from Negombo who work in the area expressed their affection to those in need at such a difficult time.
Fathima Carder, a Catholic mother of two, whose own mother is Muslim, works at the coordinator of the Negombo division of the National Peace Council (NPC). She told AsiaNews that, with the great help of the NPC, they were able to express their solidarity and good heart, remembering all those who were taken away in last year's ruthless attack.
Nimal Perera, coordinator of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement project, told AsiaNews that "youth groups from different NAFSO districts wrote a song as a tribute to our brothers and sisters who sacrificed their lives on 21 April 2019 in Colombo-Kochchikade, Negombo-Katuwapitiya, in the churches of Batticaloa and other places.
“This is a tribute to all those families who lost loved ones as well as an appeal by our youth in different districts from different ethnic groups and different faiths: ‘A single voice to safeguard life and protect humanity in our society, today.”
“We released a song, ‘Unity Building up of Hope,’ after observing two minutes of silence, along with everyone in Sri Lanka, at 8.45 am on 21 April 2020.”
The following song was written, produced and released under the auspices of the ‘Youth for Unity and Promotion of Peace and Reconciliation’ programme of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) in Negombo.
"It is not a rainy cloud / What you see in the sky ... But the bombs we have blasted / the black smoke rising up ... My son be a gusty wind / daughter be a pouring rain ... Dousing flames lit by us / Become the cooling breeze for us ... Think of tomorrow of our country / Yearning to become one family ... Throwing off caste and creed / Country bounded in deep love ...”
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13/09/2021 16:14
