Saudi Arabia welcomes racist Sri Lankan monk to combat 'religious extremism'

 

31 May 2022

Sri Lanka’s notorious Buddhist monk Galagodaaththe Gnanasara has been welcomed by officials of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh as the kingdom bestowed their support to eradicate “religious extremism” in Sri Lanka.

Gnanasara had been invited for a two-day visit reportedly under the request of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman. However, a senior representative of the (Body Bala Sena) BBS, Dilantha Withanage has refuted the claim stressing that they were not invited by Salman and did not hold discussions with him or the Ministry of Defence regarding religious extremism in Sri Lanka. He did not reject his presence in Riyadh during top-level discussions.

Gnanasara, a former convict, is notorious for his bigotry and violence, having been found guilty of threatening the wife of Prageeth Eknaligoda; a critic of the then government in 2010. He was released from prison following a presidential pardon. 

In October 2021, he was tasked with heading the Sri Lankan President’s controversial Presidential Task Force focused on achieving “One Country One Law”. A task force that has faced widespread criticism from human rights organisations and which the International Commission of Jurists warns may be used to target minorities.

Gnanasara has faced severe criticism for spreading hate speech and attacking religious minorities. In 2014, prior to the anti-Muslim riots, he told a cheering Sinhala nationalist crowd in Aluthgama that “if one marakkalaya ( Muslim) lays a hand on a Sinhalese that will be the end of all of them”. The resulting violence killed four people and left 80 injured, with hundreds left homeless. Amongst the sites attacked were mosques, Muslim homes, businesses, and even a nursery.

Whilst the Body Bala Sena (BBS), Gnanasara’s organisation, denied responsibility for the riots he has repeatedly stoked fear amongst the Sinhala public warning them of the need to resist eradication. The BBS also has strong ties with Myanmar’s extremist 969 and with the radical monk Wirathu who are similarly criticised for stoking resentment against the Rohingya population.

Gnanasara has vehemently opposed Tamil’s rights to self-determination, threatening last year of a “river of blood”.

“We will not allow the Tamils to find a solution through devolution. If they demand a separate state again, a river of blood will flow in the North and East.”

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also faced severe criticism for spreading religious extremism through its promotion of Wahhabism, “a rigid, intolerant, highly dogmatic, puritanical, and contrary to liberal values”. Writing in Foreign Policy, Farah Pandith, a former (and first) Special Representative to Muslim Communities to the US Department of State, wrote that “extremism is Riyadh’s top export”.

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