UNETHICAL RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS

                                                          By L Jayasooriya

There are only three major religions in the world. They are Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. Then there is also the religion of the Siekhs. All religions are based on faith and they are known as “faith based”. Buddhism is not a religion and it is not based on faith. Hence the words faith, unethical conversion and religion do not apply to Buddhism. Hindus and Shieks are never known to indulge in converting others into their religions. The only people who indulge in aggressive conversions are “born again Christians” (who are offshoots of orthodox Protestant Christians). Evangelism is a major part of their agenda. They operate as a well organized full time operation.

At the very outset I must state that I have lived for many years among the Christians of Europe, English/French Canada and have had contact with Christians from America. I know personally that none of those with whom I had contact had any hate for Buddhism. It is the Christian Church as defined above and the fanatics that they have created who are responsible for all this. So please let it be understood that when I use the word Christian I am not making a blank reference to all Christians.

Whatever political support we give at the UN to Muslim countries are for reasons other than their religion. Religion has nothing to do with it. I want to make that also clear.

Most of the unethical conversions that are taking place today in Sri Lanka are done by Christians and they will be exposed in this book. There is no space here for Muslim activities and somebody else will have to write a book on it but simply because Muslim activities are not so visible as those of the Christians it would be a fatal mistake to imagine that the Muslims are doing nothing in view of their long history of hatred against Buddhism that has never ceased and is very unlikely ever to cease.

The land areas now known as Afganistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Maldives were all Buddhist countries with world famous artifacts to prove they were in fact Buddhist. Using the sword with abominable hate causing unbearable pain and suffering to the victims of slaughter the Muslims transformed all these Buddhist lands into Islamic countries. It is with the same hatred and in cold blood that they put to the sword several thousand Buddhist monks at the ancient Buddhist university of Nalanda in India as recently in the historical time scale as around the year 1100 AD. The university was founded in 450 AD and in 650 AD had 10,000 monks and a staff of 100. The Muslims are now in the process of taking control of Buddhist Southern Thailand which they will eventually join up with Malaysia.

In Sri Lanka and perhaps in all other Buddhist countries as well, they illegally settle down in colonies in ancient sacred Buddhist sites with innumerable artifacts in an attempt to eliminate the Buddhist nature of these lands and convert them to so-called Muslim lands. This is all part of their long term strategy of making Sri Lanka a Muslim country with the help of politicians whom they hope to buy over. It is with that intention that the Muslims started settling down illegally in our sacred Buddhist Deegavapi lands during the tenure of the time of Kumarathunge and are today in 2007 continuing what they started earlier. Instead of Deegavapi why cannot they settle down illegally in crown lands? The answer is that the whole object of the exercise is to eliminate Buddhist artifacts and claim all those Buddhist areas as Muslim lands. The LTTE has destroyed Buddhist artifacts in vast areas. The Muslims are destroying the rest. It will not be long when all the artifacts will be destroyed.

A Muslim will never vote for anybody other than a Muslim. Incidentally, that combined with the apathy of the Buddhists has resulted in Muslims as the mayors of Colombo and Kandy. All Muslim parties give political support only if support is given in turn for their agenda which is against the Buddhists.

They always live in colonies by buying up land from Buddhists and Hindus. In addition there are some West Asian Muslim countries that lend them vast amounts of money free of interest to buy up large tracts of land to block up for Muslims to settle down as a colony. They also buy up land in prime locations along main roads to settle down and alter the Buddhist nature of this land and also for business. In view of Muslim intentions this is a threat to our security as a Buddhist nation. Buddhist organizations will have to take this up with the government especially the buying up of large areas of land for Muslim settlements.

They have zero tolerance to Buddhism and blast their loud speakers five times a day in this Buddhist land. It should now be clear to all of us that it is with intimidation of withdrawing political support that they have fixed loud speakers. They cannot question the use of loud speakers at Buddhist temples because this is a Buddhist land and not Saudi Arabia. Muslims never integrate into the rest of society. In intermarriage they convert the other party to Islam the same way as the Catholics do.

Their attitude against Buddhism is such that whereas a Christian shop will accept a Buddhist book for sale a Muslim shop will not. They will not even permit a book on Buddhism to enter Saudi Arabia but Saudi Arabia sent a copy of the Koran to each member of the parliament during the time of Kumarathunge. If our Buddhist politicians had an iota of self respect let alone any love for the Buddha dhamma and the land that gave them their birth they were duty bound to reciprocate with a copy of the Dhammapada to each and every corresponding member in Saudi Arabia and follow it up from there in keeping with our self respect but our politicians did nothing of the sort.

Is it because of the handouts that Saudi Arabia may be giving us? If that be so then our politicians have sold our self respect. In any case is not all the money that Saudi Arabia gives us for the benefit of Muslims only? Will they for example ever fund the building of a school with all facilities in a remote rural poor Buddhist area? I may not be wrong when I say that they would not give any money where the beneficiaries are Buddhists. That should make every self-respecting Buddhist sick not of the Muslims but of our politicians who permit activities that are not in the interest of Buddhists to take place. We will have to investigate where Saudi and other Muslim funding go and who has permitted it. We will also have to investigate the case of the Koran being distributed to all our politicians and nail down the persons responsible for not responding to Saudi Arabia the way we should have responded and also sort out the problem of loud speakers. This has gone far too far.

A Muslim will also never buy from a Buddhist shop if there is a Muslim shop in the area. Neither will a Tamil but the Singhalese Buddhists do not realize that the present stranglehold the Tamils who live among the Singhalese together with the Muslims have on the Singhalese could be considerably eased if the Singhalese were to boycott not only the Tamil and Muslim shops but also their hidden establishments that generate millions. Buddhists should be prepared to make a list of these establishments.

The Muslims do not operate in the open as the Christians. They use other means such as taking control. They have already grabbed illegally practically all the Buddhist lands of Deegavapi and are settling down in one vast Muslim colony. This is a continuation of what they were permitted to do during the previous regime. They tried to take over our premier Buddhist schools of Visaka and Ananda. It was our President Mahinda Rajapakse who was a minister at that time who prevented it. They tried to take over the French girl’s schools in France and failed but they have not given up. With intermarriage among Muslims and Christians and with the EU expanding eastwards adding countries with Muslim populations and judging by the way the Muslims transformed the Buddhist lands of Afganistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and even the Maldives into Muslim countries they will undoubtedly gather strength and would eventually gain control of all establishments in the EU. They have already generated ethnic problems in Southern France that have now spread to Holland and even Denmark. The EU does not realize this but are eager to swallow all the LTTE propaganda against the Singhalese.

In view of all this we should have vigilante committees in every village and they should be asked to keep an eye not only on the visible Christian conversions but also on invisible Muslim activities and conversions. If we do not, we will not survive and what happened to Buddhist lands such as Afganistan and Pakistan will not happen to us because of the strong presence of the Christians here but what happened to South Korea will happen to us. South Korea was a totally Buddhist country. After several years of Christian conversions about ten years ago they succeeded in converting the majority of the population to Christianity.

The Christians do not go to Muslim countries to convert because if they go they will return in two pieces but the Muslims while living in Christian countries are aggressively demanding that the Christians accept the Muslim way of life. The Christians therefore leave the Muslims alone and limit their activities against the non-violent Buddhists and Hindus.

So the problem the Buddhists have in our country is unethical conversion by both Christians and Muslims. Christian conversions are the most visible but it is a danger to us to ignore what the Muslims are doing just because their activities are not as visible as those of the Christians.

In view of the danger to us both from Christian and Muslim unethical conversions and since the maximum exposure to the Buddha dhamma for the whole nation is at “O” level it is very important that the schoolbooks 10 and 11 on Buddhism should be re-written by those who know the subject in such a way not only to create an interest to read up the rest later on, but also to provide security against unethical conversions. There should be one whole chapter on unethical conversions in book 11 explaining the modus operandi of the proselytizers in order to make the nation aware of what is happening not only in urban areas but also in rural areas.

Here are some facts relevant to be included in the new schoolbooks that I gathered from Buddhist organizations.

Adults/parents are advised to watch out for the following phenomena surfacing in their own villages and to be cautious about the activities of organizations that enter their villages:

·         Entering 100% Buddhist villages and acquainting themselves with Chief Monk of the village Temple and offering help to repair Temple;

·         Getting an introduction through the Temple Monk, to the villagers before they begin their strategies;

·         Offering to conduct nurseries and pre-schools with a promise to give a good education to the children. They also promise to enter these children to Grade 1 in schools when the age is correct for children to gain primary school education. Once children enter these schools, children are taught to insult the Lord Buddha and at times, even to smash Buddha Statues on the floor!

(their agenda is “ to catch the calf and the cow will follow”( get the children first and the mothers will follow) );

·         In very poor areas, they provide free meals, milk and cakes to pre-school children as an added incentive to lure them. Tiny children are taught songs and poems to frighten them against going to the Temple. An Example: “Mal pipila, mal pipila para depaththe, weradilawath yanne epa pansala patte” (meaning is “flowers have blossomed, flowers have blossomed on both sides of the road, do not go into the Temple even by accident”)

·         They teach little children in these schools that Lord Buddha was “a cruel father” because Prince Siddhartha left his son of 1 day old and his wife and left the royal palace and renounced the worldly pleasures to seek “Enlightenment”;

·         They also teach these unsuspecting children, never to pluck flowers and offer it at the Temple because without flowers, the birds and bees will have no food to eat and will die! These unscrupulous anti-Buddhist forces do not know, that flowers are offered at the Temples while the Buddhists contemplate on the withering away of flowers and the impermanence of life!

·         Organizing trips out of the village without parents accompanying them, so that they could take children to visit Churches and introduce Christianity as a first step;

·         Introducing village children to their “foster parents” who supposedly are funding their education and getting the foreign pen-pals to send letters with small messages of God together with Greeting Cards, booklets etc. In turn local children are encouraged to draw Christmas Cards and send to their sponsors- to do this, they have to refer Christian books provided by the Evangelists;

·         Constructing “Community Centres” in villages for cultural activities for children and youth. Through these activities young children are encouraged to “throw away” moral disciplines and inhibitions. Through these activities, they organize trips out of the village on days coinciding with Sinhala New Year/ Wesak/Poson to wean them away from our local cultural events and religious observances; Parents are advised never to send their children to these “Centres” to have any connections with them let alone go on these trips accompanying the children but when they discover that parents are coming they cancel the tip.

·         Organizing so called “Leadership Programmes” for youth in villages and taking them out of the village for training. At these training sessions, boys and girls are thrown together for so called “games” through which inhibitions regarding the sexes are thrown away and these youth are encouraged to misbehave publicly so that they lose the fears for such behaviour in society. Through such liberalism, youth are weaned away from the Buddhist moral values and encourage them to move towards the Church rather than the Temple disciplines or that of their parents. As before parents are advised never to send their children on these trips.

·         One particular Christian INGO/NGO that is about the largest operating on our soil offers to spend the medical expenses for youth who are sick and ailing and while under treatment and the money is being paid question the families whether or not they will embrace Christianity- if the answer is “NO”- medical expenses are stopped. How low-down and despicable is this kind of blackmail practiced by the so-called humanitarian organizations?

·         Infiltrate into the Education System of Sri Lanka and in the Grade 9 English Text Books, they have included a section on “Child Rights” and in the “exercises” children are asked to write 5 ways in which parents abuse their children? Through this method, children are also encouraged to rebel against their parents and parental guidance;

·         Employing “paid” youth/ disabled OR deformed men and donning the Saffron Robe on them and training them to act like Buddhist Monks after which, they are instructed to misbehave in society by purchasing liquor at local Bars, purchasing fish/meats at Super Markets, partaking of midday meals after 12.00 noon(after which time Buddhist Monks do not partake of solid meals until the following morning), to be seen in public places consuming liquor, getting such persons to travel in public transport while reading obscene printed material etc- ALL THIS IS DONE BY ANTI-BUDDHIST FORCES, to create a disillusionment in the minds of the ordinary Buddhist adherent and wean them away from Buddhist Temples in disgust against Buddhist Monks. In our society, genuine Buddhist Monks do not resort to these practices;

·         These anti-Buddhist forces involved in “unethical conversions” keep on instilling the idea in the minds of Buddhists that The Buddhist Temple and Monks do not do anything for society except asking for help from the villagers for the Temple! Non-Buddhists cannot understand or do not want to understand, that a Buddhist Temple and Temple Monks are serving the community around them every day-theirs is a life of total service (without expecting non-Buddhists to convert to Buddhism) even to non-Buddhists. Every aspect of the life of a Buddhist in this country, involves the guidance of Buddhist Temples and Buddhist Monks who help villagers from pregnant mothers, feeding solids to babies for the first time & teaching them “the first letters” at the correct age, visiting the sick and chanting Pirith, conducting special ceremonies as appropriate on the requests of villagers to help overcome family disputes, personal problems etc., offering last rights to the dead and dear departed family members etc- the list of the services done by Buddhist Monks is long and dedicated.

·         Offering villagers material benefits like roofing sheets, dry rations, clothing and materials, books for children, self-employment programmes like providing 3 Wheelers to male youth in exchange for conversion into Christianity;

·         In order to convince villagers that they must join the Christian activities being conducted, these organizations arrange for people from outside villages to come into villages where they operate and conduct loud prayer sessions to draw the attention of the village around.

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·         (parents/adults must know that it is against the law of this country, to rent a house in a residential area and conduct public prayer sessions inside- the building can be used only for living purposes )

In rural areas in particular, these evil gangs exploit the poverty of the people to destroy the existence of the dhamma in the country and the pride we have in our Buddhist cultural heritage. It is only awareness that will make us adopt measures to protect ourselves. Individually we have no power but collectively we have all the strength we need to ensure that such people are chased out of the village. In Colombo they ring the door bell. Never let them in because they come with the intention of destroying you. Chase them out and never enter into any discussion with them. They are our sworn enemy. In every village there should be vigilante committees to protect us from them.

There should be two compulsory questions on unethical conversions at the “O” level examination in Buddhism. This is a Buddhist country and this is our land. Christians and Muslims cannot dictate to us how we protect ourselves. We therefore have the right to expect and require that the government gives us the protection we need by including a chapter on unethical conversions written by a knowledgeable patriotic group.

Today our people stand and watch with their mouths open as these men and women of evil descend on us and break up whole families by converting the young to their religion with money and good trips to see the bright lights of Colombo and all the other things that attract the youth. The first step to achieve this is to break the link our children have with our temples and with that in mind they build “youth centers” with all kinds of attractions for the young like music that appeal to the lower levels of intelligence, games to play and good things to eat as well. Once that is done the temple is soon forgotten and the rest is easy.

It should be well explained to the children that the motive of these evil men and women is to destroy our culture and the pride we have in our heritage so that we are reduced to the level of a nation without a heritage and without a culture. If they succeed in that, conversions will become still easier. They also specialize in daycare centers and pre-kindergarten education free of charge where in very subtle ways they make children hate the Buddha. Please remember that if the proselytizer gets access to very young children then all efforts by the parents to bring them up as true Buddhists will fail. The proselytizers permanently twist the brain of the child. Protect your children from them and never let them have contact with your children.

The government is aware of the vast sums of money that foreign NGOs are pouring into the country to destroy our heritage and culture and yet it is permitting them to do so without kicking out the undesirables among them. It is the duty of the government to protect Buddhist and Hindu children but they do not seem to be doing so. Most Buddhist organizations that are aware of these conversions have not even taken the first step of setting up vigilante committees in every village. A few organizations work very hard and set up medical clinics to get the opportunity to inform the villagers about what is happening around them but to be very effective they need the support of other Buddhist organizations which they do not get. Most other Buddhist organizations do not do anything meaningful. Sometimes I wonder.

If you have any information to give about conversions please contact CFBA at (011) 440 4023