Extremists, Fundamentalists Dispute Christian Relief Efforts
Extremists in Sri Lanka, India, and elsewhere suggest aid and assistance—by both religious and nonreligious charitable organizations—to those survivors of the natural tragedy is criminal.
Although the death and devastation that now plagues Southeast Asia in the aftermath of recent tsunamis demands immediate attention by the global community, extremists in Sri Lanka, India, and elsewhere are contesting to aid and assistance by both religious and nonreligious charitable organizations—in particular Christian organizations.
According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an international, interfaith, public interest law firm, the current "debate" in Sri Lanka, for example, is whether such assistance by Christian missionary groups and the like is a crime carrying a five to seven year sentence.
Currently two anti-conversion laws are under review by Sri Lanka's Parliament may prohibit Christian organizations dedicated to providing assistance to those in need from participating in the relief effort, the Becket Fund said Saturday.
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"The chilling effect of Sri Lanka's proposed anti-conversion laws, India's law, and similar efforts to criminalize Christianity in Southeast Asia will inevitably cut off the very lifeline that sustains the growth and redevelopment of the region," said Jared N. Leland, Esq., Media and Legal Counsel for The Becket Fund.
Drafted to promote and preserve Buddhism's "foremost place" in this island nation, the laws criminalize any effort that may influence another to convert, whether conversion is the intended effect or not. “Providing aid and assistance to the poor, elderly, and devastated in times of crisis are examples of what triggers the laws' application,” the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund reported. “Thus, Christian missions and organizations in Sri Lanka willing and eager to provide food, clothing, and shelter to those desperately in need would either face prosecution and imprisonment or be forced to forgo the effort entirely.”
Also, most recently, the TamilNet news agency reported that Wimal Weerawansa, a Member of Parliament from Sri Lanka’s Colombo Electoral district and Propaganda Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP) party, said at a meeting of the national committee on disaster management that his party was deeply concerned about the channeling of tsunami relief aid through World Vision, one of the largest Christian relief and development organizations in the world.
On Monday, World Vision received over 14.6 million Australian dollars (11.2 million U.S. Dollars) raised at a one-day international charity cricket match to help the tsunami victims in Asia.
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a party of Buddhist monks, also joined JVP in raising questions about World Vision receiving the relief aid. According to TamilNet, JHU leader Ellawala Madhanaada Thera charged that the funds from the cricket match might be used for illegal purposes. He said the task force on tsunami relief setup by the government should further discuss the issue.
However, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumarathunga who presided the meeting said the government had no authority to monitor the large amount of tsunami aid being obtained by NGOs.
In a letter to Sri Lankan Cricket Association, JHU deputy leader, Omalpe Sobhitha Thera, asked why the aid from the cricket match was being channeled through World Vision, which in the past has been accused of "unethical religious conversion". In the letter he demanded an assurance that World Vision would not use these funds to convert more people into “fundamentalist Christianity.”
The deputy leader warned that channeling the funds through such a group would tarnish the name of International Cricket Council, which had recruited the world's leading cricket players for Monday’s benefit match to help raise funds for World Vision's tsunami appeal. He said the funds should have been channeled through the United Nations or the Sri Lanka government.
Meanwhile, religious persecution has survived the tsunamis in other parts of Southeast Asia as well, stated the Becket Fund. Recent reports suggest that Christian aid workers are at risk in Indonesia where Muslim extremists suspect that humanitarian assistance is a pretext for conversion efforts. According to AsiaNews the Indonesian government, which has come under fire because there are too many foreigners in the Aceh and North Sumatra provinces, announced that they would have to leave by Mar. 26. After that date, Indonesian experts would carry out rehabilitation and reconstruction, said cabinet secretary Sudi Silalahi.
Also, extremist groups like the Lasker Mujahedeen, a paramilitary group that has been fighting Christians throughout Indonesia, has reportedly announced that it had sent volunteers to Aceh to “help fellow Muslims,” while Islamic fundamentalists have recently started to accuse Western and Christian aid groups working in the affected areas of proselytizing.
According to AsiaNews, Islamic militants have said that they would tolerate US presence “so long as it is justified by humanitarian reasons,” however if “there are any secret agents among them, Allah will destroy the U.S.”.
And similar to their southern neighbors in Sri Lanka, Hindus in India have begun to tout their very own anti-conversion law that threatens the ongoing aid efforts by Christian religious and humanitarian groups.
"Those in Southeast Asia need now, more than ever, helping hands to put them back on their feet," Leland said, "and these laws and efforts, the fruits of religious persecution, will do nothing more than push them back down."
Of the twelve nations hit directly by last month’s quake-tsunami devastation, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India were hit hardest, resulting in the deaths of over 150,000 between the three countries alone.
