Sri Lanka, anti-Christian protests in southern city
Colombo (AsiaNews) - A vast campaign of anti-Christian protests is underway in the city of Middeniya - district of Hambanthota - in southern Sri Lanka. It is organised by radical Buddhist leaders, unhappy with the activities of the Assemblies of God, a Protestant group that recently arrived in the area. Last June 22, about 7,000 people took to the streets with signs saying things like "Buddhists are in danger" and "Let's save Middeniya from fundamentalists!"
The demonstration came after a few days of threats and aggression against local Christians. For all of last week, demonstrators in the street and on buses asked the people to gather on Sunday to protest. On June 12, the Buddhist temple of Middeniya had launched a petition against the presence of the church of the Assemblies of God.
The anti-Christian campaign is supported by two extremist political parties, in the governing coalition: the Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Heritage Party), made up of Buddhist monks in favour of anti-conversion laws, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front), of Marxist origin.
Beddegama Samitha Thero, a local Buddhist monk, tells AsiaNews that "an Assemblies of God pastor recently arrived in the village, where he rented a house and began to hold prayer meetings, which were attended by some Buddhists. After each meeting, the man distributed food to the participants, so that more came each day". It was probably this that irritated the local Buddhist leaders. "But there's no reason to protest in this way", the monk denounces, "everyone is free to follow and choose his own religion. In a moment of such serious ethnic tensions in our country, these Buddhists are simply throwing fuel on the fire, and creating further problems".
The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka denounces that now the Assemblies of God pastor, together with his wife and three children, are barricaded in their home out of fear of attack.
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