COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Islamic clerics in Sri Lanka asked Muslim women on Tuesday to continue to avoid wearing face veils until the government clarifies whether they are once again allowed now that emergency rule has ended four months after a string of suicide bomb attacks.
Clerics are wary of the Muslim community being targeted again for violence, as it was in the aftermath of April’s Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 260 people, said Fazil Farook, spokesman for All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama, Sri Lanka’s largest group of Islamic clerics. Two local radical Muslim groups have been blamed for the attacks.
Farook urged Muslim women not to rush into wearing their veils again.
“They have managed in the past and we are asking them to do it the same way,” Farook said adding some women have refused to come in public without covering their faces because they had accustomed to it.
After the Easter attacks on three churches and three tourist hotels, Sri Lanka’s government brought the country under emergency rule, giving sweeping search, arrest and detention powers to the military and police. President Maithripala Sirisena also used the emergency law to issue a decree banning covering faces in all manners, including face veils.
Emergency rule had been extended each month until last week, when Sirisena allowed the law to lapse. He issued a separate order allowing the military to maintain peace.
In the wake of the Easter attacks, gangs mostly from majority Sinhalese community attacked mosques and Muslim-owned shops, killing at least one person. Muslims also were subjected to hate speech in public and on social media.
Farook said clerics were asking the Muslim community to remain calm.
“(Think of) what happened in the past and don’t allow racial elements to take things to another level,” he said.
Sri Lankan Islamic clerics seek clarity on face veil ban
Sri Lankan Islamic clerics seek clarity on face veil ban
- Clerics are wary of the Muslim community being targeted again for violence
- Emergency rule had been extended each month until last week, when Sirisena allowed the law to lapse
Irish farmers protest EU’s Mercosur free trade deal
- The demonstration, large by Irish standards, followed similar protests in Poland, France, and Belgium on Friday
ATHLONE, Ireland: Thousands of Irish farmers, many of whom traveled across the country on tractors, protested on Saturday against the EU’s Mercosur trade deal after a majority of EU states gave a provisional go-ahead for its largest-ever free-trade accord.
Opponents led by France, the EU’s largest agricultural producer, failed to convince enough fellow member states that the deal with South American nations would flood the market with cheap food products and undercut domestic farmers.
Under pressure from opposition parties, farming groups, and members of its own coalition, the Irish government argued that the deal lacks safeguards for what it says are weaker food safety standards in South America.
BACKGROUND
The demonstration, large by Irish standards, followed similar protests in Poland, France, and Belgium on Friday.
“It’s an absolute disgrace on behalf of the farmers and people that have put Europe where it is today,” said Joe Keogh, a farmer from the central village of Multyfarnham at the protest in the nearby town of Athlone.
“It’s going to close down the whole countryside.”
Protesters held placards reading “Don’t sacrifice family farms for German cars,” “Our cows follow the rules, why don’t theirs,” and “Sell out.”
The demonstration, large by Irish standards, followed similar protests in Poland, France, and Belgium on Friday.
While Ireland is a small exporting nation seeking to diversify beyond its reliance on the US market, it has large beef and dairy industries that are major employers.
Opponents of the deal have secured some concessions and compensation for EU farmers.
The European Parliament must approve the accord
before it takes effect, and, like France, Ireland has pledged to fight its rejection in what could be a tight vote.
“The Irish farmer is at great risk as it is. We’re a small country, we don’t have large farmers and farmers struggle to make an income from the farm as it is,” said Niamh O’Brien, a farmer who traveled from the western town of Athenry.
“But also it’s about the quality of the food we are eating. It has severe implications for both the farmer and the consumer.”
