Remembering April 21
One year ago, this morning, at 08:45 a.m. to be precise, a nation’s balmy Sunday, its tranquility affirmed by the Easter religious festivities, was shattered in a most terrifying way – with sudden bomb blasts in the thick of celebrating people. With almost simultaneous blasts triggered in several separate locations on the island, the instant carnage seemingly girdled the nation.
The shock and mass tragedy was compounded by the equally traumatising dimension of the deliberate targeting of a particular religious community at a moment of joyous celebration of its communal life. Further adding to the collective psychological turmoil on that Easter Sunday was the indication that the carnage was perpetrated ostensibly in the name of another religion, indeed, a theologically somewhat allied one.
Nine suicide bombers targeted three Christian churches and three hotels, killing at least 279 people including 37 foreigners. Being Easter morning, it was at the moment of most celebration: in three important, crowded, churches and at festive meal time in hotel restaurants. Each bomber eerily blended in or, attempted to blend in, with the celebrating community when committing their mass murder.
Suicide bombing is something older Sri Lankans are familiar with having lived through thirty years of internal ethnic strife and insurgency. But coming, as it did, without any preceding strife and unrest, the Easter bombing strike is particularly terrifying in revealing the possibilities of acts by secretive evil-doers on the margins of our society.
That those demented attackers were certainly not representative of any faith was amply demonstrated by the immediate response by the very community of the religion the attackers claimed to have inspired them. Aside from the collective condemnation by the Islamic institutions of the nation, Muslims all over the land came forward to root out and expose any elements of that crazed fringe cabal.
Their ready collaboration with the State security agencies enabled the country to quickly round up the remnants of this conspiracy. Despite anxieties about the impact on the economy, the degree of social calm achieved within months rapidly brought back world confidence in our island society enabling tourism and allied sectors to bounce back by December 2019. Tourism quickly resumed its key role as an income-earner and this year had shown rosy prospects if not for the totally unexpected outbreak of COVID-19.
Nevertheless, the suicide bomb strikes of 21st April, 2019, became a moment for much reflection by all sections of society about the role of fringe elements in all religions and ideologies. The reality that such destructive elements lurk in dark corners within communities has become a challenge to society and our island civilisation.
We have understood the role each religious community must play to bring about socially beneficial and positive outcomes from the practice of faith. The very practice of faith, the professing of religiosity, cannot leave any room whatsoever for wayward, destructive voices and actions to intervene, distract, confuse and ultimately disrupt the life of that faith community.
In Buddhism, our majority religion, such discipline is entrenched as the ‘Vinaya’ in both monkhood and lay life. In the other faiths, too, the requirement for discipline and rigor in faith-inspired living is integral to their doctrines and to spiritual fulfillment. The authenticity of each religious community is thereby affirmed by the degree of purity of actual practice and wholesomeness in collective life.
Thus, all religions are challenged by this spectre of doctrinal supremacism and fundamentalism espoused by a few elements within their communities. We have also seen how, in different parts of the world, such hardline elements have sparked internecine violence and displacement of whole communities which have been targeted.
Emerging, as we have done, from years of political violence sparked on ethnic grounds, we are now challenged to nip any incipient religious rivalry politics in the bud from wherever it comes. Civilisation has flourished on this island for too long for us to lack the spiritual integrity to overcome any cabals of supremacism, exclusivism and terrorism that manipulate religion and philosophies for their barbaric ends.
Right now, we are grateful for the vigilance of our Security Forces and Police as they continue to monitor all aspects of national security even as they strain every sinew to enforce all the complex new social hygiene measures to protect us from COVID-19.
As all Sri Lankans commemorate those who died in the terror tragedy of 21st April, 2019, as an island community we must cherish our social unity and responsible co-operation in meeting our current and far bigger challenge. Unlike terrorism or ethnic rioting or war, COVID-19 is an unseen enemy whose devastating impact has, sadly, been unrelenting and is likely to have a far greater long term effect on our country.
Our continued social unity is critical if our island civilisation is to continue to prosper and become great again.
One year ago, this morning, at 08:45 a.m. to be precise, a nation’s balmy Sunday, its tranquility affirmed by the Easter religious festivities, was shattered in a most terrifying way – with sudden bomb blasts in the thick of celebrating people. With almost simultaneous blasts triggered in several separate locations on the island, the instant carnage seemingly girdled the nation.
The shock and mass tragedy was compounded by the equally traumatising dimension of the deliberate targeting of a particular religious community at a moment of joyous celebration of its communal life. Further adding to the collective psychological turmoil on that Easter Sunday was the indication that the carnage was perpetrated ostensibly in the name of another religion, indeed, a theologically somewhat allied one.
Nine suicide bombers targeted three Christian churches and three hotels, killing at least 279 people including 37 foreigners. Being Easter morning, it was at the moment of most celebration: in three important, crowded, churches and at festive meal time in hotel restaurants. Each bomber eerily blended in or, attempted to blend in, with the celebrating community when committing their mass murder.
Suicide bombing is something older Sri Lankans are familiar with having lived through thirty years of internal ethnic strife and insurgency. But coming, as it did, without any preceding strife and unrest, the Easter bombing strike is particularly terrifying in revealing the possibilities of acts by secretive evil-doers on the margins of our society.
That those demented attackers were certainly not representative of any faith was amply demonstrated by the immediate response by the very community of the religion the attackers claimed to have inspired them. Aside from the collective condemnation by the Islamic institutions of the nation, Muslims all over the land came forward to root out and expose any elements of that crazed fringe cabal.
Their ready collaboration with the State security agencies enabled the country to quickly round up the remnants of this conspiracy. Despite anxieties about the impact on the economy, the degree of social calm achieved within months rapidly brought back world confidence in our island society enabling tourism and allied sectors to bounce back by December 2019. Tourism quickly resumed its key role as an income-earner and this year had shown rosy prospects if not for the totally unexpected outbreak of COVID-19.
Nevertheless, the suicide bomb strikes of 21st April, 2019, became a moment for much reflection by all sections of society about the role of fringe elements in all religions and ideologies. The reality that such destructive elements lurk in dark corners within communities has become a challenge to society and our island civilisation.
We have understood the role each religious community must play to bring about socially beneficial and positive outcomes from the practice of faith. The very practice of faith, the professing of religiosity, cannot leave any room whatsoever for wayward, destructive voices and actions to intervene, distract, confuse and ultimately disrupt the life of that faith community.
In Buddhism, our majority religion, such discipline is entrenched as the ‘Vinaya’ in both monkhood and lay life. In the other faiths, too, the requirement for discipline and rigor in faith-inspired living is integral to their doctrines and to spiritual fulfillment. The authenticity of each religious community is thereby affirmed by the degree of purity of actual practice and wholesomeness in collective life.
Thus, all religions are challenged by this spectre of doctrinal supremacism and fundamentalism espoused by a few elements within their communities. We have also seen how, in different parts of the world, such hardline elements have sparked internecine violence and displacement of whole communities which have been targeted.
Emerging, as we have done, from years of political violence sparked on ethnic grounds, we are now challenged to nip any incipient religious rivalry politics in the bud from wherever it comes. Civilisation has flourished on this island for too long for us to lack the spiritual integrity to overcome any cabals of supremacism, exclusivism and terrorism that manipulate religion and philosophies for their barbaric ends.
Right now, we are grateful for the vigilance of our Security Forces and Police as they continue to monitor all aspects of national security even as they strain every sinew to enforce all the complex new social hygiene measures to protect us from COVID-19.
As all Sri Lankans commemorate those who died in the terror tragedy of 21st April, 2019, as an island community we must cherish our social unity and responsible co-operation in meeting our current and far bigger challenge. Unlike terrorism or ethnic rioting or war, COVID-19 is an unseen enemy whose devastating impact has, sadly, been unrelenting and is likely to have a far greater long term effect on our country.
Our continued social unity is critical if our island civilisation is to continue to prosper and become great again.
