Since the time of the Sinhala Kings, the Muslim community lived in peace and harmony with the other communities of this country. A few mislead Muslim youth broke that goodwill by the Easter Sunday carnage, said Vice President of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) Mufti Yusuf Haniffa in an interview with the Sunday Observer.
“There are over 2,500 Muftis in our organisation and 2,500 mosques in Sri Lanka. We came to know that some of our Muslim youth were working against Islamic principles (Sharia) and involved in some violent incidents,” he said.
“We informed the authorities about this two years ago and even a week before this carnage we brought it to the notice of responsible people,” Mufti Haniffa said.
“Although, those misled people claimed that they are Islamists, we don’t regard them as Islamists because they killed others and themselves. According to the Quran it is a big sin”.
“We treat those people as terrorists. We cannot allow the performance of their last rites according to Islam”.
“Social media in the Tamil language gave them undue publicity after the Mawanella incident”.
“As Islamists, we condemn the hating people of other religions. The Quran very clearly states that Islamists should not hate people of other religions and not to get involved in killing other human beings.”
“Due to this terrorist acts by misguided people, all communities in the country are suffering and living in fear,” Mufti Haniffa said.
Commenting on the ISIS he said, “It is not a religion. The ISIS is involved in violent activities to capture other countries in the name of Islam. As a result of their evil acts Islamists have become refugees and sunk to a low level. Islam has nothing to do with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Those organisations are not Islamic in nature,” he said.