| by S.J.Emmanuel
( October 8, 2014, Berlin, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Editorial published by the Daily News, a state own nwespaper, in its edition of 30th Sept.2014, accuses me of being racist and you are basing your accusation on the assumption that I compared Parabaharan to Jesus Christ. I never said or wrote any such Thing in my life.
Some years ago, one Mr. Weerasinghe from Canada made this Statement in the media and I laughed over it as a wild and mad accusation.
Unfortunately it was taken into Google, and later many innocent People repeated it. I felt very sad about this horrendous lie being repeated.
As I explained in my interviews, I am not a mad or foolish man to make such a comparison - I never made any such or similar Statement.
From 1973- 1986, I was involved as Professor and Dean of the faculty of theology, in the National Seminary in Kandy and contributed to the education and Formation of over 300 Sinhalese priests - five of them are Bishops today. I met These Bishops in May this year in Rome.
As prefect of studies in the Seminary, I have been more than once to invite a Buddhist Monk from the Kandy Maha Vihara to teach Buddhism to our priest-students.
Hence I have been and still a friend of the Sinhalese and the Buddhists - as Claimed in my interview to the Sri Lanka Guardian some months back. I love the Sinhala People and the Buddhist Religion.
But I am a Defender of my People and criticise the Government and their Actions as well as extremists who want to oppress or discriminate the other ethnic and religious Groups.
I will continue to struggle for true peace in Sri Lanka based on human equality and justice.
Please give Publicity and help me to be better understood.
Full text of the editorial written by a henchman of the Rajapaksa regime is follows;
GUIDED BY LIBERAL POLICY, THEY TELL US
Some newspapers are full of it but it is not clear why they are, as in society in general, there is neither a blip or a hiccup with regard to the inner workings of some organizations that have just as others do, been conducting public meetings and going about their own business.
This newspaper editorial is not about any particular group, association or organization but rather about the curious behaviour of certain news media on germane issues of free speech and free expression.
There has never been an issue raised about the racism versus free speech dichotomy when it concerns the likes of say, the individual who styles himself as 'Father Emmanuel', who generally defends outfits that follow the diktat of the Tamil Tiger rump groups such as the myriad fronts that continue to swear by Prabhakaran.
Emmanuel is a 'man of god' that once compared Prabhakaran to Jesus Christ, but that seems to be the least of his racist, hate mongering statements that would merit a slot in the hall of infamy as being motivated by the basest of instincts of racially motivated rabble rousing.
Then there are the so called Bishops in certain diocese in Sri Lanka who made it a speciality to further the Tamil Tiger cause.
The Bishop Rayappu Joseph in Mannar has for long been prejudicial towards the Sri Lankan government, the latter which in fact enabled the devout to flock to places of worship in the areas that were infested with the Tamil Tigers that the Bishop seemed to evince an extraordinary interest in...
The Catholic Church no less had to issue disclaimers about the statements that have been made by the Rev. Rayappu Joseph and the like, but yet the New York Times for instance has seen no racism in such 'men of god.'
But this same newspaper has been sending its reporters, magnifying glass in hand, to make sure that meetings held by certain Buddhist monks in Colombo are given the spotlight for allegedly being pro Sinhala Buddhist, needlessly chauvinist and -- allegedly of course -- being virulently anti-minority.
The newspaper has also never hesitated to imply if not claim outright that these alleged 'racist' groups operate under the patronage of the state.
That's because the state respects everybody's right to free speech, and that includes Rayappu Joseph the Mannar Bishop who can do no wrong as per the 'liberal' canon on free expression as per reckoning of the New York Times.
So it appears that the Fr. Emmanuel brand of hate under cover of the cloth is somehow not racist or incendiary but if a Buddhist monk so much as says one word in defence of Buddhists in this country, the reporters of the New York Times are seen to be catatonic about it.
The NYT in its latest dispatch from Colombo among other things faults the government for allowing a group of individuals belonging to the Buddhist order of the clergy to hold a meeting in Colombo, which incidentally peacefully convened and peacefully dispersed.
It was nothing like a dozen meetings of the sort that regularly take place in London at which Fr. Emmanuel says a thousand things that are rankling to Sinhala Buddhists in this country, on account of his flagrant patronage of pro LTTE or pro LTTE fronts' causes.
But yet the NYT never took note -- not even when the palpable blasphemy of Fr. Emmanuel comparing the murderous butcher Prabhakaran to Jesus Christ took place at one of Fr. Emmanuel's more notorious meetings held in London.
It does not matter to the NYT that Rayappu Joseph does not represent the Catholic Church but essentially speaks for himself -- nobody is found fault with for not condemning the Bishop outright, or 'hiding behind a disclaimer.'
But as far as Buddhist groups go nevertheless, mere dissociation won't do if the NYT is to be listened to, and they want all the offenders in jail no less -- for what crime nobody knows, though incitement is often cited with hardly any evidence, as if the men of the cloth have never engaged in incitement when they compared Prabhakaran to Jesus Christ! And if they did --shouldn't the NYT have gone to town about them, liberal even-handedness being the cornerstone of their general policy on reportage?
Please, do tell us about that!
 The Editorial published by the Daily News, a state own nwespaper, ...){kind=link}