The Becket Fund Concerned That Religious Intolerance
Threatens Disaster Relief Efforts in South Asia

• Of the 67 American aid organizations providing tsunami relief, 30 are religiously-affiliated, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim and others. (Source: InterAction)
• These relief efforts are in jeopardy as fear and religious persecution have survived the tsunamis of South Asia. Global news outlets report that Muslim extremists in Indonesia have directly threatened Christian humanitarian relief organizations for helping Muslim orphans. Similarly, Hindus in India have begun to tout their anti-conversion laws as a way to counter the "insidious nature" of Christian relief groups.

• The greatest danger to relief efforts may lie in predominantly Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka which has a history of anti-Christian violence, legal discrimination against religiously-affiliated relief organizations, and suspicion of foreign NGOs.
• Sri Lanka is a country of almost 20 million people situated on an island just south of India about the size of West Virginia. The population is approximately 70% Theravada Buddhist, 15% Hindu, 7% Christian, 7% Muslim and has been remarkably consistent for decades.
• Unlike the more familiar Mahayana and Zen Buddhists, Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka claim that the Buddha himself established Sri Lanka as a sanctuary for "pure" Buddhism and that it is their ethnic duty to protect it from outside corruption.
• The U.S. State Department's 2004 International Religious Freedom Report on Sri Lanka notes that "extremists" have caused an "overall deterioration in religious freedom."
• Over the last two years anti-conversion hysteria has resulted in over 160 violent attacks and church burnings in Sri Lanka.
• In addition, in the last two years, extremists Buddhists attacked foreign-funded, religiously-affiliated NGOs, such as World Vision, accusing them of "bribing" the poor to gain converts and undermining Sri Lanka's Buddhist identity.
• In January 2003 the Sri Lanka Supreme Court declared that religiously-affiliated organizations that aid the needy (of other religions) violate the Constitution, stating that "[T]he process of uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the people of Sri Lanka, not restricted to persons who are of the same religious belief or faith . . . would necessarily result in an inconsistency with the free exercise of a person's thought, conscience and religion." (Source: New Wine Harvest Ministries.)
• In July 2003 the Sri Lanka Supreme Court ruled that "the propagation and spreading of Christianity . . . would impair the very existence of Buddhism." (Source: Sisters of Menzingen.) Shortly thereafter, both Catholic and Protestant churches and Christian relief organizations, such as World Vision, were attacked and firebombed.
• In April 2004 the situation worsened after a group of nationalist Buddhist monks were elected to parliament as the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party. The JHU quickly introduced an anti-conversion bill that would, in effect, criminalize all attempts at religious conversion. Under the law, persons working in religiously-affiliated relief organizations that offer "gifts or material benefits" to disaster victims would be punished by 5 to 7 years in prison and fined up to 15 months of income (500,000 rupees).
• On November 19, 2004, the JHU introduced a constitutional amendment to make Buddhism the official state religion and prohibit "the spread of other forms of worship among the Buddhist[s]." The government's response has been silence.
• Also on November 19th, 31 members of Congress submitted a letter to the President of Sri Lanka, expressing concern over the anti-conversion proposals and reminding her that Sri Lanka is a voluntary signatory to several international covenants that uphold the freedom of religion.
• On January 11, 2005, JHU party leaders voiced strong objections to the channeling of in tsunami aid through the Christian relief NGO World Vision at a meeting of the national committee on disaster management. According to press reports the JHU claims that World Vision might use $11 million donated from an international charity cricket-match for "illegal purposes." The JHU, through a follow-up letter to the charity organizers, accuses World Vision of alleged "unethical religious conversion" efforts and demands that no charity money should be channeled through the NGO. (Source: Indian Express, TamilNet).

For more information, full press reports, and legal analysis please go to www.lankaliberty.org (created by the Becket Fund after a fact finding trip to Sri Lanka).

The Becket Fund is an international, interfaith, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Please visit www.becketfund.org to learn about our other domestic and international religious liberty work.

Selected Reports from the Global Press:

• "Another concern is the discovery of a leaflet at the Banda Aceh airport, allegedly printed by a political party and discussing the adoption of Acehnese orphans. The leaflet urges the Acehnese not to allow adoptions by 'infidels (kafir), Christians or missionaries.'" (The Jakarta Post, 1/08/05)
• Caritas warned: "Christian-based humanitarian aid groups in Muslim-dominated Aceh are a volatile presence that could threaten the uneasy peace that has settled over the devastated Indonesian province." (Aid groups warned against preaching, The Australian, 1/11/05)
• "[C]hief of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Hilmy Bakar Almascaty has warned Youth of the Streets to stick purely to humanitarian work. [Catholic priest] Fr Riley said he would not back off from his plans to work in the devastated area after seeing dozens of orphans wandering aimlessly among the ruins [in Indonesia]." (Australian Associated Press, 1/9/05)
• "JHU (Jathika Hela Urumaya) also joined JVP in raising questions about World Vision, a Christian organization, receiving the relief aid. JHU leader, Ven. Ellawala Madhanaada Thera, charged that the funds from the [charity] cricket match might be used for illegal purposes. He said the task force on tsunami relief setup by the government should further discuss the issue. . . . In the meantime, JHU deputy leader, Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thera, in a letter to Sri Lankan Cricket Association asked why the aid from the cricket match is being channeled through World Vision, which in the past has been accused of 'unethical religious conversion.' In the letter he demanded an assurance that World Vision would not use these funds to convert more people into fundamentalist Christianity." (TamilNet, 1/11/05)
• "The issue of unethical conversions to Christianity is snowballing in Sri Lanka, with the country's leading Buddhist organization demanding the government ban all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in anti-Buddhist activities, and introduce an anti-conversion law by the month end. Last week, a leading organization of Buddhist monks, National Bhikkhu Front (NBF) staged a large demonstration in the capital, Colombo, handing over a letter with the demand to President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
  ...
  Warns NBF secretary Venerable Galewala Chandraloka Thera, "We are prepared to take drastic steps if the government fails to keep the February-end deadline. It is bound to protect Buddhism by the provisions in the Constitution." Agrees the President of another key Buddhist monks' organization, Jathika Bhikku Sammelanaya (JBS), Venerable Ellawala Medananda Thera, who organized a fast unto death campaign last month, "This is a joint demand from Buddhists and Hindus to eliminate Christian fundamentalists whose activities have caused the biggest damage to religious co-existence here." (One World South Asia, 1/28/04)