COLOMBO : Congratulations to President Ranil Wickremesinghe who has informed the CID Director to commence an immediate investigation against Pastor Jerome Fernando’s controversial statements where he insulted the Buddha in front of a packed congregation recently and spoke against Lord Buddha, Buddhism, islam and Hinduism and said even the Buddha needed Jesus.
At a national security council meeting held on Monday morning, the National Security Head raised concerns with the President over the Pastor’s critical remarks against Buddhismm, Islam and Hinduism and said this could lead to communal tensions in the country.
Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickramanayake came out strongly against Jerome’s comments insulting the Buddha and said there would be no room for anyone to insult any religion and stern action would be taken against such individuals.
Over the weekend, a video showing Jerome preaching against Lord Buddha and Buddhism made its rounds on social media, creating an uproar amongst the majority of Buddhists, who demanded immediate action against the Pastor for his derogatory remarks.
In his video, Jerome claimed that in a Buddhist’s mind, they never hear the love of Buddha as their focus is enlightenment and said that every Buddhist needs Jesus.
In the same sermon, Fernando also insulted Islam and Hinduism. In his sermons against Islam, Jerome said that Muslims cannot even call Allah as ‘Father’.
“You have 99 names for God in Islam. And yet love is not one of those,” Jerome said.
In his sermons insulting Hinduism, Jerome questioned the reasons why Hindus venerate so many animals.
“Why do they have a God that looks like an elephant? Why do they have Gods that have 10,000 hands? They are not far from the truth. Why do they venerate cows? They are very close but they are still far away. Someone needs to go and tell the Hindu people that what they are doing may be true to them but there is a deeper truth,” Jerome
Chairman of the Dewatagaha Mosque Reyyaz Salley strongly protested at these remarks made not only against other religions which have hurt the sentiments of their followers in Sri Lanka. Salley got an assurance from Minister Wickrmenayake that he should take action against the pastor for his blasphemous remarks.
While the remarks are going viral throughout the country, the Muslim politicians and organizations are oblivion to these remarks. The All-Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, YMMAs, Moors and Malays Associations and other so-called Muslim Councils and Islamic study circles are turning a deaf ear to this scenario making community members to think that they are really deaf and blind to this situation.