Punishment for Buddhist monk who made Islamophobic statement in 2016

A case of Islamophobia has come to light from Sri Lanka, where the court took strict action against Islamophobic remarks. In fact, in the year 2016, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk made Islamophobic remarks. For which the monk was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment on Thursday.

The name of the monk is said to be Galagodate Gyansara and his age is 49 years. The High Court of Sri Lanka not only sentenced the monk to four years’ imprisonment for his Islamophobic remarks but also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh. However, the monk also apologized to the Muslim community for his anti-Muslim comments.

The monk had been running an anti-Muslim minority campaign since 2012, while in March 2016, at a conference, the monk made several anti-Muslim comments due to which he was accused of Islamophobic comments. During a court hearing in February, the monk also apologized to the Muslim community for the distress caused by his public comments against Muslims.

The high court ruled that Gnanasara, who led the forces of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and Buddhist Shakti, had created a religious and communal divide through his comments. In the name of religion, the act of setting fire between two communities was done. In 2018, Gyansara was arrested, but he was later pardoned by the President.

Although he later explained that he was not against the Muslim minority, he was unhappy with the conduct of Sinhalese majority politicians for not addressing the concerns of the community. He was trying to address them through the BBS movement. According to media reports, the monk was found guilty following complaints filed in the Criminal Investigation Department by former governor Ajath Sali and former MP Mujibur Rahman. Due to this, he was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment.