The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) has justified an attack on the Christian ‘Centre for Hope’ at Koswatte, in central
JHU Spokesman Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe told The Sunday Leader that they had no option but to protest against the Centre for converting followers of other faiths into Christianity.
A violent protest ensued last Thursday, November 5, with JHU supporters including parliamentarians protesting and stoning the Centre decrying an incident over two female deaths on October 31 at a ‘healing service’ at the Viharamahadevi Park.
“If the government, the police or the authorities concerned do not want to take action against such illegal activities, we as the JHU who pledged to build a ‘Buddhist nation’ have a right to raise a voice against the church. That was why we protested and urged the government to take necessary action against the pastor who is responsible for the two deaths on October 31,” Warnasinghe claimed.
The Talangama police are yet to take action against the perpetrators, he said.
“We were there when the protestors came and stoned the Centre for Hope. They also warned our Pastor A.J. Joseph who was not in at the moment with death threats unless he stopped the healing programmes. They accused the pastor of unethical conversions which is baseless,” Channa who works at the centre said.
Channa alleged that, JHU Parliamentarian Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was a notable protestor who stoned the building and added that many prominent JHU members too were among the crowd.
Meanwhile Pastor Joseph told The Sunday Leader that he has nothing to do with the two deaths but added that they had come to the
“I have received a special gift of the holy spirit and if people do come to get their illnesses healed through my prayers, what can I do? Anybody could say that I am wrong if I had given any medicine to the two ladies. Religious intolerance by a certain section of Buddhists over the past few years is on the rise again and this time it includes parliamentarian monks,” Pastor Joseph alleged.
