3 September 2020 12:00 am
By Yoshitha Perera
The present All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), National Shoora Council (NSC) and other leading Islamic extremist organizations bear extremist views and all the present members of these institutions should be expelled in order to prevent the spread of extremism in the country, a Moulavi who wished to stay anonymous informed the PCoI probing the Easter Sunday attacks.
Testifying before the Commission, the Moulavi said that the early members of the ACJU which was formed in 1922 consisted of traditional Muslims.
Subsequently “Thowheed Jamaath, Thabligh Jamaath and various other Wahabist groups have been infiltrating the ACJU since 1971 and now there are no traditional Muslims in the current ACJU,” he said.
Responding to a question raised by the Commissioners the Moulavi said that the present members of the ACJU would never approve of the worship of shrines and they do not celebrate the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.
The Moulavi also said that there was no proper translation of the holy Quran into the vernacular language of Sri Lanka.
“It’s not easy to translate the Quran, we need to be fluent in Arabic and the cultural context. As an example Ceylon Tawheed Jamaath’s Abdul Razik’s translation of the Quran is completely wrong,” he said.