The Fall of Humanity

Light of Truth

Ann Ben

On the Monday following Easter, every other block of concrete-walled houses, belonging to those of the minority Christian community, situated about 20 miles away from the seaside capital of Colombo, had transformed into funeral parlours. The entire stretch of the long, narrow road, leading to St Sebastian’s Roman Catholic Church, Negombo took to the very shape the island country beholds, that of a tear-drop entailing absolute grief and bereavement. Under dingy shelters relatives, friends and neighbours gathered to embrace and hold hands, amidst murmurs and stifling sobs. The bodies had been laid out in arrays and covered with cloths to hide from view, the sickening blast wounds. Other worst cases were sealed within wooden coffins, with a large number of bouquets placed around them and candle, endlessly flickering through the gloom.

One by one, the number of coffins increased. Some were heavy and others which were lighter seemed much heavier to carry. Vacant plots were cleared, for the burial of the brothers and sisters of their nation. Negombo after the Easter Sunday bombings became a land, where every family seemed to have lost someone or has someone still fighting for life, post the bombing. The attack killed more than 300 people on Sunday, including innocent children. The entire neighbourhood turned into a mourning ground, with soldiers moving in every direction and fear fluttering through the wind. People of Negombo exchanged nervous glances on reading the flashing news of yet another explosion that occurred at another church in Colombo. Since a decade of peace and rebuilding, after the civil war between ethnic Tamil guerillas and the Sri Lankan armed forces, this recent attack has made the people of Sri Lanka anxious, whether terrorism was going to become a part of their daily lives. They started wondering if this attack would lead to a communal violence of hatred towards the small, but stable Christian minority of Sri Lanka, which has for generations lived in peace with other religions of the region, 70 percent of the land being Buddhist. The people expressed fears, wondering if it could be the beginning of yet another war, which nobody wants.

Religious tensions were rising, as Muslim extremism seems to have spread in the country, putting in shame and horror the minority Muslim community of Sri Lanka. The grief of the people was slowly growing into revengeful anger. When a bed bug bites, one would want to kill the entire lot of it and this turned out to be the situation of Sri Lanka. In many parts, Muslim-owned shops had been vandalized and blameless Muslim families were forced to flee, in fear of their lives. Despite their efforts to reach out to neighbours and donate food and blood, the members of Muslim communities were warned to hold back because the attack was recent, people were angry and tensions were high. As the grief hardened into anger, in a country that is no stranger to religious tensions, people began speaking of revenge.

In every religion, people are the same. The blood that runs through all is the same. The people of Sri Lanka stood silently and patiently, ready for the arrival of the remaining bodies. The masked individuals, the supposed Sri Lanka attackers, stood together and held their hands high, as a gesture of their belief in one God, just before the attack. And soon after the attacks, at the burial grounds, men of all religions gathered near coffins, as the priest read out the Lord’s Prayer. All bowed their heads. The attack at Sri Lanka is not about Religion. This attack is about Humanity, and the death of Humanity.

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