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| A Buddhist temple in Kilinochchi |
According to new regulations, if anyone needs to build a religious places of worship in certain place, the person has to submit an application recommended by the Divisional Secretary of the relevant area to the Secretary of the Ministry of Buddhist and Religious Affairs. The Secretary has powers to appoint a committee to study the application.
Building religious places of worship was not always an innocent task everywhere on this earth throughout the world history. Everywhere, religious devotion was mingled with the ethno-religious hegemonic needs and political dominance.
The same attribute was prevalent when the colonial rulers assisted building of Christian churches and in the post colonial Sri Lanka that government assisted setting up of Buddhist temples.
The process of setting up of religious places of worship was highly invasive in the post-war period. For instance, the way the victorious Army hurriedly set up Buddhist temples and erected unaesthetic statues of Lord Buddha at every nook and corner was an insult to the preacher of one of the world's most non-violent religions.
Similar dominating acts are wide spread in areas minority religious devotees dwell predominantly too.
Vicious non-religious aims of rousing anger of the ‘opponent’ religions are behind all these acts.
Some politicians expect a free and easy ride to power on the back of the blind devotees mobilized either for or against these acts of religious dominancy.
Certain scrupulous elements make use of these things for other personal gains. For example, a famous gossip regarding a major Buddha statue in Panadura town is that a businessman put up this statue to prevent his business places that were behind it being demolished in road construction.
Some more unscrupulous individuals use this madness to squat in prime lands in major cities and towns. That is why the government had to take the control of putting up religious places of worship.
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