Help us “forge a new nation,” President Rajapaksa tells Muslims

(Sept.22, 2009): In a message of best wishes to Sri Lanka’s Muslim community issued on the occasion of the end of Ramadan on Sat. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa called on the country’s Muslims to help “forge a new Sri Lankan nation based on unity, tolerance and harmony, by making their own contribution to the further progress of peace in the country”. There are about 1.75 million Muslims in Sri Lanka. They represent about 9 per cent of the island nation’s population.
In his message Rajapaksa said that the defeat of the Tamil Tigers freed the Eastern Province, with its large population of Muslims, from the grip of terrorism , so that Muslims expelled from their homes in the northern parts of the country, can now return to live and carry out their traditions and religious activities in freedom.” The president stressed that the Muslim community’s long “presence in Sri Lanka, living in harmony with Sinhalese, Tamils, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and all other communities has contributed much to its progress.”