{"id":20076,"date":"2013-04-14T04:01:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T08:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=20076"},"modified":"2013-04-14T10:58:53","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T14:58:53","slug":"bodu-bala-sena-to-launch-operation-counter-attackin-the-united-states-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=20076","title":{"rendered":"Bodu Bala Sena To Launch “Operation Counter Attack” In The United States of America"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Raisa Wickrematunge<\/strong><\/p>\n

Representatives of the Bodu Bala Sena are visiting the US for an almost month-long tour, in part to counter wrong impressions given about the group, The Sunday Leader learnt.<\/p>\n

The team, which includes General Secretary of the group, Ven. Galagodaththe Gnanasara Thero and National Organiser Viththarandeniye Nanda Thero are currently visiting a couple of cities in the United States. The trip was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed.<\/p>\n

As they are travelling across the US, the representatives of the BBS will be planning to hold religious functions and other ceremonies in temples. These would include a popular meditation programme \u2018Buddhanussathi\u2019 initiated by Ven. Galagodaththa Gnanasara Thero, and will be carried out in different temples, Executive Committee member Withanage said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Bodu Bala Sena will also visit Sri Lankan members of the community there in order to hold an awareness campaign. Withanage described the campaign as a \u2018counterattack\u2019 to the wrong carried out by other parties against the group, with people terming the Bodu Bala Sena a \u2018terrorist or violent organisation\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to clarify that we are a non violent organisation, and one that promotes tolerance,\u201d Withanage said. The Bodu Bala Sena also aims to get the community more involved in Buddhism, he added. As such, the Bodu Bala Sena will also be looking at appointing committees of volunteers in different cities in the United States in an attempt to spread their network beyond Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Upon being asked if the Bodu Bala Sena would be looking at fundraising activities, Withanage said that the group was \u2018not focusing on fundraising yet\u2019. The Bodu Bala Sena has earlier spoken out against Muslim extremists, especially proponents of the Wahhabi movement, receiving funds from Saudi Arabia to build mosques. On this trip Withanage assures there would be no unethical conversions (another issue the group has been vocal against). However, the delegation would be promoting Buddhism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand Buddhism as being more than cultural. There is philosophical Buddhism too. Here there is\u2026 Sinhala Buddhism but [the religion] is about more than that,\u201d Withanage said. The group also wants to showcase the importance of critical thinking, which allows for disagreement with teachers and leaders, if their teachings clashed with people\u2019s personal beliefs.<\/p>\n

Community development plan underway<\/strong><\/p>\n

Withanage added that plans for developing community development networks within the country were also being developed, through different local temples.<\/p>\n

There would be no elected Presidents or Secretaries to these groups, as elections only divided people, Withanage said. He pointed at state bodies such as grama sanwardena cooperative societies as proof of this. Instead there would be \u2018managers\u2019 and \u2018officers\u2019 appointed. Withanage said that all heads of these specially created community development networks would be appointed by the Bodu Bala Sena headquarters. Members would be nominated by community members but the final say would be had by the headquarters, Withanage said. After the names were nominated each office-bearer would receive training so that the nominee could understand the constitution and \u2018structures\u2019 of the Bodu Bala Sena, Withanage said.<\/p>\n

There were also plans to develop a Bodu Bala Sena \u2018Youth brigade\u2019 consisting of a wide age group of people between the ages of 15 and 40 years. The aim of this brigade would be to attract young people to Buddhism and Buddhist values.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many people who are born Buddhist, but we want to promote Buddhism by understanding,\u201d Withanage said.
\nWithanage also reiterated that the Bodu Bala Sena was not involved in the letters, which were sent out to the Dematagoda Tawheed mosque and the nearby Islamic bookshop \u2013 as proof he said that the letterhead had the word \u2018Sri\u2019 typed as two letters in Sinhalese, whereas the real Bodu Bala Sena letterhead used just one letter for the word.<\/p>\n

BBS Secretary reportedly involved in drunk driving accident<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the delegation headed off to the United States, a story was widely circulated online that the General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena, Ven. Gnanasara Thero, had been involved in a drink-driving incident 13 years ago.<\/p>\n

The story, which was published by a news website, said that the Secretary had been involved in an accident on April 14, 2000 (on the eve of the Sinhala New Year) at Grandpass, seriously injuring a trishaw driver named Ravindra Kumar. The story claimed that the monk was seriously inebriated and a case (No. 6315\/2000) was filed against him in court; among the charges filed were driving under the influence of liquor without a license and causing injuries as well as obstructing the performance of official police duties. On September 20, 2000, it said that the General Secretary had paid a fine of Rs. 10,000 and the case had been closed.<\/p>\n

Executive Committee member Withanage said that the story could not be confirmed as he was unaware about the incident and was not involved with the Bodu Bala Sena at that time. Meanwhile, Ven. Galagodaththe Gnanasara Thero was unable to comment as he had left the country and his mobile phone had been switched off when The Sunday Leader attempted to contact him regarding the story. Police spokesman Buddhika Siriwardena also said that he could not confirm the incident, as he needed further details as to which court the case was called at.
\nCOURTESY:THE SUNDAY LEADER<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raisa Wickrematunge Representatives of the Bodu Bala Sena are visiting the US for an almost month-long tour, in part to counter wrong impressions given about the group, The Sunday Leader learnt. The team, which includes General Secretary of the group, Ven. Galagodaththe Gnanasara Thero and National Organiser Viththarandeniye Nanda Thero are currently visiting a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Bodu Bala Sena To Launch “Operation Counter Attack” In The United States of America’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20076"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20076"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20093,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20076\/revisions\/20093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}