{"id":64909,"date":"2019-07-07T15:58:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T19:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=64909"},"modified":"2019-07-07T16:29:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T20:29:18","slug":"students-and-teachers-using-stationary-products-of-atlas-axillia-being-targeted-in-racist-campaign-through-social-media-by-anti-muslim-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=64909","title":{"rendered":"Students and Teachers Using Stationery Products of “Atlas Axillia” Being Targeted in Systematic Boycott Campaign Conducted Through Social Media by Racist Anti-Muslim Elements."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Chandeepa Wettasinghe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students in Sri Lanka\u2019s education system are being ridiculed and are facing \u2018punishment\u2019 for using stationery produced by a firm caught in an anti-Muslim boycott, an official said.<\/p>\n

Atlas Axillia, a top stationary and publishing company has been targeted by anti-Muslim activists following suicide attacks by an extremist Islamist group, some of whose members had apparently been in the pay of a state agency, in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome students are being ridiculed and some are being punished for carrying Atlas products to school,\u201d Managing Director Asitha Samaraweera told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis hatred is being inculcated in our children\u2019s minds. Young minds are being corrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some students have been told they will not be admitted inside the class the following day if they continued to bring Atlas products.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Judenboycott style attacks of the style seen in Nazi-Germany have hit several Muslim-owned businesses in Sri Lanka. At least one food factory and many shops were also burnt down in a Krystallnacht-style mob violence, many days after the attacks, with nationalists using social media to spread hatred and resentment.<\/p>\n

The Hemas Group, controlled by Sri Lanka\u2019s Esufally family, acquired Atlas in 2018, which claims a 50 percent market share in the stationary product categories it manufactures.<\/p>\n

The Madanayake family, which currently holds a minority stake in Atlas, founded the firm in 1959.<\/p>\n

Samaraweera said that he is \u2018disappointed\u2019 about racism being spread through the education system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of anger present after the bombings, and those with vested interests are channeling this anger along racial lines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cVested interests are conducting a grassroot campaign targeting store owners and teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media was widely used in Sri Lanka in anti-Muslim activism, with fake accounts set up by interest parties to rile up people. Business rivalry also plays a part.<\/p>\n

Several complaints have been lodged at the Criminal Investigation Department against competitors and groups with vested interests who had helped spread a defamatory boycott campaign against Atlas products, Samaraweera said.<\/p>\n

Civil litigation is also being filed against them he said.<\/p>\n

In total, those with vested interests had made 148 comments and posts on the social media platform Facebook within a week starting April 28, he said.<\/p>\n

However, over 400 posts during the week were from fake accounts, which are hard to track down, Samaraweera said.<\/p>\n

Just 13 posts made on the first day alone had reached 2.3 million people, Hemas Group Corporate Communications Head Shiromi Masakorala said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in the last 30 days, there have been 65 posts reaching 1.2 million people, 41 percent of which are from fake accounts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Facebook is removing most of the posts as they violate the social media platform\u2019s community guidelines, Masakorala said.<\/p>\n

However malicious stories being spread through messaging apps like WhatsApp unopposed, Samaraweera said.<\/p>\n

He said that the firm will undertake an awareness campaign targeting teachers and community leaders to debunk malicious stories being spread about Atlas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were unjustly accused and the defamation levelled against us to misguide the public is particularly shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Observer<\/em><\/p>\n

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

By Chandeepa Wettasinghe Students in Sri Lanka\u2019s education system are being ridiculed and are facing \u2018punishment\u2019 for using stationery produced by a firm caught in an anti-Muslim boycott, an official said. Atlas Axillia, a top stationary and publishing company has been targeted by anti-Muslim activists following suicide attacks by an extremist Islamist group, some of …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Students and Teachers Using Stationery Products of “Atlas Axillia” Being Targeted in Systematic Boycott Campaign Conducted Through Social Media by Racist Anti-Muslim Elements.’ »<\/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\/64909"}],"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=64909"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64916,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64909\/revisions\/64916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}