Muslim Religious Affairs and Posts Minister Abdul Haleem yesterday (30) said he knows who is behind the allegations which were made by Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara at a recent media gathering.
“I know who has made those allegations against me as I have been having a lot of issues with that person concerned in the past. From the time I accepeted this post, the individual has been continuously attacking me. I don’t want to mention the name of that person. Ask anybody they know about my character”.
A question was raised about Minister Rishad Bathiudeen who had said that the Minister of Muslim Religious Affairs hadn’t looked into any of the matters related to the recent events, and was only serving dates and sending people on the Hajj pilgrimage. Haleem said, “I feel Minister Rishard only knows a little about the ministry. The Ministry of Muslim Religious Affairs has a huge amount of work, and we don’t go around saying the amount of work we do. I know the responsibility and that’s why I am addressing everyone. We address issues related to the Waqf Council, Madrasas, and teachers coming from overseas to educate our students. We have a lot of work, besides serving dates”.
“We were not aware of any extremists in the Eastern Province and no information reached us. In order for a Mosque to conduct Friday prayers, there should be a minimum of 40 people. The ministry hasn’t registered any mosque with seven to eight members. In the Kandy district, there are 94 mosques which were registered on the request of the people in the year 2015. There is a process of registering a mosque, and it takes six months to do it. I want to make it clear that none of the National Thowheed Jamaath mosques were registered under these 94 mosques. When mosques are registered we can take legal action against the authorities of the mosque if any fault is found”, he added.
When asked about the discovery of weapons and swords in several mosques, he added, “The Security Forces are carrying out their duties. Yes, weapons, swords and various other things were found. Tell me whether any clashes had taken place by using these weapons? We did investigate into this. Maybe these swords can be used for other purposes such as clearing the forests and cutting down trees around the mosque area,” Haleem stated.
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