JHU to muster Catholic Church support for Anti-Conversion Bill

• Commences discussions with RC Church, SLFP, UNP and TNA
  
• Positive of getting the Bill passed by February

By Santhush Fernando
The architect of the Anti-Conversion Bill, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), is to muster the support of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy along with Buddhist and Hindu organisations for its ‘Prohibition of Forcible Religious Conversions Bill,’ which is scheduled to be presented before Parliament by February.

Speaking to The Bottom Line, JHU Spokesperson Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said that the Bill is to be submitted to Parliament next month for its third reading and vote, after completing its committee stage. “The JHU Central Committee, which met last week, decided to muster the support of Buddhist and Hindu organisations and also the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy by commencing discussion with them. We will also discuss with political parties such as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), United National Party (UNP) and Tamil parties. Already these responsibilities have been delegated to relevant Central Committee members,” Warnasinghe told The Bottom Line. The two main parties earlier said that they will not take a policy decision on the Bill and would allow its MPs to vote “according to their conscience.” “The Bill was first presented by JHU Deputy Leader Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thera in May 2004, and was referred to a Parliamentary Select Committee, after completing its first and second readings. Parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was made Chairman, but he resigned.” Warnasinghe said.

“Thereafter, JHU Kandy District Parliamentarian Ven. Udawatte Nanda Thera chaired the committee and the Bill was approved for its final vote. So, it will be entered into the Order Paper soon, hopefully, by February and be passed by a simple majority,” he added.

Commenting on the launch of the Commission Report of Unethical Conversion of Buddhists by the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) last week, Warnasinghe said that was not the need of the hour.

“We have long passed that stage. There’s no need of commissions or reports now to determine that there’s a problem of unethical conversions. That’s why we submitted our Bill in 2004. What we need is a legal machinery to tackle these conversions,” he said.

The JHU claims that fundamentalist Christian sects have been converting Buddhists and Hindus who are in abject poverty, allegedly by offering them financial incentives. But the party is positive that it will have the backing of the Church, as these sects have been a “considerable nuisance” to the latter.

Roman Catholic Church is also facing “sheep stealing” (snatching of its members) by such sects, and had condemned such conversions as a threat to inter-religious harmony, back in 2004. However, its support on the issue is highly questionable, especially in the wake of increasing attacks on churches and Christian workers since 2003.

The RC Church hierarchy of the country, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka along with the National Christian Council (NCC) and the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) promoted the idea of “creating a national inter-religious forum charged with examining cases of forced conversion and bringing those responsible before the law,” which never took off the ground.