Change your stand, Muslim National Alliance tells envoys

Drawing attention to the meeting certain envoys had with Rauf Hakeem, Leader of the Muslim National Alliance Hafiz Nazeer Ahmed told a large gathering in Nintavur that he would advise them to change their stand on the Muslim issue vis-a-vis the P-TOMS and instead urge the LTTE and the government to include the Muslims as an equal partner if they valued justice and democratic traditions which they preach to the entire world, states a Muslim National Alliance press release.

He said that if the Muslim community was to support the P-TOMS it would amount to political suicide and would ensure that they would become an appendage to the LTTE and henceforth would have no role whatsoever in the shaping of their lives according to their values.

Nazeer Ahmed said he was shocked that the countries who had branded the LTTE as a terrorist organisation should ask the Muslims to accede to their illegitimate demands while they themselves would have nothing to do with them. He said the envoys should practice what they preached or else the little credibility they have with the Muslims would be destroyed.

The CFA agreement was the first in a series of treacherous acts by Rauf Hakeem in the history of Sri Lankan Muslims where he sold the Muslims' political rights and the Muslims would never ever forget or forgive this act of savagery. Nazeer Ahmed claimed that most Muslims see Rauf Hakeem as a stooge of the UNP and that he had traded the Muslims' cause for the plums of office.

He pleaded with the international community to show respect for the Muslims political rights on humanitarian grounds and use their good offices with the LTTE and the government to ensure that Muslims have equal status in the P-TOMS so that they could live with dignity in this country in a democratic and peaceful environment.