20 June 2019 10:13 pm Views - 5744
Rishwin Ismath, who identified himself as a 'Muslim atheist', testified before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) looking into the Easter Sunday attacks, said yesterday that Islamic school textbooks published by the Education Ministry prescribe death sentence for those who give up Islamism.
“Those books in Tamil and Sinhala languages have been published by the Educational Publications Department of the Ministry of Education prescribe death sentence for those who denounce Islamism,” Ismath said.
Ismath submitted to the select committee the copies of Islam text books published during the years from 1980 to 1990 and a Sinhala language Islam text book in 2017 prescribing the same.
“So, I do not need to do anything. The school itself has taught children to kill persons like me. This is not in Quran" he said.
"When there are such teachings in the textbooks itself, there is no need of bringing in ISIS ideology from Syria by people like Zahran to kill non-Muslims,” he said.
Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, who is a member of the PSC, said Zahran has acted according to the book. The rest of the testimony was taken in the absence of media. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)