Author Sarah Malini Perera Held ‘For Offending Buddhists’ In Sri Lanka
THE TELEGRAPH: An expatriate Sri Lankan woman who wrote two books about her conversion from Buddhism to Islam has been arrested while on holiday in Sri Lanka, apparently for causing offence to Buddhists.

Sarah Malini Perera, who was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in Bahrain since 1985 and converted to Islam in 1999, was arrested last week under the country’s strict emergency laws, according to the police.

They declined to give precise details of the 38-year-old writer’s offence, but suggested that her books were deemed to have caused offence to ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who account for about 70 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people.

News of her arrest came just a few days after protests by Buddhist nationalists prompted the Sri Lankan Government to refuse a visa to Akon, the Senegalese-American singer who had been due to perform in Colombo next month.

Buddhist activists stormed the concert’s media partner last Monday to protest over the video for Akon’s song Sexy Bitch, which showed bikini-clad women dancing by a pool in Ibiza with a Buddha statue in the background.

The two incidents have raised concerns about the growing influence of hardline Buddhist nationalists on Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition, which is widely expected to win parliamentary elections on April 8.

Sri Lanka’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but also says that the state “shall give Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the state to protect and foster” the religion. >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Monday, March 29, 2010

Government Adviser on Islamic Terror Arrested after Man Is Stabbed at His Home
Inayat Bunglawala is waiting to find out whether he will face charges over an alleged stabbing. Photo courtesy of the Mail Online
MAIL Online: A Muslim who advised the Government following the July 7 London bombings has been arrested after an alleged stabbing.

Inayat Bunglawala, 39, was held on suspicion of attacking another man at his £300,000 home.

Mr Bunglawala, who also briefed former Security Minister Tony McNulty on the threat posed by Islamic radicals in the UK, was arrested two weeks before Christmas last year.

The identity of the alleged victim is unknown and it is not clear what circumstances led to the alleged attack in the early hours of December 13 last year.

Mr Bunglawala has been released on bail while the Crown Prosecution Service considers bringing charges.

Mr Bunglawala is one of the most prominent members of the Muslim Council of Britain, an organisation which advises the Government on extremism and counter-terrorism.

After the July 7 London bombings in 2005, he was one of seven Muslims appointed to a Home Office taskforce tackling radicalisation in the UK.

Last week, Mr Bunglawala was featured on the BBC and in many newspapers as the moderate ‘voice’ of British Islam after the Luton anti-war demonstrations. >>> By Tom Harper | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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