Christian groups are strongly opposing Sri Lanka's move to introduce a Bill banning religious conversions, with the Supreme Court also receiving 25 petitions in its favor and 21 against it, placing the government in a tight spot.
While the Bill was tabled in Parliament last week as a private member motion by opposition parliamentarian Venerable Dr Omalpe Sobhitha of the all monks party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), it is considered a test run for the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) which had earlier promised to table a similar one.
Pressured by these groups, the ruling UPFA and the opposition JHU both pledged to table Bills in Parliament to arrest the dangerous trend with legislation prohibiting unchecked conversions.
After the controversial Bill was tabled, it was opposed by both the Catholic Church and the Christian Council, both of whom had earlier been condemning fundamentalist groups.
Protesting that the Bill would impinge on the fundamental rights of individuals, the Catholic Bishops Conference and the Christian Council issued a joint statement saying that, "We wish to state that if they are enacted into legislation, the freedom of thought, conscience and religion of all Sri Lankans will be seriously eroded.... these drafts contravene the fundamental human rights of our people enshrined in our Constitution as well as accepted prevailing international conventions and norms."
In a bid to allay the fears of the established Churches, the country's leading Buddhist organizations issued a statement on July 27 saying the Bill's purpose was to monitor the "unchecked activities of Christian fundamentalists" who were posing a threat to the "1000 years of religious harmony maintained in this country."
Says Indrani Devendra, Secretary of the All Ceylon Women's Buddhist Congress, "The Bill is aimed at minimizing the tension created by fundamentalist groups whose provocative conduct made even sections of the Buddhists react violently. Unless we keep a tab on the pernicious fundamentalists, the situation is very likely to go out of hand."
She cited observations made at the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Kokinakis versus Greece. The court observed that the fundamentalists represent " a corruption or deformation of the established religions."
But Catholics and Christians fear that given the overzealousness of law enforcement agencies, there is a strong possibility of the laws being abused.
Says Bishop of Batticaloa Kingsley Swamipillai, "There are fears that routine events organized by the Church could be misinterpreted as ones to attract potential converts."
As he points out, "While we condemn the activities of fundamentalist sects who have created problems, we believe rigid laws with heavy fines and prison sentences are not the solution."
Agrees activist of the Christian sect Assembly of God, Bandula Jayamanna, himself a Christian convert, "Religion is a very personal thing and nobody can force anyone to convert to another religion in a country like Sri Lanka. If that happens, they can always go and lodge a harassment complaint at the police station."
He warns, "These kind of blanket laws will only encourage those out to crush minority religions to take the law into their hands."
But there is a lobby that believes the country needs to adopt stringent anti-conversion laws.
Dr K. Vigneswaran, adviser to Hindu Affairs minister, Douglas Devananda, remarks that there are very disturbing reports from the predominantly Hindu Northern province and the Indian Tamil areas in the central province about major moves to convert the poor to fundamentalist sects by promising various perks. He believes these groups pose a bigger threat to Hindus than to Buddhists.
He adds, "Although we have yet to study the JHU Bill, we have carefully examined the draft to be tabled by the government. There is no room for misinterpretation of the clauses and I feel all these fears about somebody misusing it, are unfounded."
Unfazed, Minister of Buddhist Affairs Ratnasiri Wickramanayake asserts that the government has finalized the draft Bill. "So far there has been no change in our stand to table the Bill," he declares.
While the majority of agitations were organized by Buddhist organizations, the minority Hindu community is also feeling threatened.
The Hindu Affairs Minister of the previous United National Front (UNF) government alleged that nearly 15,000 Hindus in the North-East and Central province became fundamentalist sects due to discrimination and unethical measures adopted over the last couple of years.
The Roman Catholic Church here issued two statements early this year condemning fundamentalist Christian groups for employing unethical tactics such as offering material rewards for conversion, and posing a threat to the co-existence of diverse religious groups in the country.
Reportedly some of these groups were forcing Buddhists to smash Buddha statues and eat sweets fashioned in the shape of Lord Buddha.
An independent commission appointed to examine allegations by the Ministry of Buddhist Affairs last year accused 188 nongovernmental organizations of engaging in unethical conversions.
Since last year, prayer centers belonging to these sects in the predominantly Buddhist and Hindu areas, were attacked by hard line Sinhala Buddhists. Some of them even targeted established churches, triggering fears among the country's minority Catholics and Christians.
Currently, Christian sects form less than one percent of the country's 19 million population, while the Catholics total 6.4 per cent, and Hindus number 15 per cent.
Buddhists constitute 70 per cent of the country's population.