Search the Internet          Tips

LTTE using temple for fundraising

Ajit Jain in Toronto

The Ganesh Hindu temple in Ontario, re-opened after a $3 million renovation only last week, is being used to raise funds for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam, says a full-page report in the September 6 edition of The National Post.

Temple secretary Veluolu Basavaiah told the Indo-Asian News Service that on the final day of the Kumbha vaisekam on August 30, he saw that some young Sri Lankan Tamils had put up a table in a corner of the temple parking lot where they were selling some items.

"What could we do? We couldn't have disrupted our religious proceedings by calling the police. It wouldn't have been wise for us to create a scene there," he explained.

< According to him, the men were in the parking lot and not in the temple premises, a fact conceded by the Post story.

Explaining the predicament of the temple trustees, Basavaiah said: "Eighty per cent of our congregation comprises Sri Lankans. Many of them are new immigrants who came here as refugees. They carry political baggage from home. They have gone through civil war in their country. How could we evict them completely from the temple?"

The photographs in The National Post show Tamil Tiger flags, videos, pictures of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and other items on sale. The photos also show collection boxes on the table.

More than 20,000 people who attended the religious ceremonies at the temple were 'greeted not by a temple priest, but by eager youths selling red flags bearing the militaristic emblem of the Tamil Tigers, a guerrilla group in Sri Lanka, where many of the temple-goers originate', said the report.

'Nearby, men waved collection jars, soliciting donations for a Tamil relief organisation that Canada's intelligence service suspects is secretly funding the Tigers' war against the Sri Lankan government', it continued.

'Money for refugees,' they pleaded.

Going to the temple or other religious places 'is becoming a politically charged affair. It means having to endure the pressure tactics, fundraising campaigns and shrill propaganda of militants soliciting support for far-off wars that worshippers thought they had left behind', argued the daily.

But temple president R K Moorthy expressed ignorance about any such material being sold at the temple. "We don't officially support any of this," he said. "We're a non-political, charitable organisation. Our purpose is religion."

Basaviah too emphasised that they were in no way involved in any kind of fundraising for the Tamil cause. "It is purely a religious organisation and we do our religious prayers and other rituals inside this biggest temple in North America," he said.

The Post quoted a former temple trustee, Adiyar Vipulananda, as saying he was angered by the aggressive tactics employed by the Tamil Tigers, and that the divisive politics of Sri Lanka -- and particularly the Tigers - should be kept out of temples.

Basaviah said the issue was to have been discussed at a meeting of the temple trustees on Wednesday, but other items took precedence. "If we have time, it will be discussed" at the next meeting, which is likely to be held two weeks later, he added.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report