COLOMBO, Dec 3 (AFP) - A Muslim minister in Sri Lanka Friday apologized to Buddhists for his controversial poem in which the Buddha is set to be reborn to restore peace and sanity in the embattled island.
Ports Minister Mohammed Ashraff said his poem was only an attempt to show the shortcomings of the government in the context of Buddha's teachings, but he did not intend to hurt religious feelings in this mainly Buddhist nation with a minority Muslim community.
"I admit and I now realize that there is a problem in the last paragraph of my poem, where I get Lord Buddha to say that he will be re-born again," Ashraff said. "Now I realize that it is a mistake. Once again I feel sorry for this."
Buddhists, who believe in reincarnation, also believe Buddha had achieved nirvana, or ultimate bliss, with the extinction of the individual and thereby ending the sufferings of life.
Sri Lanka's Buddhist clergy, who are also members of the majority Sinhalese community, had denounced Ashraff for questioning the very essence of Buddhism by suggesting Buddha could be born again.
A leading Buddhist monk, Rambukwelle Vipassi, also took objection to Ashraff's poem, in which he refers to a meeting with the Buddha.
"It takes an immense amount of merit to see a Buddha and one must strive for thousands of lives before that can happen," Vipassi said, adding that Ashraff's poem was an insult to Buddhists.
Ashraff said it was "mischief makers" who were making a "mountain out of a molehill."
He said in his book of poems he was also inviting Prophet Mohamed to "rise again to solve the contradictions prevailing in the Muslim community."
Minister Ashraff had also said in his poem that the Buddha, who was from neighboring India, was unable to communicate with the Buddhists in this country because he spoke no Sinhalese, but only Tamil spoken by the Muslims.
