Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has condemned in the harshest terms the spate of attacks and break-ins at places of worship.
A talanoa session was held at the Gopal Sadhu Hanumangadi temple in Nakasi last night attended by Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho, other government members and politicians.
The Prime Minister was not able to attend the meeting, but stressed in his statement delivered by the Attorney General that there are places in the world where people are divided by religion and religious violence are common.
However, he says this is not happening in Fiji adding these acts of vandalism cannot be tolerated particularly when they have been carried out in places of such sacred importance to our fellow Fijians.
Bainimarama says he is saddened to see an escalation of religious vilification and unfortunately it’s even more widespread than the attacks on temples.
The Prime Minister says pictures surfacing on social media shows some people trying to turn fellow Fijians against each other on the basis of Hindu against Muslim, a Christian denomination against another, iTaukei against Indo-Fijian, North Indian against South Indian, Arya Samaj against Sanatan Dharam Sabha and even a province against another.
Bainimarama says none of this is right and is unacceptable and the country needs to move away from this backward thinking otherwise we will never progress as a country.
