it's many things. about that about the kind of god god god i think a lot of people would say he's the sentimental favorite not just for his performance in the rain is black bottom but truly for his body of work in the best actress category frances mcdormand received her 6 nomination for no midland and viola davis got her 4th nomination for mar a nice black bottom the other actresses nominated are carey mulligan for promising young woman but this occurred before pieces of a woman and andra day for the united states versus billie holiday the award ceremonies will be held mostly virtually on april 25th robert oulds al jazeera los angeles. it is good to have you with us hello adrian fit here in doha the headlines and i was here at the u.s.

secretaries of state and defense are in japan on the 1st overseas trip the american officials say the visit which includes a stop in south korea will be used to quote revitalize ties with allies saudi salami reports from tokyo it symbolises symbolizes how important japan and the 70s japan is hoping to get the strong statement at the end of the talks today we headed towards china we had that may be for the 1st time both countries would name china by name and would ask it to stop its locations and can then. tends to change the status quo in that in the us if a condition world health organization experts are meeting on tuesday to analyze data on the safety of the astra zeneca vaccine germany and france and italy have now joined others in suspending use of the job until reports of blood clots investigated. streets are empty businesses are closed in the brazilian state of

pollo emergency restrictions came into effect on monday the country's health minister has been replaced again as the corona virus outbreak hits record levels in the coming hours libya's newly sworn in unity government will officially take office the un backed effort is meant to help bring stability ahead of elections in december the un special envoy for syria has expressed profound regret that the u.s. has been unable to broker a peace to end the civil war peterson was briefing the security council on the 10th anniversary of the conflict people in myanmar's largest city young going to flee in one of the districts that's on the martial law local media are reporting heavy traffic on roads the city was a battleground on monday a security forces escalates the crackdown on anti kook protests. there's the headlines more news here on al-jazeera inside story next. what should americans be

thinking and doing right now it should be a bad idea they don't care about their work is all they care about is making money fine it's not going to be locked out of the house calling for them to go to defense budget to be high the bottom line on us politics and policies and their effect on the world. from the al-jazeera london broadcast center to people in thoughtful conversation generally whenever you talk about race or race is that people act with no host and no limitations our society has structural racism built into any season of studio to be unscripted you've got blind spots convenient blind spots in some aspects of our history and racism and different types of prejudice coming soon on al-jazeera. these franken government calls it the radicalization it's detaining those with what it says are extreme religious views and banning the burqa but muslims say it's discrimination so will the new rules

stop so-called islamic extremism in this asian country this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program today with me many from sri lanka's minority muslim communities say they are being targeted and in the latest decision affecting them the government is reintroducing a ban on burkas it says the full face covering for women is a sign of what it calls religious extremism and is barring them on national security grounds more than $1000.00 muslim schools accused of flouting national education policy will also be shot the move comes nearly 2 years after a series of attacks on hotels and churches on easter sunday more than 2. 150 people were killed in the assaults by groups in 2019 now let's have

a listen to what the minister had to say. it affects our national security directly in our early days muslim women and girls never wore the burka it is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently we are definitely going to ban it also there are more than 2000 madrassas schools in the country and nobody can open a school and teach whatever you want to the children from ages 5 to 6 all children must study in accordance with the national education policy. well the decision to ban the burka follows an order last year mandating that victims of qubit 19 should only be cremated the practice is prohibited by muslims who bury that the ban on burials was lifted in february after months of protests by muslim and human rights groups separately the government said it would use a controversial anti terror law to deal with religious violence in elfin and has been following the story here's

a report from colombo. the government's latest move he's being sort of reacted to concern among the muslim community now obviously this doesn't affect all muslim women in sri lanka not all of them where the book but the community in itself feel that this is a novel sort of a with way of discrimination by the government against the muslim minority now the government for its part says that this is to ensure national security and that this sort of new rule is needed but obviously from what we have seen in the recent past in terms of policies and in general sort of treatment of the muslim community there is concern particularly when you look at a new rule brought in under the prevention of terrorism act that essentially allows a person to be held for up to 2 years of for the purposes of what the government calls rehab elite ation and this would be for people holding sort of extreme

violent religious ideologies and now these are reasons that people are beginning to question sort of the timing of this we've just come at the end of one controversy where the government for a long period of time with the covert 19 pandemic did not allow the burial of cope with 1000 victims and this directly affected the muslim and catholic communities obviously the muslim community had a lot of issues with this had been struggling for. all this right and finally coincidentally as the u.n. human rights council sessions in geneva took place at the government conceded and allowed the burial of over 1000 victims so while on the one hand giving the muslims back their burial rights on this hand seems to be taking away the right of muslim women to wear the burka.

ok there we are here we go let's get going and before we talk to our guests all of whom are in colombo today for inside story just a quick word of i guess housekeeping more than anything else we have tried all day to get representation from the sri lankan government as of now nobody was available to talk to us here on al-jazeera so let's get to those guests they are of hakim leader of the street lanka muslim congress a member of parliament and formerly a minister of justice shereen abdul soror a peace activist and co-founder of the women's action network also jan pereira executive director of the national peace council of sri lanka welcome to you all or of hakim as a former minister of justice coming to you 1st this is being done we're told on national security grounds what does that mean. no this is certainly an already action or an issue which i'm necessarily has been. brought in to. stigmatize the muslim community. or on

the been done by a small again which unfortunately been the perpetrators of the easter sunday attacks but this agenda has been there for a long time ever since the conclusion of the war the conclusion of the war rock n roll. offensive transom ism among the single majority and government of the time. felt it necessary to create an additive. to make the muslims stand next to enemy so that they can. keep the. mobilization of the seat of the majority in their favor and this is nothing but an effect. to try and demand nice and stigmatize.

hapless community which is now all. getting my dinner lays bare by the way but on top of that this is. policy decisions and this is one such a good thing. part of the narrative here seems to come down to a stance on the part of the government and they say look muslim women never used to wear wear the burka anyway so what's the problem if we insist that it's to be banned. to begin with there is no clear cut definition of what they are trying to ban because some people are saying it's niqab some people are saying it's burka arsal it's various forms of face covering body covered in soul issue always the community here is that in my estimation one percent of the muslim be men but still be army. and after the easter sunday

attack lots of women on their own and remolded because then also on the mountains you regulation they brought in not only fear spilled back and there was circulation by public administration 2nd actually to even remove the he job so our fear is what they are trying to ban and i did time there everybody is that envious mask uncovered in their face if it is national security it's for everybody to identify i mean there is no identification whatsoever the right now and what is it all about we men oh muslim be men's attire being connected to it stream is now men them being demonized as uncivil hakim's that jan pereiro from the national peace council also in colombo also raises a very valid point that doesn't she because is the government and it would be nice if somebody from the government was here they are not they've declined our invitation are they cynically going into

a gray area because seems to me that most people outside of the muslim world indeed most people perhaps even in the broader muslim world world they don't know the difference between the the the niqab and the burka anyway. yes. you can't say that this child has to not eat cake and i think that's the reason why the government representatives do not want to come because. what is there on the table now is a proposal signed by upon by a minister the minister of national security and but it has not been yet accepted by the time you know he does well we still. i think the government is aware that this is a very controversial matter and date and they have not come to a conclusion at all and the decision is not too bad and that they were caught and

also to close down 1000. just on this lord's on the grounds that they are not very good natured they have not registered with the ministry and split they can austin to register and support like them but i don't think there should be chosen that but as it's just a man's cherry tree and said there's a that the issue of nationalism. this government is a government that was elected on the basis so it's a majority of national and single use nationalism as well as that that is not to protect national security any game and government was elected in the aftermath of the easter bunny's which would bite muslims though as was pointed out by mr hakim this group of muslims who planned this action many of them well very educated young people who are educated abroad in certain countries and who had no real or any

links so we kind of you cannot blame the muslim community for that but that is what is happening that is in fact and that's the injustice of what has happened because traditionally the sri lankan muslim sect you know an extremely peaceful community and they have never. and there will be tense in the 30 year war between the sri lankan students and their and let some of the rebels so you don't try to that there is no real history of the muslims being terrorists are meanwhile and and it has needed yes even after that ok after this east. noise muslim a russian so it is really unfair that government should be targeting the muslims in this. rougher keim again coming back to a former minister of justice i guess if we could ask the government and we're heading towards the 2 year anniversary of the easter attacks in the run up to that

time which presumably there will be more tension almost palpably in the air as people remember what happened 2 years ago i guess the government might admit we had to make the entire country feel safer that was why we brought the ban in almost 2 years ago but how does it make the country even the majority buddhist population feel safer now if they introduce this ban going forward. but the government attempts to carry on continents relentless propaganda through their captive media organizations both government media has been left by the media to create one full big fear psychosis this being the. man brought in through all and now with the us to fund their acts. presidential commission report out we can see they overreached by the commission also

going into such controversial controversial topics banning this that the other in order to appease the majority sentiment that has been created by a very little planning the media strategy of the government and this is what the 1000000 fortunate one who did it but they don't realize who has the on said. the. so called. group of people who asked me to list minutes crime appears to me as college which has been the making all. of certain intelligence operations to demonize the muslims in fact the most in the again the catholics we had absolutely no in misty with any religious communities

so much so the catholics themselves then these other 2 communities which watered all reliving the against this legitimacy in the regime change their lives by years ago ok and that was perhaps the reason why such a. broad was designed and executed ok i'd like to get into the political maneuverings surrounding this in a couple of minutes if we may stream abdul sort of the colombo gazette today on its website is. this as being a racist agenda however if we look around the world france belgium austria and italy just 4 countries that have either in acted this kind of legislation or i think the italian government about 4 or 5 years ago had it drafted didn't carry through on it in europe it seems as if it's a much more nuanced debate that everyone gets a chance to engage with and the governments of the day react accordingly if that

supposition on my part is right what does it tell us about the sri lankan government that they are not prepared to do the same thing. so. as i point in the previous dos the muslim community of days to attack we have been looking in what and we have been trying to look at what went wrong within the community so she learned the government should have had consulted with muslim women because oftentimes it's men who would defy not just or even for women do they only job or. you know only car meet on one hour muslim men to tell us what we should know be to decide what we have to wear it's about our dignity and our body and i've just bought so in that context the sri lankan government should have had consolidation with women that did let me. be a man and have the other content and also to tell them because it is psychological feeling of all of

a sudden removing something you have been batting since your teenage. age for you do remoulade like you believe you men feel that their neck that. that that's that's the concept of the knowledge as modesty and piety and all those so that conversation never happened and also the way she loved us should not borrow or bird examples from other countries i mean our logistic country our constitution talks about. diversity in multi community and we have our 10 talks about it he just freedom i go trade talks about inequality before a lot so with all those things she learned that government is that if they are consulting this community and and it's continuously 6 diluting the muslim community because this is a but i think the rights that they gave us a few weeks ago our backyard right that unfairly they took it away from us using pauline and that of the justice minister who is also muslim joy need god will be

taken over it what what what is the government doing i mean by but doing the right seat in the country and that also they will they have to get the muslim women's right nick. as all of those men will know him says i never there more any car bottle job or will call whatever there are men so in that context and why i have everything i think he meant this is the question that young man can pereira from the national peace council the sri lankan government is also reportedly closing up 2000 muslim schools presumably that decision making process came after a period of scrutiny where government inspectors education inspectors were going into the schools and saying no you are in breach of national education policy do we know if similar christian schools were subjected to not dissimilar scrutiny on the part of your forces and no we have not heard that and of course the justification

for that would be that christians are currently not a security threat letters the most sense threat because of what's happened in an easter sunday. but i think that that is not that is not fair at all this should come out don't see it what actually doubts finding its debts finding something that is being taught at the moment starts there must come out and so that and also that most of the money that's a lot worse that it is said by the government i think the ones that let it go down a lot of that have not yet reduced it to be honest. rafiki mm is mr rajapakse to go back to the political dynamic that you were talking to us about a little earlier is mr rajapaksa here kind of riding a wave if you will of identifying a minority implicitly pointing a finger of suspicion at that minority even though that minority have done nothing

wrong and that's a that's a journal of record that's a matter of of journalistic fact that the muslim minority have done nothing wrong in the country because the president 2 years ago talked about the burka as being quote the flag of fundamentalism didn't describe it as an item of clothing talked about it in very loaded terminology. indeed the list has been in the not in but they have said all through all you know order to mobilize the city in the majority in favor and you know playing such to politics has been. the brand and. its last effort and but then some to dig is that when you talk about the. schools i mean the skills to produce. strong evidence to said yes they are only talking about this lobby ideology and

then the ideas are the. creams. the. the. play much the. coexistence in the countries they are yet to produce strong evidence from the i think to life says that's being fought in the mother i mean i've been effective or to be nice. knowles touch devious and. then just. been in the kind of mother taught me that for all you know a teacher you really just because with all my the fist i'm a limited your system that i've been practiced or look at in the past but that is that disproportionate attention being paid to muslim schools on the pretext also trying to be. true in group c. to look at this kind of clock but me the community it says is quite capable of say

the significant i'll own section of schools which me have been doing and be used to fund the fact that they can afford houses the need ok was seated in prospect within the community and we have you know doing that so that the money these madrasas in a state relation. i'm not going to interrupt you there but we are we are very quickly heading towards the end the program and there are a final couple of points i want to get in. when it comes to the court of public opinion how do your buddhist friends in the 708090 percent of the population across the country react to this because it feels as if we're talking about a government that wants to shunt a country towards being suspicious of the different to be intimidated by a minority instead of saying look we're basically a secular society and we can and we should all live in peace particularly given

what srinagar also rule was telling us just 2 minutes ago about how people's minority rights are actually in shrine in the paperwork that constitutes sri lanka as a sovereign state. this shit the sri lankan ones aren't seeing any speaker yet he sent in security in the same province coming sunday that is the ancient history of tamil evasions 2000 years ago can you know colonialism 500 years and then what happened in more recent past where india supported the tamil militants against the sri lankan state internationalization of the un state so it is seemingly very easy to make the scene that he's still in secures and east really debts it don't vary in security and so if so up to present the i think the sea monkeys in. thinking that the muslims are a real threat but i've noticed that that is the most recent but come back and

a mother daughter is concerned what i'm seeing on social media is a different story yes same what i'm reading is that people are saying this is today much attention some are the problem not only very serious problems economic problem yup course it is falling yeah very desperately asking china for lawrence to tell you about foreign exchange prices there is a call it is also very bad like it is bad in midst of the word but the economy really back then there is a huge cheroots corruption scam relating to the imports i think people are saying this is to distract attention and also elections i mean that's not true show elections in your home i don't love it here is a lot minute of the program jihad i'm going to stop you there as well last 30 seconds of the program to you shereen abdul so true or if there is to be a push for a positive dialogue a constructive dialogue either surrounding this specific issue that we're talking

about today the burka because that seems to be symbolic for so many people or just minority rights in the country who's going to drive that where is that going to come from is there anyone in the political world of sri lanka who is prepared to send out a message of look we're all the same let's just get on with each other. i'll be i now very tough try this particular. g.m. has openly said that he did the state himself as he has said it's a seeing the low country and he's a president for a buddhist. i mean on a new ben and day so he has clearly nice all around the minorities in this country as you chase and i'll be danged national policies because if you can put in a good sri lankan government even reacted to all our outcry inside going to supreme court the various human rights mechanism with regard to cremation they only

listen to international community so international pressure the pressure is the only way for blood and she now guys there's a new mission against sri lankan state is coming on geneva human rights council on 26th and there are lots of muslim countries as members and then we look forward to that the solution to be passed because that resolution an operational paragraph 7 and 8 talks about minority communities and their rights because if she learned don't really need to reconsider here's and peace there wouldn't undergo nice minorities like that like this and this but been this particular government i don't think days where forward very long dialogue i'm ok serene thank you so much thank you to our guest here on inside story the clock has beaten us i guess we're rough like eem showing up also though and she had her and just to reiterate what i said at the top of the show we did our somebody from the government to join us for

this contentious debate out of sri lanka nobody was available to talk to al jazeera today you can see this program again of course via the website out of here dot com you can talk to us via facebook facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story or talk to us on twitter our handle at a.j. the inside story for me peter dobby and the team here in doha thanks for watching we will see you very soon for the moment of. to make a change. change your life for the path of a country challenge the accepted truth you want to create something you've pushed to breaking down your remolded upturned the status quo and fight injustice valladolid all month you didn't really get that. we'll just chill out. witness personal documentaries not alter deception on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. every. the us secretaries of states and the fence are in japan to strengthen relationships a bit china's growing influence in the region. and forget this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up libya's new.