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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 12610413" data-attributes="member: 92282"><img src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6zwvp6SfPguyZKo2IujjL2KpfCDtUG262yXf-v2b6Tts24GmzuQ" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/SL_Muslim.png/262px-SL_Muslim.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Sri Lanka's main Muslim party called on the government on Monday to  protect religious minorities after protests by Buddhist monks demanding  that a 60-year-old mosque be relocated.The Sri Lanka Muslim  Congress (SLMC), which is a member of the ruling coalition, said it  opposed shifting the mosque in Dambulla, 150 kilometres (93 miles) north  of Colombo, saying this would be "disastrous" for the country.The  monks argued that the mosque was inside temple land and should be  demolished while the Muslims maintain that they have been offering  prayers there since the mid 1940s.The government said in a  statement last week that it had offered three alternate locations for  the mosque and had also agreed to finance a new building, an offer  firmly rejected by the SLMC."We will not agree to any compromise  of taking land elsewhere," SLMC leader and Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem  told reporters in Colombo. "We are very, very firm on that."He  said "extremist forces" were trying to create religious tensions in a  country emerging from nearly four decades of ethnic strife which has  cost an estimated 100,000 lives."A strong government must protect  the weaker minorities," Hakeem said. "We appeal to the government to  ensure that they do not allow xenophobic forces to hold the country  hostage."More than two-thirds of the Indian Ocean island's 20-million population are Buddhists while 7.5 percent are Muslims.<img src="http://www.google.com/hostednews/img/afp_logo.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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