Acting Secretary of the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) Arkam Moulavi told the Presidential Commission to Inquiry (PCoI) probing the Easter Sunday terror attacks that he believes that there was a political hand behind the Islamic extremists who carried out the Easter Sunday attacks and that a group of misguided Islamic youth was active.

Responding to a query made by President’s Counsel Shamil Perera appearing for His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, as to whether the eight persons involved in the Easter attacks had been misled by misinterpreting the Holy Quran, he said that he did not accept that.

Testifying further he said that the group of terrorists including Zahran Hashim who carried out the series of Easter Sunday attacks were a mentally deranged group. It seems that they were in great distress and these people were under political influence.

“We need to find out who is behind this and how these attacks were planned. How could have these attacks taken place when there was a very active intelligence service in the country,” he said.

“Colonel Muthalif is my wife’s uncle. My grandfather was also in the Navy. This is a conspiracy. These misguided youths were led by someone.Muslims have never had problems with Christians. The Christian and Islamic faiths share some similar beliefs. Mary is mentioned in the Qur’an as the mother of an angel in Islam. The verses in the Quran have been misinterpreted. Suicide bomber Insaf Ahmed who carried out a series of Easter attacks does not know Arabic. He is a businessman who stayed abroad. This may have been due to the misconception that he would soon go to heaven,” he added.

He also pointed out that there is no responsible institution in the country to regulate translations of the Quran and that such an institution must be established and that there are such institutions in several countries in the Asian region.

“Our country has been the home to around two million Muslims for over 1,000 years. Muslim youth never joined the civil war and the JVP insurrections. Small issues were politically motivated at village level, nothing like this had happened during that time. If that happened then it could be said that it was the fault of the religion,” he added. However, a member of the five Judge Panel of the Commission pointed out that there is a significant difference between the English version and the Sinhala translated version of the Quran and asked him to reconsider the translations of the Quran.ACJU Arkam Moulavi thanked for pointing out those differences and said he said he will inquire into it.