Photo: Sri Lankan Muslims Women who is living in refugee camp in Batticaloa; photo taken by Sri Lanka Guardian special correspondent Nuwan Jayatilleke while his vist in the Area.by R. Upadhyay
(February 08, Chennai,Sri Lana Guardian)Sri Lanka, earlier known as Ceylon is broadly divided between two major ethnic groups namely Sinhalese (74%) and Tamils. Religion wise composition of population is 70% Buddhists, 15% Hindus, 8% Muslims and 7% Christians. Of the 8% Muslims, 7% are Tamil speaking and popularly known as Moors. The remaining 1% of them is called Malays, who had immigrated to this island during Dutch and British rule from western countries. While Sinhalese are mostly Buddhists and spread all over the country, Tamils including both Hindus and Muslims are largely concentrated in the north-eastern region. For centuries, Sinhalese and Tamils defined their identity in term of language and socio-cultural traditions. However, from mid 1880s the Muslim leaders differentiated the identity of their community in terms of religion for their self-seeking political interest. Gradually, their politics of communal identity under the patronage of successive governments not only divided the integrated Tamil ethnic group on the basis of religion but also pushed the community towards hard-line Islamism. In order to share political power they adopted the politics of religious identity, separated the community from Tamil ethnic group and joined hands with Sinhalese dominated political fronts against the Tamil Hindus. The hate-Muslim syndrome among the Hindu Tamils finally turned the region into a civil war zone. Sinhalese dominated political leadership in the government on the other hand used the Muslims to checkmate the Tamils. In stead of taking lesson from global scenario of Islamist ascendancy particularly the role of USA in promoting Taliban against Soviet Union during 1980s in Afghanistan, policy of Sri Lanka in allowing growth of Muslim fundamentalism is a worrying danger to regional security.
Unlike its closest neighbour India for sharing common border, race, religion, history and pangs of colonialism, Sri Lanka has been free from the medieval challenge of Muslim communalism. However, the Islamic revivalism launched by Deoband and Aligarh movements in India in second half of nineteenth century made a visible influence on its Muslim population also. Drawing inspiration from these movements, the Muslim leadership of the island established Anglo-Mohammadan Boys School at Mardana Mosque premises in Colombo in 1884 on the pattern of Anglo-Mohammadan College Aligarh founded in 1880. Later a section of urban elite Muslims also raised the question of separate Muslim identity and launched an assertive ethno-political movement, which led to the communalization of Moors. The violent challenge Sri Lanka is facing from LTTE for over last two decades and reported presence of Osama group if closely analysed are also rooted to this ethno-political movement.
Ceylon Moors claim their lineage from Arab traders who came to the eastern coast of this country, married the Tamil women after converting them to Islam and gradually integrated in the mainstream Tamil society by sharing Makkaryars (From Tamil Nadu) and Moplas (From Kerala) socio-cultural and linguistic traits. Another view, which is more popular is that a larger majority of Muslims settled in north-eastern sector are Tamil converts. They took to agriculture as their profession, whereas a small group of Arab origin in the community mostly inhabited in west coast are in buisiness. Although this smaller section still maintains their superiority from Mophlas and Marakkayar, they deliberately created a myth of Arab origin for all the Muslims and transformed them for boasting their primordial Indo-Arab ancestry. This was only for sharing political power with the dominant community.
Author Ameer Ali, an authentic academic among the Sri Lankan Muslims in his study ‘The Muslim Factor in Sri Lankan Ethnic Crisis’, published in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (Oct.1997) acknowledged that "in actual fact, the Muslims of Sri Lanka are a mixture of Arab, Persian, Dravidian and Malay blood of which the Dravidian element, because of centuries of heavy Indian injection has remained the dominant one." The leaders of Moors however, do not accept this theory. Inspired with the rising tide of communal consciousness among the Muslims of India, which was more for political reasons than spiritual, the elite section of urban Muslims in Sri Lanka became more assertive for separating themselves from their Tamil ethnic identity. In fact when British introduced a system of inducting representatives of different ethnic groups in All Island Legislative Council and appointed Ponnambalam Ramnathan as representative of Tamils including Muslims, the latter started agitating for appointment of their representative separately. Ramnathan while strongly opposing the move argued that Moors were of Tamil race who became Muslims after conversion. He also published an essay on ‘The Ethnology of the Moors of Ceylon’ in the journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch in 1888 to prove his point. However, the British in its own game of divide and rule ignored the logic in the thesis of Ramnathan, appointed a Muslim representative in the council in 1889. Encouraged with the British patronage, a Moor lawyer with a view to foster Arab- Islamic identity consciousness in the community "secured before the Privy Council his right to plead in court wearing a Turkish fez in stead of a barrister’s horsehair wig". (Muslim Communities of South Asia, Edited by T.N.Madan, Manohar, Page 514, 2001).
(February 08, Chennai,Sri Lana Guardian)Sri Lanka, earlier known as Ceylon is broadly divided between two major ethnic groups namely Sinhalese (74%) and Tamils. Religion wise composition of population is 70% Buddhists, 15% Hindus, 8% Muslims and 7% Christians. Of the 8% Muslims, 7% are Tamil speaking and popularly known as Moors. The remaining 1% of them is called Malays, who had immigrated to this island during Dutch and British rule from western countries. While Sinhalese are mostly Buddhists and spread all over the country, Tamils including both Hindus and Muslims are largely concentrated in the north-eastern region. For centuries, Sinhalese and Tamils defined their identity in term of language and socio-cultural traditions. However, from mid 1880s the Muslim leaders differentiated the identity of their community in terms of religion for their self-seeking political interest. Gradually, their politics of communal identity under the patronage of successive governments not only divided the integrated Tamil ethnic group on the basis of religion but also pushed the community towards hard-line Islamism. In order to share political power they adopted the politics of religious identity, separated the community from Tamil ethnic group and joined hands with Sinhalese dominated political fronts against the Tamil Hindus. The hate-Muslim syndrome among the Hindu Tamils finally turned the region into a civil war zone. Sinhalese dominated political leadership in the government on the other hand used the Muslims to checkmate the Tamils. In stead of taking lesson from global scenario of Islamist ascendancy particularly the role of USA in promoting Taliban against Soviet Union during 1980s in Afghanistan, policy of Sri Lanka in allowing growth of Muslim fundamentalism is a worrying danger to regional security.
Unlike its closest neighbour India for sharing common border, race, religion, history and pangs of colonialism, Sri Lanka has been free from the medieval challenge of Muslim communalism. However, the Islamic revivalism launched by Deoband and Aligarh movements in India in second half of nineteenth century made a visible influence on its Muslim population also. Drawing inspiration from these movements, the Muslim leadership of the island established Anglo-Mohammadan Boys School at Mardana Mosque premises in Colombo in 1884 on the pattern of Anglo-Mohammadan College Aligarh founded in 1880. Later a section of urban elite Muslims also raised the question of separate Muslim identity and launched an assertive ethno-political movement, which led to the communalization of Moors. The violent challenge Sri Lanka is facing from LTTE for over last two decades and reported presence of Osama group if closely analysed are also rooted to this ethno-political movement.
Ceylon Moors claim their lineage from Arab traders who came to the eastern coast of this country, married the Tamil women after converting them to Islam and gradually integrated in the mainstream Tamil society by sharing Makkaryars (From Tamil Nadu) and Moplas (From Kerala) socio-cultural and linguistic traits. Another view, which is more popular is that a larger majority of Muslims settled in north-eastern sector are Tamil converts. They took to agriculture as their profession, whereas a small group of Arab origin in the community mostly inhabited in west coast are in buisiness. Although this smaller section still maintains their superiority from Mophlas and Marakkayar, they deliberately created a myth of Arab origin for all the Muslims and transformed them for boasting their primordial Indo-Arab ancestry. This was only for sharing political power with the dominant community.
Author Ameer Ali, an authentic academic among the Sri Lankan Muslims in his study ‘The Muslim Factor in Sri Lankan Ethnic Crisis’, published in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (Oct.1997) acknowledged that "in actual fact, the Muslims of Sri Lanka are a mixture of Arab, Persian, Dravidian and Malay blood of which the Dravidian element, because of centuries of heavy Indian injection has remained the dominant one." The leaders of Moors however, do not accept this theory. Inspired with the rising tide of communal consciousness among the Muslims of India, which was more for political reasons than spiritual, the elite section of urban Muslims in Sri Lanka became more assertive for separating themselves from their Tamil ethnic identity. In fact when British introduced a system of inducting representatives of different ethnic groups in All Island Legislative Council and appointed Ponnambalam Ramnathan as representative of Tamils including Muslims, the latter started agitating for appointment of their representative separately. Ramnathan while strongly opposing the move argued that Moors were of Tamil race who became Muslims after conversion. He also published an essay on ‘The Ethnology of the Moors of Ceylon’ in the journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch in 1888 to prove his point. However, the British in its own game of divide and rule ignored the logic in the thesis of Ramnathan, appointed a Muslim representative in the council in 1889. Encouraged with the British patronage, a Moor lawyer with a view to foster Arab- Islamic identity consciousness in the community "secured before the Privy Council his right to plead in court wearing a Turkish fez in stead of a barrister’s horsehair wig". (Muslim Communities of South Asia, Edited by T.N.Madan, Manohar, Page 514, 2001).
In 1907 a Moorish editor I.M.L. Abdul Azeez also published a lengthy rebuttal paper against the thesis of Ramnathan. Strongly refuting the thesis he claimed the Arab pedigree of the Moors and argued that without diluting their Arab-Ceylonese identity the Moors married the Tamil women after converting them to Islam and sharing their linguistic and cultural Tamil traits. Since that point of time the Moors remained assertive for promotion of hypostatized Arab social pedigree for their separate identity. Historic Ramnathan-Azeez debate, projection of Muslim Personal Law, formation of Fez committee to protest against the verdict of Supreme Court forbidding wearing of fez by Muslim barristers in Ceylon courts and promotion of Islamic education conspicuously exposed the Muslims’ assertive campaign for their communal identity. The identity question of the Muslims however, added to the complexity of the political problem in the country.
Although the Muslims are the second largest minority group in the country after Tamils, the cultural mix and demographic ubiquity of this community make the territorial division of the country along ethnic lines more complicated than what appears in most published sources. Unlike the Sinhalese and the Tamils, the Muslims became a bilingual community even though Tamil has traditionally been their mother tongue. While the majority of the Sinhalese speak only Sinhalese and the majority of Tamils only Tamil, the majority of the Muslims, have acquired the ability to converse in both languages. This linguistic advantage of the Muslims has unfortunately driven them into conflict with both the Tamils and the Sinhalese.
Sinhalese, who have defined Sri Lankan nationality in terms of their tradition, suspected the Arab-Ceylonese identity consciousness of Muslims as extra territorial allegiance. At the same time the issue also created a gap of mistrust between Tamil Hindus and Tamil Moors and led to sporadic minor communal clashes between the two. A major Sinhalese violence against the Muslims in 1915 when a mosque in Gampola was enlarged and extended to an adjacent road where the Sinhalese had been celebrating the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha widened the communal divide in the country. With spread of violence in different towns the rioters damaged 84 mosques and looted about 4000 Muslim shops. Since the British brutally suppressed the riot, the Moors became loyal to them. Like Sir Sayed Ahmad in India who had asked the Muslims to remain aloof from Indian National Congress, the Moors also stood aloof from Ceylon National Congress which was formed in 1917 with ultimate objective of securing responsible government for Sri Lanka. They also formed Ceylon Muslim League in 1924 like All India Muslim League in India. Their loyalty to the British and muting support to freedom movement exposed their strategy against the Sinhalese majority.
During 1930s when communal representation acquired prominence in politics, the Moors, who were claiming themselves superior to Tamil and Malay Muslims, sought a unity among all the Muslims for enjoying a significant role in country’s politics. However, defeat of all the Muslim candidates during 1936 election forced them to change their strategy in support of the Sinhalese majoritarian domination in political movements for freedom which guaranteed their charter membership in the United National Party (UNP) at the time of independence in 1948.
Tamil Hindus expected the Muslims whose home language is Tamil to form a united political front against the Sinhalese, whose natural urge was to dominate the political scene in the country. In 1956 when the Sinhalese Only Bill was introduced in the Parliament, the Muslims ignored the Tamil Hindus opposition to the bill and supported it as a strategy to diminish the hate-Muslim syndrome of the Sinhalese at least temporarily. Explicit support to the language Bill was their strategy not only to seek political concessions but also to save their business interests. Muslims in their heart of hearts were not in favour of ‘the Sinhal a only’ language policy of the government but they publicly supported it with a view to gain the favour of the government. Accordingly, they had a preference for the Sinhalese dominated political front on the ground of the concept of democracy. However, in lieu of their support they could extract maximum concession in the name of their religious identity from the successive ruling Sinhalese dominated parties namely UNPA and SLFP. By managing communal constituency, Muslims in Sri Lanka not only emerged as a preferred political group but also made the Sinhalese dominated party leaders to understand that they are a deciding factor in winning election in number of constituencies. Accordingly, the Muslim leadership assertively bargained with the government and secured a number of concessions like introduction of Arabic education in the island where only 0.33% (R.V.Mohan) of population declared Arabic as their mother tongue, support to the wearing of fez, cleansing the community of their linguistic and cultural traits of Tamil, establishment of Islamic cultural Homes, formation of All Ceylon Moor Association, and attempt to modify the traditional civil codes regarding marriage, divorce and inheritance in accordance with Shariat etc. Muslim groups who used to contest election as a front of Sinhalese dominated mainstream political parties even formed a party namely Sri Lanka Muslim Congress in 1980.
1980s was a period of political turmoil in Sri Lanka when the Tamil leaders launched a movement for independent Tamil nation and invited the Muslims also to join it on the plea of linguistic solidarity. However, when the Muslims failed to respond favourably, it widened the gap of embittered relations between the two and led to communal confrontation. In August 1990 LTTE forced about 100000 of them to flee from Jaffna.
The global phenomenon of Islamist ascendancy particularly after the withdrawal of Soviet army from Afghanistan also generated interest among the Muslims of Sri Lanka towards hard-line Islam. However, Muslim refugees from Jaffna attracted Islamist establishments to generate interest among them towards Wahhabist ideology of militant Islam. But government support to them against Tamil militancy discouraged the community to join the international Islamist terrorist group in Jihad against crusaders and Jews. While the strategy of the government was to use the Muslims as effective buffer against Tamil militancy, the ISI of Pakistan which was already using LTTE against India did not like to send jihadis against the Tamils.
Government of Sri Lanka with a view to keep the Tamil speaking Muslims away from Tamil separatist group have adopted a "look other way policy" even towards a demand like separate Islamic territory raised by a section of Muslim youths in northeast region. Ironically, some of the Muslim leaders with the support of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress even floated an idea of creating a Muslim battalion in the Sri Lankan armed forces. They argued that if the government failed to protect the Muslims, the community should be armed to protect itself from the LTTE. During the period of late president Premdasa 500 Muslim youths were trained and deployed as paramilitary forces to work side by side with Sri Lankan forces in their fight against LTTE. This resulted into more communal confrontation between the two Tamil communities. Arming of Muslim youths by the government to protect themselves from the LTTE not only pushed the northeastern region of Sri Lanka to civil war but also attracted the Islamist establishments from all over the world to exploit their hapless community there.
Although, there is no substantial evidence to justify the presence of Islamist terrorist groups in Sri Lanka, the post- September 11, 2001 developments in the country suggests that Wahhabisation of Sri Lankan Muslims, funding of Muslim militia from Islamist establishments, suspected presence of Osma group and Muslim armed groups, sporadic clashes between hard-line Wahhabists and moderate Muslims and also between LTTE supporters and Muslims have pushed the island also under the shadow of Islamist terror. The Muslims of the country who had been on receiving end from the attack of Tamil militia are now found attracted with the jehadi concept of Osama. Wahhabi clerics who had already done spade work by transforming a significant section of Muslims into orthodox Islam had no problem in mobilization of government sponsored armed Muslim groups to fight back the Tamil militants and enforce militant Islam among the moderate members within the community.
Some reports also suggest that a movement for Wahhabisation of Sri Lankan Muslims " is sweeping the eastern province of Sri Lanka with more than 50 Muslim fundamentalist organizations supporting it and helping in propagating the movement throughout the island". Violent clashes between ultra radical groups and follower of Sufi sect are an indication in this direction. Although, Sinhalese dominated government have always perceived Muslims as much a threat as Tamils, they have promoted Muslim militancy as an effective buffer against the separatist LTTE. Arming the Muslim youths and allowing concessions to the community in the name of their separate identity have however, exposed the strategy of the government. Its look other way policy to checkmate the LTTE, may backfire if the international community is convinced with the campaign already launched with the latter to prove that the Sinhalese dominated government is patronizing the Islamist terrorism against the Tamil ethnic group.
The British adopted the policy of patronizing the Muslims against Sinhalese and Tamils to serve their colonial interests. Sri Lanka while pursuing similar policy armed the Muslims to checkmate Tamils ignoring the consequences of such action. They even mooted the idea of creating a separate regiment for Muslims in its army. This was however; strongly opposed by the ultra nationalist Sinhalese groups on the plea that it would cause a security threat to the country.
Emboldened with the support of the government as well as of Islamist establishments including terrorist groups Muslims have not only emerged as a preferred political group but they have also enforced their political growth by securing 12 seats in 225 member parliament during 2004 election and some berths in the cabinet. Growth of radical Islamism with reported presence of ‘Osama Group’in the island is therefore a matter of security concern not only for Sri Lanka but also for India. Although, 1990 anti-Muslim violence by the LTTE caused great sufferings to the Muslims of Jaffna, they never came in front line either to fight against the Tamil separatists openly or to put pressure on the government to amicably resolve the issue. In stead they availed the opportunity for the growth of radical Islam in the country under government patronage. Since the 2002 cease-fire agreement signed between Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE has expired, the pro Muslim policy of the government against the Tamils will not unload the burden of protracted ethnic war in which both Sinhalese and Tamil youths have also sacrificed their lives in thousands. Once the LTTE problem is resolved, the chances of which are apparently remote, Sri Lanka will face a similar problem as India is facing from the Jihadis. Presently Islamist militia may be in small numbers but in view of the growing ascendancy of Islamism if the Muslim policy of the government is not reviewed this small group will turn more problematic in future.
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