Sri Lankan Muslims at the crossroads - 12

by Izeth Hussain-August 15, 2014,

An article by Ameena Hussein seems to be getting wide
currency among Muslims, more than one of whom has sent me copies
through the internet. It is a superb example of the New ournalism started
by !ruman "apote and !om #olfe, in which the techni$ues of creati%e
fiction are used in &ournalism. !he article brings home to the reader what it
means to be a 'ri (an)an Muslim today with an immediacy and poignancy
that would not be possible through straightforward reportage. It is the
poignancy of a people cowering in fear, e%en terror.
Ameena H*s article ma)es se%eral points that are of particular interest to
me in connection with the series of articles that I am writing on the 'ri
(an)an Muslims. At a meeting between 'ri (an)an and "hinese business
people she found that the 'inhalese interpreter was telling the "hinese
that the 'ri (an)an Muslims had been in 'ri (an)a only since +,--.
!hough e%idently an educated man, he was under the impression that the
Muslims came to 'ri (an)a around the same time as the .ortuguese,
whereas the historical records suggest that the Arabs were here e%en from
pre-Islamic times. !his detail points to the need for other ethnic groups to
be better informed about the '( Muslims, as part of a program of national
integration. !here is therefore a need for more, not less, of the )ind of
serial articles that I am now writing on the '( Muslims.
.art of the reason, perhaps the ma&or reason, why there is misinformation
and misperception about our Muslims among the other ethnic groups
arises out of the tendency of Muslims to withdraw into themsel%es. !he
"hristians confined the ews to ghettos for centuries, whereas the Muslims
confine themsel%es to their own ghettos. !he tendency to withdrawal has
been a notable characteristic of Muslim societies in their phases of
decadence. After the 'econd #orld #ar, our Muslims were getting out of
their ghetto but the process seemed to be re%ersed from the second half of
the /se%enties, and in recent times they ha%e been affirming their identity
and apartness more and more. "onse$uently they are not seen as properly
belonging to the nation, and that seems to be the source of much of the
pre&udice against them. Ameena H recognizes this problem, and proceeds
to ma)e a point that seems to me of the greatest importance. !he Muslims
may assert their identity and hold themsel%es apart as ne%er before, but
that does not mean that their sense of belonging to 'ri (an)a has
disappeared. After all, where else can the 'ri (an)an Muslims belong
except in 'ri (an)a0 !he 'inhalese should bear this in mind in approaching
the problem of national integration.
I will now di%iate from the main narrati%e to point to another handicap
suffered by the Muslims, apart from their tendency to hold themsel%es
apart. It is that they are the most di%ided of all our ethnic groups. ane
1ussell made that point in her boo) on our communal politics. #hen I
as)ed her about it, she replied that she could not thin) of an explanation
but that that extreme di%isi%eness was indubitably a fact. More recently a
member of the ((1" told me that its members were %ery surprised to
disco%er, after in%estigations at the grass roots le%el, that the Muslims
were the most di%ided of all our ethnic groups. He added that it was no
secret that Muslim refugees from the North got on much better with the
'inhalese than with their co-religionists around .uttalam. At that time a
'inhalese told me that the lands of the Muslims in the North 2ast were
being stolen both by the 'tate and by the !amils, while the Muslim %ictims
had no one to spea) for them. !he reasons for Muslim di%isi%eness, as well
as possible correcti%es, badly need in%estigation. Here I will merely point
out that the di%isi%eness has certainly handicapped Muslims in securing
their legitimate interests.
!o return to Ameena H*s article 3 she expresses exasperation with all the
drum-beating on multi-ethnicity and multi-culturalism which has left our
4o%ernments unfazed and led nowhere at all. I thin) her exasperation is
%ery important because it points to the way in which our N45s and thin)-
tan)s 3 our intellectual community as a whole 3 ha%e refused, consciously
or subconsciously, to face up to the hard realities behind our ethnic
problems. !he #estern nation states, as I ha%e remar)ed earlier, had an
exceptionally high degree of unity. After the 'econd #orld #ar their
economies re$uired an influx of cheap labour from the ex- colonies, which
led to a disruption of that unity. !hey were faced therefore with forging a
unity on a new basis, and they ha%e been doing that $uite successfully on
the principle of gi%ing fair and e$ual treatment to all citizens. I bet that
that simple and practical conclusion was ne%er reached in all our meetings
and seminars on multiculturalism. !he idea of gi%ing fair and e$ual
treatment to the minorities would ha%e remained at the le%el of clich6,
without proceeding to any practical measures unli)e in the #est. !he truth
is that we ha%e ne%er been in earnest about sol%ing our ethnic problems.
!he dri%e has always been for di%ision and hierarchy.
!he abo%e deals with matters of particular interest to me in connection
with the series of articles that I am writing on the '( Muslims. !he reason
why AH*s article is circulating among Muslims is $uite a different one. 'he
recei%ed from the .olice what purported to be an election registration
form, but it turned out to be inauthentic. !he purpose really was to
establish whether or not the residents in her house were Muslims.. It was
found that se%eral others had also recei%ed such forms. All this has an
eerie resemblance to what happened in preparation for the +789
holocaust. It is not alarmist to be deeply troubled about this because
practically e%eryone belie%es that the anti-Muslim campaign has
4o%ernment bac)ing.
#hen I began this series of articles I had in mind co%erage of the 'ri
(an)an Muslims as a whole, without focusing only on their dilemmas o%er
the anti-Muslim campaign of the last two years. !hat was meant to be a
substitute for a boo) on the '( Muslims which I promised to write, but I
couldn*t get round to writing it. 'uch co%erage will re$uire in-depth and
lengthy treatment of certain matters, for which the newspaper is not the
appropriate format. :urthermore the )ind of alarming material gi%en in the
preceding paragraph abo%e suggests that practical action to safeguard the
li%es and legitimate interests of the Muslims should not be delayed. I ha%e
long held that the Muslim ethnic problem can be sol%ed by addressing the
issues that ha%e been bede%iling 'inhalese-Muslim relations, sometimes
for decades. None of those issues are intractable. I will therefore conclude
this series of articles by addressing those issues.
;ut before doing that I must clarify what seem to me to be some of the
fundamentals of the Muslim ethnic problem. It should be seen not in
isolation but as part of the problem of national integration, and that should
be seen in turn as part of a wider problem facing most third world
countries< the problem of transition to modernity. #hat I mean by
modernity in the present context, not the whole range of what it might
mean, is the high material standard of life a%ailable to the mass of the
people in the ad%anced economies, together with a meeting of their non-
material needs in the form of the secular trinity of (iberty, 2$uality,
:raternity. A re$uisite for modernity in 'ri (an)a today is therefore
economic de%elopment with e$uity together with democracy. As I ha%e
been remar)ing, a ma&or reason for the extraordinary achie%ements of the
#est is the high degree of unity in the western societies. #e ob%iously
ha%e a need for some degree of unity in 'ri (an)a, while we retain our
ethnic pluralism. 5ur Muslims can fully participate in the struggle for
modernity for two reasons. 5ne is that the only properly Islamic form of
4o%ernment has to be democratic 3 for reasons that I cannot explore here.
!he other is that no other world religion places so great an emphasis on
the human need for unity. !he Muslim struggle to be allowed to li%e in
peace and dignity should therefore become part of a struggle for national
integration and modernity.
izethhussain=gmail.com
Posted by Thavam