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Sri Lankan Muslims at cross roads 20

By Izeth Hussain-October 10, 2014
I believe that in the present series of articles
I have established, beyond reasonable dispute, that the two issues that
supposedly constitute existential threats to the Sinhalese, namely Muslim
extremism and Muslim population growth, are really non-problems. The
other issues that have been bedeviling Sinhalese-Muslims relations,
sometimes for decades, can be settled quite easily or at least without
much difficulty, provided that the overnment has the will to ta!e
appropriate regulatory and punitive measures. I have in mind the
supposed economically privileged position of the Muslims, cattle slaughter,
the use of loudspea!ers for the call to prayer, the proliferation of mosques,
and so on.
I will ma!e a few observations on some of those issues, none of which
really requires in-depth treatment because none is really intractable. "ut
before doing that I will substantiate my point that they can be settled
without much difficulty provided the overnment has the will to ta!e
appropriate measures. It has been the practice of our overnments, the
present as well as previous ones, to allow issues between the Sinhalese
and the Muslims to fester rather than confront and settle them. #or
instance the other day a newspaper carried an item stating that a $abinet
Minister had alleged that Muslims are becoming predominant in numbers in
several towns including $olombo, alle, %andy etc. &robably that is true,
the probable explanation for which is that outside the 'astern &rovince our
Muslims have always been an urban people and it has to be expected
therefore that with hectic economic development ta!ing place more and
more of them will respond to a gravitational pull towards the urban
centers. "ut all the same it will be widely assumed that the Minister(s
statement confirms that the Muslims are proliferating li!e coc!roaches and
insects and will before long become the dominant ma)ority. I have refuted
that notion, so has *a)an &hilips in an excellent article, and possibly others
have done so as well. The overnment should have no difficulty whatever
in getting an expert study made and putting a stop to nonsense about the
Muslim population explosion. "ut no one would expect the overnment to
do anything of the sort. That would not accord with the style of our
overnments in nation-building.
My contention is that there are indeed issues bedeviling Sinhalese-Muslim
relations, but the real problem underlying them is that successive
overnments have failed, or rather refused, to deal with those issues,
none of which has been really intractable. The point I am ma!ing is
crucially important for a proper understanding of our Muslim ethnic
problem. I will therefore cite another example + apart from the one cited
above + to illustrate my point. ,ntil the ""S started its hate campaign
about two years ago hardly any Sri -an!an was even aware of halal
certification as a problem. It was quite unli!e cattle slaughter and the call
to prayer which have been with us for decades. .et it became the center-
piece of the ""S campaign which led to the Muslim ethnic problem
acquiring a dimension that has made it an internationally recogni/ed one.
0ow on earth did that come about1 There are Muslim minorities in
practically every country of the world, sometimes numbering many
millions, and yet there has been no ma)or problem over halal certification
in any of them, certainly not a ma)or problem wrec!ing ethnic relations.
2hy has that happened only in Sri -an!a1 In finding an answer, it will help
to as! what is involved in halal certification. Traditionally our Muslims had
no problem about identifying what food items they should or should not
buy, but with the wide spread of pac!aged synthetic food the problem of
identification arose because they could contain forbidden ingredients
without that fact being declared on the pac!ages. There was therefore a
need for halal certification, and the 3$4, met that need. It was found also
that our exporters would be badly handicapped in certain mar!ets without
halal certification, and the 3$4, obliged by meeting that need as well.
There was nothing clandestine, nothing criminal, nothing deleterious to the
national interest in what the 3$4, was doing in connection with halal
certification. The ""S thought otherwise for reasons that need not be
explored here because the important point is this5 although there was
nothing intractable about the issue, nothing that could not have been
easily settled through overnment intervention, the overnment refused
to ta!e any action towards that end, until a late stage by which time the
anti-halal campaign had done much to wrec! Sinhalese-Muslim relations.
It would be misleading to say that our overnments have failed to ta!e
action towards building a multi-ethnic nation with a deep sense of unity. To
fail to do something means that one has tried to do it in the first place,
whereas our overnments have never been in earnest about building a
multi-ethnic nation. The underlying reason is that our two leading political
parties believe + although they won(t avow it + that there is no reason to
build a multi-ethnic nation because the nation already exists5 this land
belongs to the Sinhalese, and the difference between the two parties is
that the one holds that it belongs to the Sinhalese "uddhists while the
other holds that it belongs to all the Sinhalese inclusive of the $hristians.
$onsequently, we can hardly expect for the foreseeable future much more
than perfunctory action by our overnments to sort out Sinhalese-Muslim
issues. There has to be civil society pressure on our overnments towards
that end.
I will give a concrete instance of what I have in mind. Some years ago
former $hief 4ustice Sarath Silva gave sensible rulings on the use of
loudspea!ers, which could have eliminated the issue of the mosque calls to
prayer. "ut I am told that the law is too often observed in the breach. The
overnment could be reluctant to ta!e punitive action for fear of losing
Muslim votes or for some other reason, so that it is up to the civil society
to exercise pressure towards that end. If the civil society is not dynamic
enough for that purpose, we can expect the loudspea!er and other
Sinhalese-Muslim issues to go on festering, and Sri -an!a will remain what
it is today5 a multi-ethnic society devoid of a sense of unity worth spea!ing
about.
I will conclude this article with a few observations on two issues which
could have more serious consequences than most of the others. The first is
cattle slaughter which + in theory at least + could rouse "uddhist
sentiments in a dangerous way. That has not really happened up to now,
but it has the potential to do so. 6n this, and indeed on all the other issues
between the Sinhalese and Muslims, we must all abide by a fundamental
principle, which is that no one irrespective of ethnic identity should be
faulted for acting within the law. The Sinhalese "uddhists are dominant in
this country and they are dominant in the overnment also, so that if the
overnment allows cattle-slaughter it should be an issue between the
Sinhalese "uddhists and the overnment, not between the Sinhalese
"uddhists and the Muslims. 3ny ill-will towards the Muslims on the score of
cattle slaughter, which is to say on their acting within the law, should be
regarded as morally inexcusable.
$ertain misconceptions have to be clarified, the most important of which
regards animal sacrifice, which is usually a feature of primitive religions.
The crucial difference is that in the primitive religions the sacrificed animal
is supposed to feed the ods whereas Islam is explicit on the point that
od does not need food from humans. 3ll that happens during the "airam
festival is that Muslims increase their consumption of meat. "esides, the
meat is distributed to relations, friends, and the poor, so that the festival
becomes an occasion for affirming social solidarity and compassion for the
por. I )ust can(t see that our "uddhists should find anything morally
ob)ectionable in any of that.
7To be continued8
i/ethhussain9gmail.com
Posted by Thavam