The Muslims of Sri Lanka

This is no extract from Lorna Dewaraja’s Book – One Thousand years of Ethnic Harmony. It is neither enlightenment for those who may not exactly know. It is just a bit of my own observation, findings and word of mouth hearing so there’s a high chance that some of the facts may be incorrect. The objective of this, I will highlight later.

The Muslims of Sri Lanka consists of the majority being the Moors from Morocco, the second highest Muslim population – the Malays from Indonesia and Malaysia (brought here for defence purposes small as they are) and the Memons, Indian Moors and Boras from Pakistan and India and I’m not sure if Iran is involved here. The Arabians and Persians also have some mark here. All the above mentioned are followers of Islam and what distinguishes them is nationality and race and not religion. As for me – I am truly Sri Lankan having the gay name Vedaralalage Gedara (not very sure of spellings) and my origins being the early people of Colombo and Kandy.

I don’t know how we got here (trading or something) but reading from some reliable sources I understand that the Muslims of Sri Lanka have a long history. There are indications that Muslims have been in Sri Lanka as far back as the 7th century. Marco Polo who broke journey in Ceylon had observed a significant Muslim presence in the country in the 13th century. Ibnu Batuta in 1344 when visiting Ceylon had also noted Muslim settlement in the hinterland

One of the objectives I’m trying to highlight with this post is that the Muslims are sometimes afraid of speaking of the rights and privileges of the community, or to study its needs and create far sighted policies and programmes for it’s wellbeing or for effective interaction with other communities. “The misconception that many Muslims have is that the other communities would consider the Muslims to be communal if they spoke about a Muslim Factor. This misconception has always been the greatest obstacle for the Muslim unity and progress in the country. There has been a misconception in the Muslim Community that if they speak of their needs, rights or aspirations, it would create communal disharmony. This unfounded fear has created a situation where the needs and aspirations of the Muslim Community of Sri Lanka are not properly portrayed by the Community and therefore not properly understood by other communities and the state. The waves of destruction of 12/26 also washed away, this grave misconception.”

If Muslims do not speak of their problems, their needs, their aspirations and their rights, who would? Can highlighting the factors that significantly affect any community be termed “Communal”? Why, in this country is a Muslim looked at as a Muslim and not as a person? I am not to forget here that Muslims who do not reside in rural areas of course have so many privileges rather than the ones that even in live Muslim nations. Let me emphasise “Muslim” but not “Islamic” nations. To most of us, meeting the person first is more important than meeting his/her religion or the race but unfortunately to the majority this is not the case. Religion is a right of all human an each is entitled to his/her belief why should it interfere with anything? We should always try to keep out of what is not our business. Part of a man's good practice of Islam is avoiding what does not concern him. There is almost no need that each community interfere with the others rituals and beliefs unless of course it be a socially unethical and unacceptable thing to do (not necessarily agreed by the majority).
Coming soon… “Islam and slaughtering”