An Open Letter To My Dear Muslim Brothers & Sisters
Dr Ranga Kalansooriya
Let me begin this letter with a short comparison of two stories that recently happened in two different countries, but under somewhat a similar context.
A few months ago, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk who is residing in Myanmar was waiting at the Yangon international airport to receive someone and relayed an interesting story to me later. “There was a Muslim family standing next to me – and I smiled at them out of courtesy. But the response was strange – they reciprocated in a non-friendly look and somewhat starring,” the monk told me. In fact, this is not a unique situation in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. The relationship between the Buddhists – mainly the clergy – and an average Muslim citizen is not warm and cordial. Hardly would they greet each other with a smile. Therefore, when the Sri Lankan monk had a friendly smile at them, obviously it was a strange move to that Muslim family.
In contrast, I was in Trincomalee last week visiting a remote village called Sagarapura where I met a monasterial monk who completely depends on the begging ball (Pindapaatha). The village is a mix of Catholics, Muslims and a few Buddhists. I asked the monk whether the Muslims offer food into his begging ball. “Of course they do, but they lack knowledge on how to make such an offering. But they voluntarily offer food and other necessities to me,” the monk said adding that he feels comfortable whenever he visits a Muslim village for begging food.
Look at these two different scenarios of two similar socio-political contexts to some extent. As Jane Russellcorrectly highlighted in her book “Communal Politics Under the Donoughmore Constitution 1931-1947” international tensions, both political and economic, are reflected fairly accurately within Sri Lankan society. Tension between your brethren and my brethren (Buddhist) erupted during the past few years in different parts of the world – predominantly in countries with Buddhist majority. Of course each contexts has its own background, but here – to my mind- the ‘guns’ were turned against you following the military defeat of LTTE where the then government always required a nationalistic platform for its own survival.
