What do we see emerging after the riots in Sri Lanka?
Let me put it to you that there is a pattern, a thread running through all these violent episodes, all accusing the Muslims for inciting violence.
( March 16, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) While Tourist Agencies were touting for tourists to visit Sri Lanka at the Tourist Fairs in Berlin, and in Japan, in March this year, there was another agenda taking place in the tourist resorts of Kandy. At Ambatenna a mob came by the hundreds, screaming at the top of their lungs, carrying sticks, stones and petrol bombs. Some two dozen policemen and soldiers watched helpless according to residents, as the mob, needless to say who they were – vandalised and set fire to Muslim homes and businesses in the town’s Welekada area.
To quote a report in the foreign media which said: “We were so scared,” Fatima Zameer told the reporter, “clutching her three week old infant,as she recounted the violence that swept, like a Tsunami, through her neighbourhood that morning”. I refer to the morning of 5 March 2018.She said:“We have nowhere to go. They broke all the windows in my house. Our whole house is burnt.”
The mob which witnesses said was between 200 and 500 overran Welekade defying the curfew and the State of Emergency imposed by President Maitripala Sirisena a day earlier to quell ant-Muslim riots which began in Teldeniya over the weekend of 4thMarch 2018.
Tracing the history of anti-Muslim sentiment
First, many of you know, it was the hijab – the lifestyle issue of many Muslim women wearing the hijab. This dress was being looked at as alien to Sri Lankan culture.
Then, it was the Halal Certification – to create unnecessary fear in the minds of non-Muslims. The halal slaughtering methods or the ingredients that go into the food consumed. You know it was hardly a problem in the past, except in the case of some diehard objectionists.
You will note that in February 14, 2013 for the first time since May 1915, anti Muslim wave of violence erupted in the Kandy area. A gang known as the Keppitpola paara puyna distributed anti-halal handouts in villages that started it. The Sinhalese people were advised by the handout not to consume certain products until the Halal logo was removed from the packages.
Then it was the fact that the “tuk-tuk” three wheeler drivers were mostly Muslim and their charges were not monitored by meters.
If we fast forward the years, we had the Althugama- Beruwela anti-Muslim riots in 2014. These riots were based on hate speech and incitement by the BBS.
Recently we were told there was the Amparai clash, the “Vandha Pethi” issue. A Muslim restaurant was accused of mixing “Vanda Pethi” sterilization sub-fertility pills in the food served to people.
During all these incidents we were also made aware of the anxiety in rural Buddhist temples, many who accused Muslims of desecrating Buddhist structures outside places of worship and forcibly converting Buddhist devotees to Islam.
You must by now be tired hearing of my litany of accusations against the Muslims.
That was not all. Then there was the issue of the influx of Rohinga Muslim refugees from Myanmar to Sri Lanka. It was viewed as a conspiracy by the international human rights agencies to arouse the sentiments of fellow Buddhists?
The latest bout of communal violence began on Sunday March 4, 2018 when a truck driver, a Buddhist Sinhalese, died after being beaten up by a group of four inebriated Muslims in a three wheeler, over a traffic accident, days earlier, in the town of Teldeniya, in Kandy.
A Pattern to violence against the Muslims
Let us for a moment look at the pattern of violence against the Muslims.
Let me put it to you that there is a pattern, a thread running through all these violent episodes, all accusing the Muslims for inciting violence.
You will agree with me that anger, aggression and violence are parts of the same spectrum. From a layman’s point of view anger is a feeling, is a normal emotion, aggression is a behaviour pattern, violence is the most extreme form of aggression. Violence has at its root, harm to another, as it is a planned result.
Successive governments in Sri Lanka by their incompetence, indolence and mismanagement, have been unable to control violence. Aggression in speech has turned to hate speech, which in turn has led to violence and violence has led to the civil war which we endured for 30 years.
Muslim bearance
While all this was happening over the years, many if not most Muslim community leaders and observers in Sri Lanka, believed rightly, that most Buddhist Sinhalese by nature are tolerant and pluralistic and did not endorse anti-Muslim violence. Why was this underlying antipathy among the races ignored?
Muslims and in fact Tamils never accepted or understood the relationship between incompetence, or impotent governments in Sri Lanka and their ways of crisis management. Success in life whether it is for governments or for people is not handed on a plate. It has to be wanted, it has to be worked for, and it has to be earned.
We in Sri Lanka have always wanted a handout. Call it a legacy of colonialism, or by any other name, when inability of achievement, increased cost of living, pressure on governments, the easiest way out of it was confrontation. In this process strange as it seems, the easiest way successive governments resolve the issue was by violence. In certain circumstances, it was through collusion with the perpetrators of violence. We saw this in the 1983 Jaffna riots and we have seen it happen again and again.
Muslim reaction to violence
Hafiz Ehsan Qadri, a leading Sunni Muslim cleric offers a historical perspective. He considers the violence against the Muslims to be an indirect result of the increasing “cultural disintegration” among the so called “Wahabi” hardliners in Sri Lanka. He believes that the early Muslim settlers were not opposed to the local people or their cultural ethos. Even when the Sufi saints came to Sri Lanka and built 360 mosques, they had no problem with other communities. There was no disharmony at all. What really has changed?
Let me introduce you to what Minister Rauf Hakeem has said. He is of opinion that it is all caused by the Islamophobia in the world around, which is impacting on Sri Lanka. I leave it to your judgment.
Many other observers say that the Unity Government of Sri Lanka depends on the support of a very large section of the Muslim community who voted for it and put it into power. It is a fact that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Muslims have a lot in common in business ideology; some even say that the UNP and the Muslims are in each other’s pockets.
Sinhalese counter action
The majority Sinhalese, not only Buddhists but others of other faiths also strongly condemn this overpowering position the Muslims hold on the present government and are opposed to it.
The recent Local Government election campaign of the Joint Opposition had roused the sentiment of the Buddhists Sinhalese, at least to break this link between the UNP and the Muslims.
The Buddhist Sinhalese masses many feel, that the Tamils of the North and East have been sufficiently punished beyond recognition in the 28 year war. It is now the turn of the Muslims, who are as much as 10 % of the total population and growing at an alarming rate? The feeling among many, if not most is that Muslims too need to undergo the same treatment to keep them under control?
What is angering the Muslims as well as many ordinary Sri Lankan citizens is that as long as there is a weak and indolent government, the people who will suffer the most are the Muslim population in the future?
What are the avenues open to the Muslims of Sri Lanka?
If we are to assess the damage done by the recent Kandy riots not only to the Muslims but also to the country and also to all communities as a whole, we can enumerate as follows:
First and foremost, it is not the Muslims who have suffered, but the restoration of reconciliation and the freedoms which were salvaged after the long war years, is now in the balance.
A generation of people, Buddhist, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Christians who grew up knowing only conflict as a mode of life, had reason to hope for the future. Many reforms had been initiated to restore the freedoms curtailed during the Civil War. Some reforms have been notable because people have a greater sense of freedom, respecting free speech and freedom of movement. The abuse of this freedom due to hate speech being tolerated and which was not controlled by the Yahapalanaya Government has made not only the Muslims in a weaker position, but the country in dire straits.
Hate speech, what it intends to dispose is freedom of expression. Instruments of control by Governments can be used and abused.
As and until these freedoms are restored with hate speech made a criminal offence severely punishable in law, the damage done will impact on the Muslims more than any other minorities.
Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is known to have been active in unleashing hate crimes against religious minorities of the country. It is also well known for its anti-Muslim rhetoric since its formation in 2012, as it has held various campaigns against the Muslims seeking to enforce the Buddhist predominance. Ven Galagoda Aththe Gnansara Thera has advocated one nation, one religion, one language and has exhorted Sri Lanka to be run like a Buddhist nation. He has to be warned, to find another outlet for his rhetoric.
The Most Ven. Thibbatuwave Sri Siddhanta Sumananagala Thera, the Malwattu Mahanayake, has categorically stated some days ago that there is no need for any “Sena’s” among the Buddhists to save the nation. The Sri Lanka Army is the proper “Sena” for the defence of Buddhism and the country. Muslims must make common cause with the various religions to establish this thinking.
You will note that the first thing that the IMF imposed on Sri Lanka after the recent Kandy riots, was to curtail and not sanction the tranche of funds approved but not released to Sri Lanka in March 2018, putting the Government under more pressure.
You will also note that the Government decision to declare a countrywide State of Emergency following the carnage in Kandy last week, has caused fear in the tourism industry. It was too little too late and a knee jerk reaction, when much could have been done well in time. The Chinese and the Indian tourist markets are relatively new to Sri Lanka unlike the traditional European market such as Germany, France and UK. Kandy hotels took a severe beating during the carnage as there were a large number of cancellations.
The most important single act that Muslims inside the Government could do beside seek redress for the damage to mosques and places of religious worship to be restored to their original stature in Kandy and elsewhere, is to give a strong message to the Unity Government that they will abandon the coalition, if action is not taken without delay.
The STF and Police has identified and raided an office run by the main suspect arrested in connection with the recent racial violence and for spreading racially explicit propaganda through the social media. Widanapatiranage Amith Jeevan Weerasinghe near Kundasale was found in possession of material used to spread hatred, discord and violence. They included leaflets, posters, notices, banners and thousands of letters for distribution containing extremely racial content.
Based on statements given by the main suspect Police have discovered seven bottles filled with petrol intended to be used for petrol bombs.
The new Law and Order Minister. Maddume Bandara, should be lobbied by Muslim organisations around the country to take immediate preventive measures and to proscribe hate speech by legislation in Parliament without delay.
Muslims need to join with other minorities to protect themselves
The myths pertaining to Muslims have to be clarified and cleared. Diversity management helps the Muslim community understand the benefits of diversity for themselves as well as for others. Muslims need not change their beliefs or religion.
Violence breeds violence. Repay violence with reconciliation not only with Buddhists but with all communities. If anyone says this is a stance of weakness, ignore it.
Be prepared unilaterally to go out of your way to do the best for others and you will be surprised how this will play in the future.
If someone says “grow up and live life in the modern world,” do not think they are arrogant. Accept it as a compliment.
The reality of living in Sri Lanka today
We see a clear pattern of discontent emerging in the Muslim community after the riots over many years. Many Muslims now feel being betrayed, being let down not only by the majority community. Unity is strength, but it should not be taken for granted. The posture of many Muslims posing as Sinhalese has not and will not work in the future. The commonality of purpose of all Muslims as being part of Sri Lanka, is one that has to be explored in greater detail island wide.
As long as Muslims of Sri Lanka continue to remain as an “endangered species” they can expect to be tossed around “like a sack of potatoes”.
In 1915 the Muslim riots were mistaken as a “fight for national freedom against colonialism.”
The Aluthgama riots of 2014 were seen as a “fight for economic freedom.”
I do hope the current Kandy riot of March 2018 will awaken the need among Muslims of all persuasions, “to take up a stand and fight for what is right to reconcile the diversity.
