Violence: Paradox Of Sri Lanka And Sri Lankans!

After the end of the war in 2009, who believed something would happen suddenly as the recent Easter Carnage?

by Laksiri Fernando-2019-05-27

“We are not merely the most intelligent of animals. We also have a rare and perplexing combination of moral tendencies. We can be the nastiest of species and also the nicest.”

- Richard Wrangham

When the British PM Theresa May declared her resignation, she talked about ‘the country I love,’ almost in tears and emotion. We all feel the same no doubt about our own country Sri Lanka whatever the misgivings that we have about its violence, misdeeds or leaders.

There must have been so many events that have disturbed us in life, and in my case most were related to violence and killings. I left active left politics after the 1971 insurrection because it was unfortunately in the name of ‘socialism’ and ‘revolution,’ although I had occasion to warn about its catastrophic consequences as a young university teacher.

Cycles of Violence

Some may point out only the atrocities of the police and the armed forces in 1971, but I have at least seen two dead bodies killed by the insurrectionists at Rambukkana. It is the same tendency that became enlarged in 1987/89 period. Although I was abroad (fortunately) by this time, I have seen dead bodies at Ratmalana and Agulana during a visit in early 1989.

Most disturbing out of all violence undoubtedly is the violence committed by one community against the other without any cause or objective, but just hatred. Apart from 1958, when I was too small to witness except hear, there were series beginning 1977culminating against the Tamils in 1983. Those made the country’s image to tear and terrorism to emerge. And when you belong to the community who is the main perpetrator, the feeling of despair and disgust is undoubtedly the most. We left the country in 1984.

It is not only what you see that disturbs you, but what you hear or come to know about. Of course Sri Lanka is not the only country that is engulfed in violence but many that I have visited in Asia and the Middle East on official duties. That experience led me to come back in 1997 and try my best to help resolve the situation, unfortunately no that successfully.

After the end of the war, there was a particular incident that disturbed me most. That was in October 2009. A mentally unbalanced Tamil youth in his underwear was throwing stones at trains in Bambalapitiya. The police came in civils and without arresting him, chased the man to the sea and attacked him with poles until he drowned. People watched but no one tried to prevent or object. (Watch YouTube ). That is the time we decided to come back to Australia again.

The Paradox

Sri Lanka is not all violent. There are peaceful times. The country achieved independence in 1948 peacefully. Until 1958 major communal riots, it was relatively peaceful. Then after 1971, until around 1983 it was again relatively peaceful. It is a beautiful and a friendly country in general. People also have achieved many things in cooperation and harmony. I have met many people who have visited Sri Lanka from different parts of the world and they appreciate not only the natural beauty but also peoples hospitality. It is peaceful until people become suddenly violent!

After the end of the war in 2009, who believed something would happen suddenly as the recent Easter Carnage?

Sureshini Sanders also called Sri Lanka ‘The Land of Lost Content’ (2013). There is another book by the same title. She notes the following with amusement and also sadness referring to the 1983 riots.

“Dad had a Tamil friend married to a Sinhala lady and his kids were asked in school, ‘What is happening in Sri Lanka?’ One of them famously answered, ‘I think my mother’s people are trying to kill my father’s people!”

We need to appreciate the positive sides of the people and the country as well. Particularly during Tsunami in December 2004, the people became united to assist those who were affected and in need, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or political differences. However, there were some even stole the Tsunami funds! This is a paradox that we encounter everyday in politics and in social life. This is not simply about ‘good people’ and ‘bad people.’ It is mostly the same people playing good and bad. This is what Richard Wrangham said about “We can be the nastiest of species and also the nicest.”

There was an interesting interview recently given by a woman from Prague, Aran,to the Vishwakarma channel who is apparently stranded in Sri Lanka. She was cheated by a Sri Lankan woman. Yet, she says Sri Lankans are nice and helpful people. More importantly she makes a comparison between Europe and Sri Lanka. She says, in Europe people are not helpful, but if you are in trouble, the police would assist. On the contrary in Sri Lanka, people are helpful, but not the police. This may be her experience, but with some lessons for the country as well. The breakdown of the ‘institutional system’is mostly at the centre of the unbridled chaos, conflicts and violence.

Intriguing Questions

The most intriguing factor is that most people who indulge in violence are almost ordinary people. For example, those who took up arms in 1971 were some of our students at Vidyodaya. They were good natured people in normal life. They thought they were fighting for a good cause, to change the class nature of society and bring socialism. The question however is why some people take up arms and some not for the same cause?

Then you have the state and its armed forces. From its origins, the state has been a coercive and sometimes a brutal apparatus. It is often justified that if otherwise that the society would run into chaos and violence. Therefore to prevent violence, an organized form of violence is institutionalized. That is the argument. Then again there is a question why some people join the armed forces (including the police) and some not? Of course some may be desperate in finding employment. However there are some others who join the police or the army because of its apparent power. They indulge in violations.

I have also conducted classes for armed forces on human rights, conflict resolution and related matters. They are ordinary and sensible people and even when they are confronted with moral questions, some even were forthcoming in divulging some of their deviations or mistakes. Lack of knowledge on ‘what is right and what is wrong,’ and the absence of rules and training on correct behaviour also might be contributing factors to the institutionalized state violence.

Those who take up violence as a ‘career’ are often called terrorists. They also could be the most ordinary people. Either they are indoctrinated to indulge in violence as a cause or forced to be so under compulsive circumstances.

In the case of Sri Lanka however it appears that for the recurrent cycles of violence, insurrections, terrorism and state violence, there are more profound political factors underpinning those occurrences, nationally and also internationally. It may be suggested that violence in society is linked to violence in politics. It is not only overt violence that we should be concerned about but also hidden and covert forms of violence that we ourselves must be careful about.

There are links between extremist views, criticisms, propaganda and violence. There are links between intolerance of views, hatred, castigation of others (for the slightest disagreement!) and violence.

Some Reasons

It is difficult to identify in one go the possible reasons for the endemic nature of violence in Sri Lanka or elsewhere. One may need to analyse more carefully the events and incidents in determining particular reasons for particular incidents/upsurges of violence. However, there are general patterns and reasons.

There is a tendency in social studies to always identify socio-economic or objective reasons (i.e. unemployment, poverty, discrimination etc.) for political violence or even terrorism. However that is not the case or not always the case. While they undoubtedly could supply background reinforcements, the actual driving forces are subjective and ideological. This is abundantly clear through the suicide bombings that created the Easter Carnage recently, more than the LTTE or the JVP insurrections in the past.

Then what drives the humans to follow and embrace ideologies of warfare, violence and terrorism? Some of the reasons may be inherent in our genes and biological evolution. In 1996, Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham published a book called ‘Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence.’ Based on many field studiesthey identified similarities in aggression between chimpanzees and humans.

The main culprits were the males! This sounds quite fitting to Sri Lanka as well. I am not sure whether they did a study on generational differences of violent chimpanzees. But in Sri Lanka’s case, the culprits are mainly or relatively male-youth, although there have been female suicide bombers as well, but mostly conscripted. When one looks at violence and warfare that humans or Sri Lankans have been indulged in throughout years or centuries, it should have come from somewhere. Arthur C. Clarke fictionally imagined it had come from the aliens! (A Space Odyssey, 2001).

Richard Dawkins argued it is The Selfish Gene (1978) that leads not only to selfishness but also to violence, killings and warfare. It was a scientific study. This is what the Buddha tried to deconstruct or counter, but it appears that this particular gene is abundantly there among some of our Buddhist monks.

There is however a new study by Richard Wrangham (The Goodness Paradox: How Evolution Made Us Both More and Less Violent, 2019) that gives us some hope. The hope is that there are some traits of ‘tolerance’ and ‘less aggression’ as well (a good gene perhaps!)in humans beings that we might be able to cultivate through awareness and self-discipline. Most important might be to give more space for the females to conduct public affairs as they appear to be less fortunate with the selfish gene.

Suspicion of Muslim community is politically fueled

By Jehan Perera-May 27, 2019, 12:00 pm 

The bombai-mutai seller said that sales were poor. People who once bought his sweets were today treating him differently because he was Muslim. He was a poor man trying to make his living while carrying candy floss on the streets of Colombo. My wife bought three packets, asked him to keep the change, and told our children that he too would have a family at home waiting for his return.

The panic of the first three weeks after the Easter Sunday bombings has reduced significantly. There is a visible restoration of normalcy. This is at it should be. I was happy to attend one of the reconciliation events organized last week. This was an Ifthar, or breaking fast event, organized by the Muslim Civil Society committee which took place at the grounds of the Colombo Municipal Council. There was a large participation from the Muslim community. There were fewer from the other communities perhaps reflecting the polarization within society, each imbibing the fears, concerns and suspicions within their own communities. There was remembrance of the tragedy of Easter Sunday. Youth from all communities each gave their message of reconciliation drawn from their religions.

Coming a little late to the event, I had to locate myself near to the entrance to the Ifthar event. It was difficult for me to find a place to sit as I was in the most crowded place near the entrance. However, there were a few vacant spaces where members of the security forces were seated as participants at the Ifthar ceremony. I felt a bit out of place sitting with uniformed personnel. Fortunately, one of the officers had been with me in one of the university classes I had taken on peacebuilding. He introduced himself to me. He also reminded me of our last meeting where the security forces personnel present had cautioned that there was a problem of radicalization growing in the Muslim community of the east. The east is also the place from which the leader of the suicide bomb squad came from.

However, the point that this military officer made was that those who took to violence were not necessarily known to the larger Muslim community. At best they knew that these were radicals and behaved like thugs towards them. But they would not know that they planned to kill others outside of their own community. My mind went back to 1971 when violence on a much larger and more organized scale was launched against the government. The JVP insurrection of 1971 caught the government so much by surprise that in a matter of two weeks, over 90 police stations had fallen to the rebels. It is therefore, neither fair nor constructive to blame the larger Muslim community for keeping the secret to themselves and conniving with the suicide bombers. On the other hand, they did warn the government and civil society several times, from 2012 onwards, about the radicalization of sections of the community.

SOBER REFLECTION

Despite the improvement on the ground, there is a lag effect with regard to the restoration of relations between the communities. There continues to be suspicion and prejudice towards the Muslim community. The propaganda barrage to make it seem that many if not most Muslims are acting in a way adverse to the other communities contributes to this phenomenon. Most recently there is the news story of a Muslim doctor who is reported to have sterilized over 4000 women with the figure now upped to 8000 while delivering babies. Those who work in the area say it is impossible that one man can do this unknown to the several-member teams who are present when such surgeries take place. Another example that did much damage was the issue of swords found in mosques which has had a tremendous negative impact on the psychology of members of the Sinhala community in particular.

During the first three weeks of panic, the media contributed substantially to the consternation of people by repeatedly showing pictures of piles of swords in mosques, which created an impression that swords were being found in a large number of mosques. This generated a fear in people of an assault on them by sword-wielding Muslims. One such news item stated, that "UPFA MP Mahinda Amaraweera questioned as to why a single Muslim MP has not come forward in voicing their objections against the many swords discovered from mosques and the reason behind keeping them. UPFA MP Thenuka Vidanagamage said that with around 5.2 million houses in the country that if a sword is found from each house that it will amount up to a total of 5.2 million swords."

The same news item went on to say that "Meanwhile convening a media briefing Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thero said that it is normal for a nation who is afraid of the recent terror attacks to contemplate on the accuracy of the statements made by the Muslim leaders. He continued to say that the statements made on swords being kept at homes to protect women or to cut shrubs are complete lies because it is discovered in hundreds everywhere." More sober reflection is that keeping swords in homes is not an uncommon practice in households of all communities. The impression was created that mosques had become the collecting point for swords for a likely Muslim attack on their fellow citizens. But the fact was that swords were only found in two out of over 2000 mosques in the country.

LEADERSHIP FAILURE

There has also been a deliberate fostering of fear amongst the people of further bomb attacks. The discovery last week of a parcel of bombs inside a school could have created another wave of panic, just as children are returning to their schools after staying away for fear of being subjected to violent attacks. In this case, it was fortunate that the school security guard had noticed a man running away in a suspicious manner who has subsequently been taken into police custody. He is reported to be a political activist belonging to the opposition. If this bomb had exploded by some chance and caused injury to the school children this would have set off another wave of panic and perhaps even have led to another round of organisesd rioting as occurred in the North West Province two weeks ago.

There is a campaign by opposition politicians to exploit the current fears in society to keep the uncertainty going. They may believe that this is advantageous to them as it will lead people to want to reject a government that cannot restore stability and law and order. The anti-Muslim riots that spread through the Northwest Province provide ample evidence to show that the riots were organized. Many of those arrested were affiliated to the opposition political parties. Opposition politicians were seen fearlessly mingling with the mobs even as they took the law into their own hand. It is common knowledge since the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 that riots in Sri Lanka are organized. But the government leaders appear to be balking at pointing the finger up the chain of command.

The government’s commitment to giving free rein to the freedom of expression is commendable as one important aspect of democracy. However, the government’s failure to take action against those who are spreading rumours and misinformation, and deliberately doing things that foster fear amongst the people is a failure of leadership. As the present is a state of national emergency, the government needs to consider adopting a media and communication strategy in which a segment of news regularly counters the false propaganda and disinformation put out by politically motivated actors on the media. There is also a need for leadership that can transcend the barriers of mistrust, suspicion and prejudice while reassuring the people about their commitment to the national interest and to the wellbeing of all.

Appointment in ‘Kattankudy’

Monday, 27 May 2019

This essay is an excavation of the roots of mindless rage that burst out of the town of Kattankudy in the Eastern Province. It holds a truth that needs to be told.


In his short story ‘Appointment in Samara’, Somerset Maugham retells a 9th Century Arabic tale. It has a spectral resonance with the carnage we witnessed on Easter Sunday.

Once in Baghdad, a servant sent to the market to buy provisions by his master, a merchant, saw ‘death’ jostling at him. He returns to the master in a hurry trembling. He asks for a horse to ride away from the city to Samara where death would not find him.

As the servant rides away, the merchant goes to the market and asks ‘death’ why he made a threating gesture to his servant. Death replies innocently that he made no threatening gesture. He was surprised to see him in Baghdad, for he had an appointment with him that night in Samara.

The purpose of this essay is to understand how ISIS located the town of Kattankudy or conversely how Kattankudy linked up with ISIS.

Our first task is to understand what ISIS is. When we understand that, we can reasonably hope to learn how this small town in the Eastern Province became the fertile ground for such rapacious religious zealotry.

Salafi Jihadism is the ideology that propels the ISIS, Al-Qaeda and all other violent Islamic terror outfits.

Shiraz Maher, who teaches War Studies at King’s College London, published a groundbreaking study of ISIS in 2017 titled ‘Salafi- Jihadism – History of an Idea’.

He provides the authentic definition of Salafism given by the ‘Permanent Committee of Scholarly Research and Fatwas’ – Saudi Arabia’s highest clerical authority.

“Salafism is a philosophical outlook which seeks to revive the practices of the first three generations of Islam who are collectively known as ‘al-salaf al-ãlih’ – the righteous predecessors, the last of whom died around year 810.

These three generations together constitute what the Saudi clerics consider to be the Golden Age of Authenticated Orthodox Islam.

Salafism is a warped philosophy that believes in progression through regression.
The trend among radicalised Muslims is to see Muslim history as quintessentially that of a faith battling over centuries to preserve its purity.

They ignore the flowering of science, mathematics, and literature that was made possible by Muslim intellectuals from the eighth to the thirteenth century.

What ‘Salafism’ does is simple. It freezes history at a point that the orthodox Wahabism finds convenient. They are contemptuous of the Abbasid caliphate that made Baghdad, the home of universal wisdom where Plato the Philosopher from Greece and Aryabhata the Astronomer from India were translated to Arabic.

Salafism has made the young educated generation of Muslims take pride in the so-called purity of Salafist teachings rather than celebrating the diversity and richness of Arab history, Moghul history and Ottoman history. These educated young Muslims who will master digital technology would not know of Haroun Al Rashid of the Abbasid Caliphate, of Suleiman the magnificent of the Ottoman caliphate or Akbar the great of the Moghul dynasty.

When the Islamic Hijri calendar reached its first millennium in 1591 the great Mogul emperor Akbar ascended the throne of the vast land mass of India. He had the mind-boggling task of ruling over a diversity of Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsees Jews and many more.

Akbar found sanity in this confusion. Amartya Sen Economist, Philosopher and Nobel laureate describes the governance style of Akbar with a magnificent epigram.

It was ‘pursuit of reason rather than reliance on tradition’ – the only rational means of addressing knotty social problems.

Lone wolf terror

In his celebrated paper ‘Roots of Muslim Rage’, Bernard Lewis reminds us of Islam’s contribution to global order.

“Islam has brought comfort and peace of mind to countless millions of men and women. It has given dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives. It has taught people of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different creeds to live side by side in reasonable tolerance.”

He then ends his glowing tribute with an abrupt and laconic declaration.

“Islam is also known to have inspired in some of its followers horrible moods of hatred and violence. Salafi Jihadism has quietly taken root in Sri Lanka since the 1980s. This violent belief system is unsentimental and indifferent to tradition or history except where it concerns ritual authenticity.

What is of interest to us in Sri Lanka grappling to find a meaning in the madness of Easter Sunday is the so called ‘lone wolf terrorism’. The author of ‘Salafi Jihadism – History of an Idea’ says that the lone wolf idea was theorised by Abu Musab al-Suri of the central leadership of al-Qaeda.

Lone wolves are typically those individuals who have no direct contact with the fountains of terror located in the deserts of Arabia or the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are not connected to any discernible network.

Nonetheless, they are sufficiently inspired by the cause and are ready to act in its name.

Their connection to the movement comes from proximity to and empathy with the world view of Salafi Jihadist Terrorism. That brings us to the pivotal issue of Kattankudy.

How did ‘Kattankudy’ reach proximity with Salafi Jihadist terror? How did this quaint little town develop an empathy with an ‘ummah’ committed to the ultimate Armageddon?

‘Religious identity politics’

In comparison to other communities, the Muslims of Sri Lanka resisted missionary proselytisation. This made the community largely immune to the process of colonial modernisation. Since independence, Muslim politics remained the hegemonic preserve of an elite Muslim merchant class.

In the post-independence era, this elite Muslim leadership willingly colluded with Sinhala majoritarian nationalism.

In exchange for their political allegiance, they received concessions and accommodation in the pursuit of their commercial activity and the facilities for fostering their cultural identity.

This idyllic narrative is recalled with antiquarian melancholy by Lorna Devaraja in her ‘Muslims of Sri Lanka – 1000 years of ethnic harmony’.

This cosy arrangement was turned on its head when the 13th Amendment introduced the Provincial Councils under the 1978 Constitution that replaced the first past the post system of elections with proportional representation.

On 11 September 1981, Muslims politics of Sri Lanka changed course drastically and unalterably in the quiet quaint Qur’anic town of Kattankudy.

A small group of Muslim leaders of the Eastern Province met in this small town to form the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and to elect ‘Marhoom’ M. H. M. Ashraff as its Founder-President.

From that point onwards, Muslim identity politics took centre stage. Muslims of Sri Lanka assumed the dubious distinction of being the only ethnic group whose identity was solely based on religion. Lorna Devaraja’s narrative of 1000 years of ethnic harmony was unceremoniously jettisoned. Assertive identity politics replaced assimilative politics.

Despite the low-key start in 1981, the party made quiet progress. In island-wide Pradeshiya Sabah Elections in 1987, it won 29 seats. The decisive point of departure was when the SLMC captured 17 seats in the merged North Eastern Provincial Council.

The new party was now ready to leverage its political clout. Under the then prevailing electoral law of proportional representation, the cut-off point in Parliamentary elections was one-eighth, or 12.5%, of the total polled. The SLMC, taking note of its performance in the Provincial Council elections of 1988 wanted the cut-off point lowered.

The new party cannily declared its support for Sirimavo Bandaranayake in the impending Presidential election. It hit bull’s-eye.

The other aspirant R. Premadasa not only sat up but in effect looked up to Ashraf as man to do business with. Premadasa accurately apprehended what Ashraf was after.

The 15th Amendment that eliminated electoral zones and reduced the cut-off point to 5% was passed on 8 December 1988 by a Parliament that stood dissolved effective 20 December 1988 – one day after the Presidential election.

A smug SLMC switched support to Prime Minister Premadasa.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress demonstrated that it could leverage its electoral punch even before it had a single elected member in Parliament. The rest is history.

The SLMC and its multiple splinter groups have held Ministerial office in all subsequent governments.

The ethno-religious identity of Muslims of Sri Lanka became not just a dominant factor. In our ferociously competitive politics of expediency, it became the single arbitrating factor.

Successive governments oblivious to the threat, created a vast comfort zone for Salafist Jihadist ideology to spread through the length and breadth of the Muslim community of Sri Lanka. Kattankudy became the central citadel of the pervasive doctrine of Salafist Jihadism.

In the 38 years of its existence the SLMC and all its breakaway subgroups have excelled in parochial patronage politics. This is in sharp contrast to the right’s centric politics of the major Tamil minority politicians. They never abandoned what Max Weber called ‘ethics of conviction ‘and ‘ethics of responsibility’, (German – Verantwortungsethik).

The SLMC and splinters supported the 18th Amendment that emasculated the independent commissions. They supported the impeachment of a Chief Justice. Access to State resources to coddle their core constituency was the sole raison d'être that determined their politics. They are the quintessential ‘true believers’ in progression through regression. They are the true believers of progression through regression.

SLMC’s ethno-religious identity politics politicised the Muslim community in a virulently organic methodology.

This time last year, Muslim communities were competing to hold ‘Iftar’ celebrations with the Rajapaksa brothers in attendance. Of the three siblings, Gotabhaya received top billings.

A video of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa being ushered to a grand ‘Iftar’ ceremony by white-robed ‘mullahs’ chanting panegyric Arabic poetry went viral last year.

Religious identity politics of SLMC and its many offshoots and subgroups had both major political camps turning a blind eye to the creeping threat of Salafism and Salafist Jihadism.

We must recognise some basic truths. For the Muslim, the religion is not only universal but is also central to their being. The faith of Islam is the essential basis of identity and loyalty.

Muslims pray five times a day. We non-Muslims do not understand the dominant and central role of Islam in the life of a Muslim. So, we will never understand how an entire civilisation can have their religion as the primary basis of loyalty.

The SLMC and other Muslim parties were united in their resolve to create a cultural comfort zone for the Muslims. In this conducive climate, some good pious people of Kattankudy were seduced by Salafist Jihadism that taught the faithful how to reach heaven by ‘other means’!

The parable ‘Appointment in Samara’ holds a lesson for those now eager after the blood bath of Easter Sunday to arrest an idea somehow while not quite certain as to what awaits us.

When we create the conditions, we must also be willing to come to terms with the inevitable that follows our myopic actions. 

Nasty Prejudices Underlying Neat Platitudes About Buddhism In Sri Lanka

By Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka –MAY 26, 2019

Prof. Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka

There is something intrinsically meaningless in the bare  assertion of the common platitude “Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country” where the denial that it is a “Buddhist country” is obviously the most contentious  part provoking  bitter controversy. However on any detached analysis the debate whether Sri Lanka is or is not a Buddhist country seems a useless anti-intellectual exercise in futility, over an emotive line in which words are strung together axiomatically without proper definition. Indeed from a linguistic perspective the plain statement “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country”sounds just as absurd and simplistic as saying that “Sri Lanka is a UNP country” just because say a UNP government is in power, or that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala country just because a majority speak Sinhala, or a dark skinned country just because a majority  happen to be dark skinned, or even that it is a stupid country just because most people seem to vote stupidly at elections !

There are of course numerous statements one could make about Sri Lanka that are objectively true. For example it would be entirely factual to state that Sri Lanka is a country where Buddhism was the most popular religion. Equally and to put it differently it would be perfectly correct to state that Sri Lanka is a country where the vast majority of people identify as Buddhists. It would also be a true statement of fact that Sri Lanka is a country that gives the foremost place to Buddhism in its Constitution. One can go on and say things like Sri Lanka is a tropical country, Sri Lanka is an Asian country, Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, Sri Lanka is a small country, and so on and so forth. Such affirmations and many more besides can be made without fear of contradiction. Indeed their validity is self-evident. 

By contrast the statement “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country” has the connotation of a universal all-encompassing core characteristic that defines the nation. To see Buddhism in that sense as an ingrained attribute  that somehow envelopes underlies and permeates everything and everybody is irrational. A country as commonly understood is more than its inhabitants. Consequently affirming that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country  ( if one takes the words at their face value) logically carries the implication  that there is something  intrinsically Buddhist about even the fields, rivers, forests, mountains, valleys, and beaches surrounding the island – which of course would be plainly absurd. So where words mean nothing without a clarification of terms the issue is what do people really mean when they insist  that “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country” ? What underlying ideas assumptions and attitudes make people claim that “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country” ? What are people really saying when they make such a claim ?

There may be several possibilities. Firstly it is possible that when people say that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country it is just another way of saying that a large majority of the Sri Lankan population identify as Buddhist – a simple demographic reality that no one in his right mind would deny. However if that is all what is meant, those who insist that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country for that reason might not be so vehement and bitterly condemn those who would agree but put it differently, when the difference between them was purely semantic ! 

The second possibility  underlying the statement that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country is the notion that there is a distinctly precious Buddhist culture which characterises and pervades society, underlies the Sri Lankan way of life and in some sense defines Sri Lanka. There might be some justification for saying that if only it were true. But it isn’t. What passes for Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka as epitomized by the lifestyle, attitudes, and mindset of its politicians  priests, professionals, business classes and proletariat is the very antithesis of an authentic Buddhist culture inspired by the dharma. 

On the contrary it is a brutal dehumanized culture characterized by selfishness, greed, intolerance, lawlessness cronyism, and corruption  pervading all echelons of society from top to bottom.  Sri Lanka is a violent society where people have become mercenary and materialistic, where crime is covered up and justice is frequently denied, where petty jealousy and patronage rule, where mediocrity is exalted over excellence discouraging the best and rewarding the third rate, and where in public life the outward show is consistently at variance with the inward reality in countless ways. Is that the Sinhala Buddhist culture people have in mind when they say that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country? Indeed, to say that there is anything Buddhist in the Sinhala Buddhist culture of the day is to insult Buddhism.

The so called island of Sinhala Buddhist culture is where doctors go on strike and make their patients suffer when they are not making millions in the medical expressway of the private sector, where lawyers rip off their clients in cases that may drag on for years, where the sordid culture of campus torture  that destroys young lives has polluted universities for generations, where  militant Buddhist monks are a law unto themselves and form a powerful wealthy arrogant and fierce theocracy to which all governments must kneel, and where school teachers turned rapacious business tycoons trap millions of students  in a bastard culture of mass tuition  running parallel to formal school education. Such is the ground reality of the much vaunted Sinhala Buddhist culture that people might mean when they say that “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country”. 

Those who are old enough will remember the historical  expression of that culture in the much acclaimed 1956 popular revolution which drove the Burghers as far as Australia, chased  out the Catholic nuns who were ministering angels in state hospitals, and at one stroke alienated the peaceful Tamil community with  a ruthless policy of narrow linguistic nationalism setting the stage for the 1958 riots, the 1983 holocaust, two bloody badly botched Marxist revolutions, and the brutal slaughter of a 30 year war.

Read More

On re-emergence of violent Islamic radicalism in India

Picture shows the Leader of the notorious Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Salahuddin Ahmad alias Salehin, after being arrested in Ramanagara near Bengaluru, India in August 2018 

28 May 2019 

Two recent news reports, one from Kerala in the deep South India, and the other from the North Eastern Indian region, have raised concerns about the possible emergence of violent Islamic radicalism in India, particularly in the East and in the South.   

On May 26, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs had sounded an alert about plans of the terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) establishing permanent bases within 10 km of the India-Bangladesh border in the eastern states of Tripura, Assam and West Bengal. 

 A gazette notification, issued by the Indian Home Ministry on May 23, said the JMB has plans to “spread its network in South India with an over-arching motive to establish a Caliphate in the Indian sub-continent.”

The notification further said the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Hindustan, are in the list of 41 terror organizations, banned under the UAPA (the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967).   

In January 2019, the Indian Home Ministry had added the Al-Qaida in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP),ISIS Wilayat Khorasan, Islamic State of Iraq, Sham- Khorasan (ISIS-K) and the Khalistan Liberation Force among the list of terrorist organizations banned under the UAPA. 

The JMB was involved in recruitment and raising funds for terrorist activities, procurement of explosives, chemicals and assembling of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), the ministry said.   

 The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had earlier confirmed involvement of JMB in the bomb blast on October 2, 2014 in Burdwan (West Bengal) and Bodh Gaya (Bihar) on January 19, 2018. The Assam Police had also found involvement of the JMB in five cases and arrested 565 JMB suspects. 

 A recent report from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, said that the authorities were on the lookout for 15 Sri Lankan terrorists who had reportedly left the island nation in a white boat for the Muslim-majority groups of Indian islands called Lakshadweep off the Kerala coast. A Sri Lankan daily reported they could be National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) cadres on the run from Sri Lanka as the island’s police and security forces are pursuing the NTJ relentlessly.   

Kerala and the states in the Indian North East became major centres of JMB activity after the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh went after the terrorists in an unbridled manner from 2014. The JMB had become notorious in Bangladesh for killing Christians and exploding bombs in 500 places in the country.   

Among the JMB terrorists who escaped from police custody and made their way into India were two key leaders, Salahuddin Ahmad alias Salehin and Jahidul Islam alias “Boma Mizan”, an expert in bomb-making. Both of them had been sentenced to death in Bangladesh. But they had escaped from custody.   

In India, the duo formed the Jamaatul Mijahideen India (JMI) with Salahuddin Ahmad as the leader and Boma Mizan as his deputy. Together they recruited local cadres in several districts in West Bengal, which has a significant Muslim population, and carried out attacks in Burdwan and Bodh Gaya. 

The JMB/JMI in India specialized in targeting Buddhist institutions because of the influence of the Rohingya Islamic militants from Myanmar. The Rohingya Muslims had been subject to atrocities by the Myanmar government forces and Buddhist radicals led by a monk called Wirathu. A section of the Rohingyas took to arms and when military pressure on them increased, fled to Bangladesh where lakhs of Rohingyas had taken shelter.   

On January 19, 2018, the JMB  made an attempt on the life of Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, at Bodh Gaya in Bihar. But the plot failed as Dalai Lama had left before the bomb could be triggered.   

With the Indian intelligence agencies after them, Salahuddin went underground and Boma Mizan took shelter in faraway Bengaluru. While in Bengaluru, Mizan would frequently visit Malappuram district in Kerala, which has a very large Muslim population, to recruit Muslim youth. But in August 2018, he was arrested in Ramanagara near Bengaluru.

JMI continues to be active. It was probably involved in the multiple suicide bombings in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa on April 21 this year, Sri Lankan State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene said so on April 23. 

Adding to the State Minister’s statement, Sri Lankan Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake, told media that Mohammad Zahran Hashim, the leader of the NTJ and the pack of suicide bombers who hit targets on April 21, had journeyed to Bengaluru, Kerala and Kashmir “either to get training or establish links with other terror groups.”   

Zahran’s Tamil Nadu links

Zahran’s Tamil Nadu link was seen by Hilmy Ahmad of Muslim Council of Sri Lanka. He told Nikkei Asian Review that the videos of Zahran’s radical speeches were uploaded in Tamil Nadu. Other radical speeches were also from Tamil Nadu, going by the Tamil accent of the speakers, which was India. 

After the demolition of the Babar mosque in Uttar Pradesh by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists in 1992, a section of Tamil Nadu Muslims led by M. H. Jawahirullah and P. Jainul Abdeen informed Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK). Later in 2004, Jainul Abdeen broke away from TMMK and floated the Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamaat (TNTJ) to preach fundamentalist Islam, but not terrorism. After the Sri Lankan blasts, the TNTJ issued a statement distancing itself from the event.   

However, the rise of the Hindu nationalist BJP in North India and the Tamil Nadu parties’ alliance with it, further alienated Muslims from the mainstream parties. This resulted in the serial blasts in Coimbatore on February 14, 1998 which left 58 dead and over 200 injured. However, a mellowing is now perceptible, though some Muslim preachers spew venom on non-believers in Youtube videos. 

Indian Islamic Radicalism has long history

Defence expert Ajai Sahni says that India has a long tradition of radical Islam. Indian Islamic radicalism is the source of some of the most influential ideologies that dominate both regional terrorism in South Asia and global jihad, he says in an article in the journal of the Middle East Institute in 2015.   

Darul Uloom Deoband, a religious seminary in Uttar Pradesh in India founded in 1867, has been the ideological fountainhead of the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, and Jaish-e-Muhammad, the Pakistan-based terrorist formations operating against India,Sahni says.   

“Perhaps the most influential Islamist revivalist ideological stream in South Asia is represented by the Jamaat-e-Islami and its founder, Abu Ala Mawdudi, who, with Sayyid Qutb of Egypt, is regarded by many as the ideological precursor of the contemporary movement of global jihad,” he added. The Jamaat-e-Islami was founded in the early 1940s in undivided India.   
Within India, the Jamaat ideology has influenced the terrorist Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and Indian Mujahideen, Sahni says.   

International attention

Indian Islamic radicalism secured international support when on September 3, 2014, Al-Qaeda’s Amir Ayman al-Zawahri released a video declaring the creation of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). Zawahri declared that  Kashmir, Gujarat and Assam would be immediate targets of recruitment.   

In2006, Osama bin Laden articulated the theory of the global “Crusader-Zionist-Hindu conspiracy” against Muslims and said that “it is the duty for the Ummah with all its categories, men, women and youth, to give away themselves, their money, experiences and all types of material support, enough to establish jihad, particularly in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kashmir and Chechnya,” Sahni points out.   

Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had also declared that India is a target destination of ISIS jihad. Now the ISIS has declared India as a province of its Caliphate (Wilayat-e-Hind). 

The inside story of the 9 suicide bombers behind Sri Lanka’s savage Easter attacks

A devotee during a mass outside St. Sebastian’s Church, after it was partially opened for the first time since the Easter Sunday attacks in Negombo on May 9, 2019.   | Photo Credit: AFP

Investigations throw up troubling hints of how readily rage can court terror

MAY 25, 2019


At first, they were nameless. “Nine suicide bombers,” is all authorities would reveal. In a little over a week, the police identified each of them and their stories began coming out. Now, a month after Sri Lanka’s savage Easter attacks, a messy web of disgruntled radicals has emerged, throwing up troubling hints of how readily rage can court terror.

Zahran Hashim, 33, radical preacher and alleged ringleader, found little acceptance in his hometown Kattankudy, in eastern Batticaloa. Mosques in the predominantly Muslim town rejected him outright. Their members even complained to authorities, before he went absconding in 2017 after a clash with a fellow priest who challenged his interpretation of Islam.

The inside story of the 9 s... by on Scribd

The Terrorist, The Muslim and the Other

SARAH KABIR-05/27/2019

It was a casual Sunday breakfast, as I was making notes on refugees in Sri Lanka, when my partner, his eyes still peeled on his phone, exclaimed in shock that a church has been ‘attacked’. It was one Sunday ago that stone-wielding angry mobs held worshipper’s hostage at a prayer centre in Anuradhapura run by the Methodist church of Sri Lanka. I immediately thought this was an attack similar to Palm Sunday. No sooner than I had taken my phone did the horrific images and heart-breaking truth unravel. I felt a numbing pain for the victims and for their families who would hear the news unexpectedly, and as casually, as we had. This thoughtless, inhumane act, had taken the lives of innocent men, women and children. It was going to leave our country in fear and in pain, it was going to change us in fundamental ways.

As the news of the perpetrators came in, my heart sank when I heard it was Sri Lankans who had done this. Working on reconciliation in Sri Lanka, I had hoped that we would never again see the day Sri Lankans killed their own. As their names and pictures were released, that they purported to be from the ‘Muslim’ community, my heart sank more. How could people from a community I identified with do this? From the lessons of Sri Lankan history, I also knew that the persecution of that same minority community they claimed to be a part of was just a stones-throw away, perhaps emboldening further division and mistrust. This cycle, to Sri Lanka, is not something new.

‘Why aren’t Muslims doing enough?’

This is a question that took up a large part of the social media discourse post Easter Attacks. ISIS, their ideologies, and the self-proclaimed caliphate, has been declared as a violation of Islam, by every reputable authority in the mainstream Muslim community. The letter to Baghdadi, an open letter to the leader of ISIS, is a theological refutation of the practices of ISIS, signed initially by 122 influential global Muslim theologians, lawmakers and community leaders, and is one such example.

Since the Easter Sunday attacks, the Muslim population in Sri Lanka have outwardly condemned it in the strongest possible ways. They have apologised, shaved off their beards and removed their face coverings – choosing national security over an identity they have got accustomed to. They have rejected the terrorists as being part of their faith and rejected giving them a burial. Most importantly, from Military sources, the Muslim community have been an asset in helping to find more terrorists. Regardless of these acts of solidarity, the actions of 0.02% has cast doubt on the entire population of nearly two million Muslims in Sri Lanka. Someone recently told me that the rest of us are ‘irrelevant’. Perhaps it is easier to dehumanise an entire population to justify ones hate.

ISIS rejects mainstream Muslims and they reject ‘Islam’. At their hands the most numbers killed globally are Muslim. Muslims are afraid, humiliated at airports, fired from their jobs, chased away from their homes, afraid to pray in public or hold a Quran. But, instead of turning to the mainstream 1.8 billion Muslims who believe Islam is a religion of peace or the consensus of Islamic scholars, we look to the terrorists who use the same 5 letter word, Islam, to refer to their violent ideology. The media compounds to this as they refer to the violent ideology of terrorists, as Islam, siding with the terrorist’s view and ignoring the way the mainstream followers understand their faith.

When it comes to refuting ISIS as Islamic, much evidence has been presented. In Sri Lanka political and religious leaders, including Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, have been clear in their definition of who these terrorists are. When ISIS declared its caliphate in 2014, their fight began against Muslims who didn’t subscribe to their beliefs, starting with the Assad regime – a common enemy of the US. We also know Baghdadi’s arrest in Fallujah in 2004 was conspicuous (to say the least). We know where Wahabi funding comes from. Take the Westboro Baptist Church, known for their inflammatory hate speech and open calls for violence against the LGBTQ community, as well as Catholics and Jews. What if they had the funding that ISIS does? The funders of terrorists or extremist groups need as much attention as the terrorists themselves.

Something ISIS ‘followers’ and ‘Islamaphobes’ might not know is the strong bond between Islam and Christianity. The basic principles in Islam include not killing the innocent, and respecting all religion, “for you is your religion and for me is my religion” (Quran,109:6). This means you can enjoy your pork and I can enjoy my halal meat. Important also are the prophecies that warn of groups like ISIS, to not be fooled by their appearance. They might portray they have read the Quran countless times but its teachings would not have gone past their throat.

But I have come to realise that these facts don’t change the majority perception in Sri Lanka. We can refute ISIS as Islamic, leaders can espouse the same, but this message doesn’t gain traction. The heightened fear of ‘Muslims’, or the view that they are the ‘other’, post Easter Attacks, appears to be a result of the fragmented and insular social fabric that has been laid out from within the community itself, with some Muslims increasingly segregating themselves, over the last decade. It hit me hard to come to know there was a problem from within my community. And just like me, many Muslims began to introspect.

The Sri Lankan Muslim, Communal Violence and the Civil War

For most of us Sri Lankans, the politics and plurality within the Muslim community has not been as obvious. A study done by ICES noted that, ‘the Muslim community is … splintered in to various denominations which espouse different interpretations of Islam. This ignorance of [their] plurality [and] internal politics could be a contributing factor to much of the prejudices held by individuals against the community’.

Over the last decade this plurality and internal politics has led to increasing factions, self-appointed religious leaders, and growing fundamentalist groups. ‘[The] anti-Muslim sentiments are also a result of the internal conflicts regarding the practice of Islam within the Muslim community. These conflicts, manifested in the form of visible, symbolic Islamisation, cause suspicion and fear among members of other communities’, according to the ICES study. A large majority of Muslims, remained unaware of this. Those who knew and chose to speak out were either not heard or silenced.

Muslims also understand they weren’t the victims of the Easter Sunday attack. But to those of us observing the societal backlash, the situation is cause for concern. Perhaps the plea is to not make Muslims the victims, to not turn this in to another civil war.

The riots in Minuwangoda – 13.05.2019 – has traits of the communal violence seen in 1956, 1958, 1970, 1980, 1981, 1983, 2001, 2014, 2018 – some which emboldened terrorist groups. 83’ in particular which took the lives of 400-3000 innocent Tamil civilians, has a correlation to the rise of the LTTE. Conflicts, they have similar patterns. We know the ‘83 riots started with thirteen soldiers losing their lives, but these numbers grew exponentially when the country fell in to a dark long war.

To quote a Special Forces officer, “Now, there are some delinquents trying to stir up issues between Muslims and Sinhalese. If it turns in to a conflict, we will have to sacrifice our lives again and go back to war, not them. We are the ones who have to suffer. We gave up so much to end the conflict, it pains us to see our efforts treated so carelessly.”

Senthooran, tells us his story of how he was pushed in to the hands of the LTTE, “the LTTE carried out an ambush in Palali. Tamils in Matale and elsewhere didn’t even know who the LTTE were at the time. We hadn’t committed any crimes, but because of what happened in Palali, we were tortured elsewhere.” Displaced, and without resources to leave the country, their only safety he says was in the hands of the LTTE.

The events of 13th May 2019 did not escalate to 1983. However, I think of Fauzal Amir, who was slashed to death, turpentine poured on his face. Livelihoods were destroyed, homes and places of worship too. Prior to this, offences where women were spat on, not allowed on the bus, Muslim businesses boycotted, women abused and discriminated at supermarkets and hospitals, can also have long-lasting effects on those victimised. Most of this violence and persecution has mushroomed out of our very own Sri Lankan society. How are we continuing the mistakes of our forefathers – have we learned nothing?

The Sri Lankan Muslims are as angry as you are, or more; with the riots but even more so with the terrorists who misconstrued Islam, brought suspicion and hate unto all Muslims, and moreover took the lives of 250 innocent people. We are hurt and confused. How did young Muslim men and women of Sri Lanka buy in to the blasphemy propagated by the ISIS? Yes, it was terrorists who did this, they do not represent us, they are a minute fraction of the Muslim community, but nevertheless they grew out from within our community. The Muslim community will not just reflect, but are committed to reweaving the shredded social fabric and integrating back as a decade ago.

But this does not justify the merciless attacks, discrimination and condemnation directed at all Muslims. Apart from Mr. Ameen, no other innocent Muslim life has been taken in ‘revenge’ (yet). But how are we to be thankful for something civilised people ought to do?

The ‘Sri Lankan’ and the ‘other’

Would the societal backlash have been contained if Muslims were better integrated? As Muslims grew increasingly insular and segregated it gave voice and justification to extremist and racist factions like the BBS. Those who pushed that narrative are now seemingly ever more justified in their hate. However, attacks from such groups have not been contained to Muslims alone in the last decade. Even after the Easter Attack, the very morbid were sometimes heard condoning the attacks, arguing that ‘no minority belongs in Sri Lanka.’

So, what does it mean to be a true Sri Lankan? Does my ‘multi-ethnic’ friend with Buddhist, Tamil and Burgher roots, not belong here? Does my Sinhalese Buddhist friend who does not visit the temple and is unable to string a Sinhalese sentence together, not belong here? Does my agnostic Atheist friend not belong here? As a Muslim, do I not belong here?

These divisive narratives stem from our history that dates back to colonial times. The colonisers made a majority feel like second class citizens. That left deep rooted pain and fear of the ‘other’. Successive governments since independence have manipulated our fears and ‘differences’ for political gain. It has been institutionalised in our constitution, legitimising communal violence, and the perpetuity of those seeds of fear and hatred.

If we remain so afraid of the ‘other’, then does that mean we redefine Sri Lanka from being ‘multi-cultural’ or multi anything really, to something monolithic? We have become obsessed with trying to delineate some one based on their ethnic or religious make up. We have created arbitrary divisions amongst ourselves along lines such as race, ethnicity, religion, and caste. Our tourist brochures highlight what a multi-ethnic, multicultural, hospitable and friendly country we are. But the truth is, while we welcome tourists, we have also chased out refugees, a group persecuted in their own countries and in need of a helping hand from Sri Lankans as they seek refuge here. We need to change this about ourselves as Sri Lankans. And we can start by breaking free from the chains of political manipulation and readjusting ourselves to not simply accept this diversity but celebrate it.

Our responsibility

Our enemies are the terrorists. These cowards should not be recognised as belonging to any community or humanity for that matter. The terrorists wanted to create unrest and further divide our little island. They wanted to attack our peace. Then they attacked hotels, indiscriminately, in their attempt to attack our economy.

How we as citizens respond and react now can have a great impact on how we write our future, our countries future and our children’s future. Do we give in to what the terrorists wanted? Do we create more Senthoorans? It is in a fractured society that terrorism breeds best.

In a highly politicised country like Sri Lanka, we have a tendency to think it is all up to the leaders. But a politician is controlled by his constituents more than we realise. While political and religious leaders have a major role to play, it is important we understand our role in society and the impact each one of us has – positive or negative. ‘Civic responsibility’ should not be underestimated. For Sri Lanka to make space for a leader that emulates strength, compassion, and transparency, we need to start with being the change that we want to see. And ordinary citizens like you and me, we can have an extraordinary impact. We might not have the power or skills to take out extremists. We don’t all have to make grandiose and brave acts. Simple acts of kindness or restraint can have a ripple effect. For this, we must all start with looking within ourselves. Do we treat all of humanity with respect, kindness, and love? What are our own biases and prejudices? Are we allowing our fears to be manipulated?

Take the outward attack to boycott Muslim businesses, juxtapose that with the recent message that poison has been found and to not eat at Muslim establishments. The sad reality is that some groups, now crawling out of the rocks they were once under, are milking this situation. They manipulate our fears and our genuine concern for our loved ones. We are all afraid, we are all suspicious, and we are all emotional. But we must be sensible and responsible. You and I might not be racist, but it’s time to question what narrative we are contributing to by a seemingly harmless message. Reacting or responding to our fears, buying in to racist sentiments, will only perpetuate this cycle of violence.

A new peace or an old war?

A flurry of emotions, including fear, pain, anger and hurt have engulfed us all in the weeks following the attacks. I have always been a proud Sri Lankan, so it hurt to be told, I’m not as ‘Sri Lankan’, that I don’t belong here. But this is not about you or me. We will eventually forget and go back to our normal lives. Us privileged will survive. But as our economy and peace are threatened, it’s the poor who will first fall victim. It’s the poor who will lose their jobs, who will lose their lives to communal violence, or be pushed in to the hands of terrorists. The spill over effect will then not be contained to one community alone. We are all dependent on each other. What happens to those whose identity has been questioned? Those actions and even words, are like arrows, they can’t be taken back. The damage becomes irreparable.

Terrorism and racism, they feed each other. We have seen different faces of this in Sri Lanka. Theory, it became reality in ‘83.  Are we going to look away in the same way? The generation of black July say, the most they could do was provide shelter for Tamils. But seeing the sheer-level of criticism and outward rejection to what happened on 13th May, suggests our generation will not only do more but will ensure Sri Lanka is never tested in that way again. For this, we must start with addressing the grievances of the past, including an apology for 1983; it is the only way to break this cycle.

As the Muslim community reflects, it is thus equally imperative that we as a nation reflect. How do we respond to extremism in all our communities? How do we stop from making the same mistakes of our forefathers? The Muslim community accepts that our relationships with Sri Lankans of different faiths have weakened, and that our identity as ‘Sri Lankan’ is now being questioned. But we cannot be held to a higher standard than any other. Reconciliation, it has to happen both ways. To paraphrase journalist Hafeel Farisz, “don’t slap us while we are on our knees.” It is important that communities are not singled out or marginalised. It is important that we stand together as Sri Lankans. For it is together that we can rebuild Sri Lanka and what it means to be Sri Lankan.