Umm Abdillah, Radio Islam Programming, 2016.04.24 | 16 Rajab 1437 AH

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Myanmar isn’t the only south-Asian country where Muslims are the targets of extreme Buddhist nationalism. Sri Lanka’s Muslims are doubly affected, caught in the violent crosshairs between the Tamil elite and extreme Buddhist nationalism. Umm Abdillah writes.

This year will mark 26 years since the most inhuman chapter in the history of Tamil–Muslim relations in Sri Lanka.

In October 1990, 75,000 people, constituting 5% of the Northern Province, were subjected to ethnic cleansing by the Tamil militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organisation. The expulsion of the Muslims from the Northern province with military precision is recorded as an act of ethnic cleansing.

Muslims whose lives were spared the rape, torture and bullets were given between 2-48 hours to leave their homes, estates, businesses and farmlands with just the clothes on their backs.

A month earlier, in August 1990, LTTE cadres opened fire on over 100 Muslim men and boys who were praying in a mosque in Kattankudy. The LTTE cadres went on to massacre more than 200 Muslims at worship in three Mosques at Kaththankudy and Eravur in the East, in August 1990.

Massacres and counter-massacres ensued in the following weeks, with the toll crossing a thousand deaths.

Having lost all that that they owned, most survivors languished in refugee camps in districts outside the North, mostly in Puttalam in Sri Lanka’s north-western province.

More bombings and lootings of Muslims and Muslim property continued. Muslims lived in anguish and fear.

The end of the civil war in May 2009 brought some hopes for a return, but the absence of a resettlement policy, an unwelcoming Tamil bureaucracy, and severed relations with the Tamil community crippled the process. Prior to Sri Lanka independence from Britain, Tamils were viewed as a privileged minority and still are.

Now, a quarter of a century later, the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better for the Muslims of Sri Lanka. They are now caught between local Tamil bureaucracy, and the Sinhala Buddhist obsession with state sovereignty and national security.

Background

Sinhalese are the majority ethnic group in Sri Lanka. Most Sinhalese are Theravada Buddhists, while a small Sinhala Catholic minority also exists.

Sinhala Buddhist nationalism mostly originated in reaction to the colonisation of Sri Lanka by the British Empire, and became increasingly assertive in the years following the independence of the country.

Sinhalese constitute approximately 75% of Sri Lanka’s total population, while Sri Lankan Tamils constitute 12%, Muslims 9%, and Indian Tamils 4%.

Tamils are religiously divided between Hinduism and Catholicism.

However unlike the Sinhala and Tamil ethnicities, which are defined on the basis of language, the Muslim ethnic identity is defined on the basis of religion. Thus, in Sri Lanka, to be Muslim refers to both an ethnic and a religious category. Muslims generally speak Tamil at home; in Sinhala-majority areas, many are fluent in both national languages.

The position of Muslims in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict is complex. Though Muslims and Tamils share both a language and the experience of being a minority in Sri Lanka, Muslims in the North and East were largely unsupportive of Tamil militancy, fearing that they would be even worse off in a separate Tamil state. Thus, in Tamil nationalist circles, Muslims became viewed as a fifth column; an opinion which was bolstered by the Sri Lankan state’s use of Muslim “home guards” in its fight against Tamil militants. Muslims living in the North and East became targeted by the LTTE in several high-profile incidents. [Source]

Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists

Sri Lanka’s civil war concluded in 2009 with the total military defeat of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

The war victory engendered a political climate of extreme ethno-nationalism.

In this context, radical right-wing Buddhist groups also gained a foothold in Sri Lanka’s political scene, receiving what many view as the tacit support of the then Rajapaksa regime. Following the defeat of the Tamil enemy, Muslims have become “another other” and right-wing Buddhist monks incited common people to “protect the Sinhala Buddhist nation, race, and culture from the perceived incursions of Islamic extremism.”

2014 – “a cycle of fear”

In June 2014 Sinhalese Buddhists attacked Muslims in south-western Sri Lanka. At least four people were killed and 80 injured. Hundreds were made homeless following attacks on homes, shops, factories, mosques and nursery schools. 10,000 people were displaced by the riots.

The riots followed rallies by Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a hard line Buddhist group. Video footage from the events show orange-robed monks using derogatory terms for Muslims and, to approving roars from the crowd, vowing that if any Muslim laid a hand on a member of the Sinhalese majority — let alone a monk — that would “be the end” of them.

After the rallies Buddhist mobs marched through Muslim neighbourhoods, torching and destroying homes, shops and Qurans.

Following consecutive nights of violence those made homeless by the rioting were sheltering in the town’s main mosque.

The mainstream media in Sri Lanka censored news about the riots following orders from the Sri Lankan government.

Future Relations

President Maithripala Sirisena succeeded Rajapaksa in 2015 with just 51.3% of the vote.

Muslims who voted for Sirisena were not only tired of the Mahinda Rajapakse government, with its open support to the saffron gangs who terrorised their community, but were also fed up with their own Muslim politicians for clinging on to the very same government who protected these lawless elements.

Often mainstream discourse reduces the country’s national question to one of solving the Sinhala-Tamil problem. International perceptions too limit the understanding of the political issue in Sri Lanka to simply an ethnic conflict between the two communities.

Many analysts point out that it’s not as simplistic. A constitutional political solution includes listening to the suffering of the Northern Muslims. Both Sinhala nationalists and the Tamil elite need to probe their own consciences and evolve a more inclusive resettlement framework. Also equating being Muslim to a threat on national security is as bigoted as it is absurd.

The animosity towards Muslims and the threats on their lives and property is ongoing. In early 2015 the Colombo Telegraph listed nearly 40 incidents of malfeasance and hate crimes against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

Additional Resources:

Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism & Islamophobia in Contemporary Sri Lanka [PDF]

Umm Abdillah is part of development and strategy at Radio Islam’s Programming department. Catch her on air hosting The Reminders Programme on Wednesdays between 10-11am and Between the Cracks at 8.25am on Tuesdays. She can be contacted at zanah@radioislamlive.com or @zanah_za on Twitter.