Muslims On Par With The Sinhala-Buddhists In Citizenry, Rights & Responsibilities 

By Mohamed R. M. Farook –AUGUST 18, 2020

Mohamed R. M. Farook

Every person has their citizenry in the country of birth, has rights that cannot be tampered with by any other, and has duties of responsibility to be executed whenever the needs arise in order every human being is given a natural or universal guarantee to live as a free person. But in realty this concept of equality is, most of the time, breached through majoritarian or supremacist mind-set prevailing in religious and / or racial divides in many countries in the world. By default, or otherwise, Sri Lanka too has fallen to this unacceptable behaviour at present through which the Muslims are challenged in their dress styles, especially Muslim women; the way the Islamic knowledge is being taught; and insisting on to do away with Muslim personal laws – all these being advocated by a tiny group of Sinhala Buddhists spearheaded by a small number of Buddhist monks and this must be curtailed by the government that is supposed to be practising democratic politics. This has made a dent in the many generations-based binding unity and relationship between the Sinhala Buddhists and the Muslims and has gone to that extent that mending the dent may not be an easy task. Yet it could be done by making the instigating Buddhists understand that their mission should be one of renaissance to make the Buddhist population become aware of the neglect of Buddhism in them, and lead a life based on Buddhist principles without harming members of other faiths. It is travesty on the fundamental rights of Muslims to ask them to give up their religiously based dress styles, to close Madrasa education, and do away with the Muslim Personal Laws. Though the Muslims are made to face unacceptable scenarios, yet the Muslims are interacting with the Sinhala community in the best possible regard, respect and unstinted friendliness. Let truth and sanity prevail and make all Sri Lankans live together happily as from now onwards.

The concept that all humans are equal in their fundamental requirements or rights is embedded in religions, philosophies, ideologies and other discourses dealing in the well-being of humans and these notions exist mainly in the theoretical side of these doctrines and discourses by virtue of the fact that every human divide has its own constructed notion or thinking as to its importance, legitimacy or superiority and thus in one way or other breach the commands of their faiths, philosophies, thoughts etc. That is why the need for order is established through constitutions and many other legal frameworks. On the other hand, in worldly statuses in terms of wealth, learnings, influences, power and many more mundane aspects, humans differ from one another as individuals and collectives. These differences do exist and have to be accepted as they are, without posing unwarranted questions of how they attained their present statuses either legitimately or otherwise and that being a different issue has to be dealt with in a different way through a different topic. Along with rights, every doctrine imposes responsibilities too – responsibility to somebody or something and responsibility for the duties and activities one has to do. 

Persons born and bred in Sri Lanka – Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims – have common rights and responsibilities as citizens of this island nation and no group has any exclusive rights to the detriment of another or others and this is a fundamental premise in which mankind lives in this world, and conflicts reign when this premise is not upheld. Religious, social and cultural practices of each religious group are their rights and must be respected by all others without casting aspersions on such practices and rituals. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, people are being divided, side-lined or even marginalized based on their religious, social and cultural practices due to majoritarian supremacist thinking, prejudices, fanciful vengeance, hatred etc. commissioned under what may be label as racism. In the developed world, particularly in the United States, the marginalized Afro-Americans though having their equality rights enshrined, protected and operationalized, there remains distinct behavioural patterns between the American Whites and the Afro-American Blacks having mismatch in terms of expressions, gestures, perceptions, outlook etc. thus any conflict could be attributable to inborn mind-set of each group. This clash of cultures had been there for a long period of time in the USA and some other developed nations and therefore solutions of a permanent nature may not be forthcoming at the present stage in these countries.

Whether it is due to the copycat syndrome or any other factors borrowed from the outside world or manipulations by any vested interests from within or outside, Sri Lanka too has recently become partly submerged in racist behaviour particularly targeting Muslims at present. The motives attributable to this racist behaviour cannot be imagined as the Sinhalese and the Muslims had been living in cordial and healthy relationships for nearly, say, one thousand years, each community having trust in the other without any hesitations. The hitherto existed ways of peaceful living, the mutual trust and inter-community interactions in socio-cultural events have been ruptured at present due to unthoughtful behaviour of few Buddhists claiming that they are in a mission to help the Sinhala Buddhists to regain their lost rights, privileges, landscapes and heritages. In this scheme of anti-Muslim scenario, aspersions were cast on Muslims as to their assimilation, patriotism and loyalty, which suddenly caused them (Muslims) to feel that they have been purposefully alienated in their own social and cultural milieu (environment) which is nothing but Sri Lankan identity.

Even if there is an iota of truth in what the Sinhala Buddhists are saying about their drawbacks, the remedy is not in attacking the Muslims but to use workable strategies without harming other communities through peaceful interventions, may be, a renaissance approach. When multi culturalism is a reality and quite a number of researches are being done to know more about the contributions of multiculturalism to the smooth functioning of world order, we in Sri Lanka are trying to wipe out multiculturalism altogether due to racism used for political expediency. It is very unfortunate such activities are taking place when what Sri Lanka needs is a combined effort from all communities to make her rise up from the present economic mess to which she has fallen and move forward to be a nation of economic, industrial and commercial prosperity. For this to happen and yield favourable results, the enmity that has been created, promoted and presently operationalized by the few so called fake ultra-nationalistic Buddhists particularly on Muslims should be checked, contained and eliminated as far as possible by the governing political hierarchy without any hesitation. This is a must and any indifference shown by the state agencies to this visible communal diatribe without taking actions to contain them will not only remain a thorn on Muslims but also undesirable for effective governance.   

Muslims in Sri Lanka are her citizens by birth like others – the Buddhists, the Christians, and the Hindus. Their ancestors were Muslims through many generations, born and lived in Sri Lanka (or then Ceylon), established harmonious socio-cultural relationships with the Sinhala Buddhists (also others) and contributed immensely to the overall development and well being of Sri Lanka / Ceylon, especially by way of giving unconditional support to the Sinhala forerunners of the Independence Movement for gaining Independence from the British rule in 1948. Muslims were also lead business people in wholesale and retail trades especially in commodity trading. The wholesale Muslim traders were practising the cardinal characteristics of the wholesale trade viz. ‘breaking the Bulk’ and keeping small margins yet having large profits on turnover. The Muslim wholesalers gave on credit terms to their retail traders who went into different areas interior and established their retail businesses – this was one factor, but not the only one, for the spread of the Muslims into various parts of Sri Lanka.  

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