A 1915 type Sinhala Muslim clash is imminent! – Says JHU’s Udaya Gammanpila

By Latheef Farook

In his weekly column THE GUARD POST in the Ceylon Today Mr.  Udaya Gammanpila of Jathika Hela Urumyaya, constituent party of the UPFA government, stated on 20 January 2013 that he “strongly feels a repetition of the 1915 Sinhala Muslim clash is imminent”.

This is in response to that comment;

When Mr. Gammanpila predicted a 1915 type carnage against Muslims, one ought to realize that the situation is frightening as he belongs to Sinhala extremist Jathika Hela Urumaya which openly advocates that Sri Lanka solely belongs to Sinhala Buddhists only and the Tamils should go to Tamilnad and Muslims to Saudi Arabia.

Judging from the widespread attacks on Muslims during the past few days, it appears final touches was already given to a disastrous anti-Muslim pogrom which has all the potentials to turn this island into a permanent hell.

What has happened in 1915 was not Sinhala Muslim clash as incorrectly projected.  Sinhalese and Muslims lived in peace and harmony then as they do now. It was a clash between South Indian Muslim traders, known as coastal Moors, and the coastal Sinhala traders known for their inherent chauvinism and hatred towards Muslims. This was confirmed even by Armand de Souza in his   extremely biased against Muslims book,  “HUNDRED DAYS IN  CEYLON-Under Martial Law 1915”.

In his book “ Ceylon Police and Sinhala-Muslim Riots of 1915” former Deputy Inspector General of Police A.C Dep has given vivid descriptions of the island wide looting of Muslim owned shops and burning residential and commercial buildings besides forcing Muslims to jungle to escape  the fury of the mobs. 

Almost a century later today animosity against Muslim community was carefully planned and built up,with no valid reason , by a small group  , namely Bodu Bala Sena described  as Buddhist Zionists by Dr. Suren Raghavan , a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Buddhist Studies of University of Oxford and teaches politics at University of Kent-Canterbury.

Many Muslims suspect that this extremely vicious group has been funded and exploited by Israelis to do their dirty of instigating an anti-Muslim clash. Most people in the island may not be aware that it was the Jews who have unleashed a global campaign against Islam and Muslims through the US and Europe which they rule and the Western media they own.

If Mr. Gammanpila is so convinced about an attack on Muslims, as a responsible member of the government, one would expect him to take urgent measures to prevent such a calamity. But there was no such sign for reasons better known to him. Judging from the freedom with which the   mobs, often led by monks, attack mosques and other places, under the watchful eyes of police, it appears, they have the blessings of the authorities. So far no one was taken into custody.

There is no justification at all for the violent  hate campaign now underway perhaps with the ultimate  purpose  of repeating, as Mr. Gammanpila said, the 1915 anti-Muslim pogrom for looting Muslim shops and burn their commercial and residential buildings and perhaps, killing Muslims too.

 This is not something new as chauvinists who ruined this country claimed in the past that they will deal with the Muslims after settling their scores with Tamils.

During the past year and half or so  there were deliberate provocations when they attacked     Muslim shrines, mosques, shops, websites spreading hate campaign against Muslims and many such activities involving monks who are supposed to preach Buddha’s message of peace and harmony.    

Mr. Gammanpila’s justification for the forthcoming   “disaster” include   promotion of halal products, unauthorized mosques and organizing competition to learn Islam for non-Muslim children besides the Law Entrance Exam results. This is ridiculous as none of these reasons justify a hate campaign or an attack on Muslim community.

1. Promotion halal products; Muslims worldwide strictly eat halal products, as part of religious obligations, ever since Islam was revealed more than 14 centuries ago. Sri Lankan Muslims were no exception.If the supermarket chains started promoting “halal products”   to attract Muslim customers to promote their businesses how could the Muslims be blamed? Certainly Mr. Gammanpila could get his government to ban the sale of halal products in non-Muslim supermarket chains.
   
   
2. Unauthorised mosques.  Mosques, authorized or unauthorized, are places of worship where one only finds Holy Quran and worshippers. If there are unauthorized mosques, there are relevant local authorities to deal with it. Under such circumstance is there any justification for monks to lead   gangs to attack mosques and plan an attack on the Muslim community as a whole?
   
   
3. Organizing competitions to teach Islam to non-Muslim children. Which organization or individual organizing such competitions aimed at teaching Islam to non-Muslim children? One could simply find out such organizations and individuals, if there are any, and tell them not to do so. Is this a justification to incite Sinhala-Muslim clash?
   
   
4. Law Entrance Exam results. If Mr. Gammanpila who dedicated his entire column to Law College Examination,   suspects that there is some conspiracy, he could call for an impartial inquiry, find what went wrong, cancel the exam and hold the exam again and rectify the error.  So why blame the entire Muslim community as if this doesn’t happen in the national level.

Muslims have been described as extremists and accused of running extremist organizations. The question is what prevents the authorities from dealing with such organizations if there are any.

We are not living in 1915.We are now in 2013 when we have become part of the world and our overall life style has become interwoven with the rest of the world. Under such circumstance an unnecessary attack on Muslims will spell disaster. Racist attack of handful people on Tamils in July 1983 created a powerful diaspora, dreadful terrorist war, brought   India into local politics and divided the communities besides putting the country many decades behind.

Who knows what would be the consequences in the event of an attack on Muslims especially at a time when Muslims worldwide are fighting against US-European global wars against Muslims.  

Under such circumstance is there any need to provoke the island’s Muslims who remain the most peaceful of all three major communities, as pointed out former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, and wanted to live in harmony with both Sinhalese and the Tamils.

What the chauvinists failed to understand is that Muslims, by and large ignored by the government and betrayed by their politicians, remain a sidelined community. For example hardly any Muslim is recruited to armed forces, police and rarely one could see a Muslim employee in government departments and other state institutions. Even mercantile sector seems to have closed their doors to Muslims who are, by and large, excluded from Government contracts, tenders and all such activities. Indifference towards Muslims remains open and around 130,000 Muslim refugees from north continue to languish in refugee camps in appalling conditions three and half years after the war.

The irony is that this happens three years after the 30 year ethnic war ended. What lesson we learnt from the past carnage? Absolutely nothing!

Though the island is blessed with everything the Sinhalese community failed to produce a national leader, before and after independence, who could unite communities, ensure communal harmony and forge the country for overall progress.     

Instead politicians of all shades of opinions exploited chauvinism which, I consider as the incurable cancer of this country, to get into power or retain power. They were least bothered about the damage they were causing to the communal harmony. The result was the 30 year devastating war which divided communities into poles apart

The irony was that when the ethnic war broke out these very same politicians thrived on commissions, in purchasing weapons, while innocent people sacrificed their lives and their loved ones continue to suffer to date.

Under such circumstance, raising anti-Muslim slogan is sheer madness not realizing local and international consequences which the country, already facing numerous problems, cannot afford.

Muslim community  pose no threat to the Sinhalese community or Buddhism as  fictitiously claimed by  elements who  never raised any question about an unauthorized liquor shop, tavern, casinos and gambling centers which freely operate in complete violation of Buddha’s teachings.  

Highlighting the danger veteran leftist politician and Minister of National Languages and Social Integration Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara said quite rightly that “the global revolt against Muslim communities around the world led by imperialistic nations is raising its ugly head in Sri Lanka too. Certain groups of people in this country are opposing the Muslim minority, hiding behind the façade of Buddhism adding problems among communities when there are better ways to resolve any difference.

He added that “these problems should not be allowed to spread around as they can be resolved without adding fuel to fire. It seems that a very dangerous trend has been started by several groups of people who have based their protests on unconfirmed data and even total untruths regarding the law entrance exam results. Using this scenario Muslims minority in the island has been attacked. This is unjustifiable and un-Buddhist course of action to take.

Meanwhile Muslim businessmen and corporate leaders have expressed concern and disappointment over being targeted by the radical group ‘Bodu Bala Sena’, warning that it would have an adverse impact on the economy as the country struggles to mobilise both domestic and foreign investment while business chambers decried growing ultra-nationalistic sentiments in the country, putting the very foundations of the economy at risk.

Under the circumstance, unless the government intervenes and contains these elements, the country is inevitably heading towards a disaster especially with Bodu Bala Sena intensifying its hate  campaign and attacks on Muslims