Sri Lankan Muslims: Isn’t it time for initiatives to avert calamities. By Latheef Farook

It appears that the island’s Muslim community seems to have forgotten the threats to their very existence from the extremely dangerous small minority of Sinhala racist elements who do not in any way represent the mainstream majority Sinhalese community.

As we know that the Jahtika Hela Urumaya, Bodu Bala Sena and Sinhala Ravaya combine’s recent short sighted and destructive provocations struck at the very survival of the Muslim community.

From the destruction of a Muslim shrine in Anuradhapura under the watchful eyes of police and the attack on Dambulla Mosque by a mob led by a monk to last week’s demolition of structures around the mosque at Dafter Jailani (Kuragala) vandalism against places of   importance to Muslims continue unabated.

With the government refusing to enforce the law and bring hooligans involved to book, panic stricken and helpless Muslims turned to prayer including the recitation of “Qunooth”, one of Allah’s best blessings to Muslims, during their daily prayers. However the recitation of “Qunooth” was stopped, for reasons better known to those who have taken this decision, though these ethno religious fascists remain active in pursuing their hate Muslim campaign poisoning the minds of Sinhalese.

However, it appears the Muslims are refusing  to wake up to the  threats and challenges as they have failed so far to take any  initiative to deal with issues exploited by these racist elements, suspected mercenaries of local and foreign  anti Muslim forces, in their evil designs against Muslims. 

These issues, as pointed out recently by Dr Mohamed Abrar during the meeting to introduce the “Interim Shoora Council”, are more than 130. Thus tackling all these issues remains a Himalayan task.

However some burning issues such as the use of loudspeakers in mosques, slaughtering of animals and a dress code for Muslim women need to be dealt with on an immediate basis to prevent racist rabble rousers from exploiting these issues to promote their hate Muslim agenda.

Therefore isn’t it time that religious scholars, especially those  who command respect of the community, social  and cultural organizations such as YMMA and others in the civil society come forward   to discuss these issues, arrive at some conclusions, provide guidelines and save the community from any future calamities.

As we all know the slaughtering of animals has been an explosive issue which the racists   always tried to exploit to pit the Sinhalese against Muslims. Those Muslims involved in this trade are mostly an illiterate lot and often   involved in family businesses. They carry out their activities as they had been doing for ages and failed to modernize in keeping with the changing needs of the time.

Therefore the need of the hour is to take initiatives to seek means to educate all involved, help organize and modernize the meat trade to suit the religious, cultural and social needs of the community and the country. Such moves would deprive racist mercenaries of a slogan to whip up anti Muslim sentiments among the Sinhalese.

In the same way the use of loud speakers in mosques especially for Adhan, call for prayer, has been an extremely sensitive and controversial issue .Under the circumstance isn’t it the responsibility of Muslims who live in small numbers in the midst of large number of non Muslims   to ensure that they do not disturb their non Muslim neighborhood.

This subject has been the talking point among Muslims themselves with many suggesting the need for change. In fact it was a dispute over reckless use of loud speakers that led to the ban on the use of loud speakers before 5 AM.

There is no need for NGOs or anyone else to do these changes. The community is blessed with sufficient knowledgeable people in all fields who could undertake these tasks if they are interested. The need is for organizations or groups to take the initiative which is pressing need of the hour.

Equally important is the need to organize the dress code for Muslim women judging from the spate of attacks on Muslim women in different parts of the island during the past few months.

This is not to please Sinhala racist elements or to interfere with the religious rights  of Muslim individuals, but to introduce some form of uniformity in keeping with Islamic teachings to avoid harassments to them by unruly elements and preserve the dignity of Muslim women.

Since early 1990s there have been intense discussions on Hijab and Niqab-face-veil- among Muslim women in UK followed by Muslim women throughout the world. Growing interest on the subject made well known late Egyptian religious scholar Dr Syed Mutawalli ad-Darsh, President of the United Kingdom’s Shari’ah Council, to write a book on Hijab or Niqab with an introduction by respected Islamic scholar M Mazheruddin Siddiqi.

In a special page in the opening of the book published by Kuala Lumpur based Islamic book Trust , Syed Mutawalli ad-Darsh had this to state;

“I disagree with the statement that “niqab (face-veil) is an obligation, and have been at pains to explain this from the outset. There is no hard or unquestionable proof in the Holy Quran or Sunnah to that effect. Otherwise we are going to question the integrity or scholarship of the overwhelming majority of the learned community of Islam?

This interpretation is based on the authority of Prophet Muhammed ( PBUH ) especially the hadith in which he says :" ….. if the woman reaches the age of puberty, No ( part of her body ) should be seen but  this – and he pointed to his face and hands."

On the question of attire, a recent article by a Muslim scholar added that; The Quran and the sayings of the Prophet (PBUH) did not say women must adopt a particular dress of a particular country. It only gives basic boundaries, and for a committed Muslim woman, she doesn't follow this simply because her father or husband tells her, but because Allah already stated that as a requirement in the Quran,and was explained through revelation given to Prophet Muhammad ( PBUH) that this was not to restrict woman, but to provide a virtuous society where sexual attraction is not the main obsession of everyone. This forces everyone to respect the woman for what she is as a human being, as an intellectual and a spiritual being, rather than being diverted to her sexuality. 

Sri Lanka has enough of non controversial Islamic scholars who could guide the community on this subject in consultation with renowned Islamic scholars from all over the world.