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State institutions in post-colonial Sri Lanka has been working within the general institutional framework of parliamentary democracy, yet this process took the character of an ethnic majoritarian democracy. The latter evolved in a context of the rise of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism – the ideology which contained a political vision of using the state institutions to serve the interests of the majority Sinhalese community. Through this ideology, the state policies were specifically served the Sinhalese language, Buddhist religion and the Sinhalese-Buddhist culture.
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State institutions in post-colonial Sri Lanka has been working within the general institutional framework of parliamentary democracy, yet this process took the character of an ethnic majoritarian democracy. The latter evolved in a context of the rise of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism – the ideology which contained a political vision of using the state institutions to serve the interests of the majority Sinhalese community. Through this ideology, the state policies were specifically served the Sinhalese language, Buddhist religion and the Sinhalese-Buddhist culture.
The defeat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE)
and the regain of the LTTE controlled areas in the North-Eastern parts
of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan army in the name of war against terrorism
and the war for the unification of Sri Lankan territory have, in number
of ways, paved way for the re-emergence of Buddhist ethno-religious
hegemony and sentiments in Sri Lanka. Number of incidents has been
justifying the exercise and dominance of majoritarian hegemony which
really targeting minority communities and their religious, linguistic
and cultural distinctiveness and identity. One of the minority groups
which severely affected by these hegemonic politics is the Muslim
community in Sri Lanka.
Muslims of Sri Lanka is the second larger minority community,
comprise 8 percent of the total population are living along the
territory of Sri Lanka, but scattered. They have a history of 2500 years
in Sri Lanka where they have been living with majority communities in
the country peacefully and maintained a harmonious relationship in every
aspects of life. The history has recorded a number of incidents that
the Muslim community has contributed in number of ways to unity, peace,
social harmony and the national and territorial integration of Sri
Lanka. However, unfortunately, during most of the nationalistic
hegemonic periods, the Muslim were targeted and vehemently victimized by
the nationalist groups. The major incident against Muslim community has
recorded in the history was the anti-Muslim riots of 1915 which labeled
the Muslims as exploitative foreign trading community similar to how
Jews have been viewed in Europe. During the post-independent period
also, numbers of incidents against Muslims were printed. An occurrence
of a riot of the same nature as that of 1915 was the violence in 1975
when some Muslims were killed in Puttalam mosque due to a misconception
that the Muslims were an economically privileged group and which fact
fired the major motivation for anti-Muslim hatred. Likewise, there has
been an unprecedented level of violent attacks, demonstrations and hate
speeches targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslim population, mainly perpetrated by
Buddhist-fascist fundamentalist groups. Those events have left the
Muslims feeling afraid and vulnerable. The situation has become worse
after the defeat of the LTTE in 2009.
End of civil war in Sri Lanka has been marked by state-sponsored
Sinhala Buddhist hegemony, the weakening of democratic institutions and
rule of law, the constriction of civil and political rights. As how the
Tamils were been targeted, the Muslim community’s personal values-
religion, culture, identity, dressing, personal law were mainly targeted
by the Buddhist nationalistic groups. The attack on a mosque in Dambulla
of April 2012 by a mob led by extremist Buddhist monks has reignited
concern about targeted violence against Muslim religious minorities in
Sri Lanka.
In addition to attacks on places of religious worship, there are
calls to boycott Muslim shops and establishments, all of which is
increasing tensions, particularly in areas where Muslims and Sinhalese
are live close to each other. The incidents against Muslims are
widespread across the country and have picked up momentum during the
last few months. The recent attack on the store of Fashion Bug, one of
the big chain of textiles owned by a Muslim merchant shows that the
attackers are not only giving threats to the Muslims but also they are
ready to use violence over them and their properties. One of the major
victories of the Sinhalese nationalistic hegemonic agenda was the
lifting the Halal
certificate by printing of ‘Halal’ Symbol, as an standard of product
like, ISO to the product of iteneries of daily use. ‘Halal’ is a Muslim
practice since sixth century A.D. It is an Arab term used to mean
‘acceptable’ according to the Islamic religious fundamental’. It is a
must for all Muslims to consume Halal items in eating and other purpose
of their daily activities. When many merchant companies wanted Halal
certificate to sell and export their product to Muslim customers and to
Muslim countries, government of Sri Lanka allowed the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama,
the accepted authority concerning religious affairs of the Muslim
Community in Sri Lanka, to evaluate and issue the halal certificates.
However, by propagating as injustice practice which impose non-Muslims
to buy Halal food and other items, these Buddhist nationalistic
hegemonic groups, especially, the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’
(Buddhist Power Force) staged number of anti-Halal and anti-Muslims
programs and finally were able to remove Halal certificate from printing
in the product. These incidents were mainly looked at by democrats and
moderates as one of the violations of Muslims fundamental and religious
rights. Thereafter, the agitators are being claiming that they are going
to work hard on removing number of their personal and cultural
practices of Muslims namely, the Muslim personal laws, special dress
code etc. It is a major challenge for the Muslim community living
outside to North-East where the Sinhalese are living predominantly, to
exercise their distinct religious and cultural practices and living with
fear of unwanted and unexpected treats.
Muslims in North-East, particularly in the Eastern province of Sri
Lanka where they formed a considerable majority say that statues of the
Buddha and Buddhist shrines are appearing in places where previously
they did not exist. In both the north and the east, it is common that,
wherever a Bo tree is found, a Buddhist shrine is erected. It noted a
“sharp uptick” in religiously-motivated violence and said the
authorities are “passively and sometimes actively” condoning extremist
Buddhist groups, such as the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ and the Hela Urumaya are the main groups behind the targeting of Muslims.
During these anti-Muslim sentiments
and violence, the Sri Lanka government’s failure to take decisive
action to protect religious minorities from threats and violence is
undermining its claims to being a rights-respecting democracy and pave
the way for another ethnic violence against Muslim which may create
another possible violent conflict in Sri Lanka’s near future. (Colombo Telegraph)
*Dr. V.Sivayogalingam, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Peradeniya,
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