by
Izeth Hussain
There is of course a Sri Lankan Muslim problem in the sense that there has been a prolonged hate campaign against our Muslims and anti-Muslim action in various forms. My argument is that that problem cannot be given a rationale in terms of the acts of commission and omission on the part of the Muslims. It can only be given a rationale in terms of an anterior racism among some Sinhalese who want to kick the Muslims down. My further argument is that the anti-Muslim Sinhalese racists are in a minority among the Sinhalese but they have power far beyond their numbers because the Sinhalese politicians, both in the Government and in the Opposition, are supportive of or are complicit with them. The core problem therefore is not the Muslim, not the Sinhalese racist, but the Sinhalese politician.
I will now set out some details to show that the “Muslim problem” is something that should be written within inverted commas to signify that it is not really a problem. The SL Muslims have always supported the Sinhalese against the Tamils – on “Fifty-fifty”, on Sinhala Only, on standardization for University admissions, and so on. Their disagreements with the Sinhalese have been of a minor order, not on anything that adversely affects the vital interests of the Sinhalese. Furthermore, although their grievances are many they have refused to speak out on them, their political and other representatives preferring for the most part to behave like clams rather than say anything that might displease the Sinhalese. I have dubbed them “an invisible minority” in the past, and I have also written about their fear psychosis towards the Sinhalese. It is difficult to imagine a more submissive minority, indeed a more abjectly submissive minority, than the SL Muslims.
