{"id":25378,"date":"2013-09-06T22:37:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T02:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=25378"},"modified":"2013-09-06T22:37:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T02:37:38","slug":"the-present-anti-muslim-campaign-may-gather-or-lose-momentum-but-the-problem-of-anti-muslim-racism-will-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=25378","title":{"rendered":"The Present Anti-Muslim Campaign May Gather or Lose Momentum but the Problem of Anti-Muslim Racism Will Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

Izeth Hussain<\/strong><\/p>\n

There should be a broad consensus in Sri Lanka that something effective should be done to halt the anti-Muslim campaign that has become what looks like a permanent feature of our political landscape. There have been statements against it by a wide range of civil society institutions, by our political parties, and our newspapers have been full of editorials and articles against it. Hardly anyone has declared himself to be in favor of it. But the anti-Muslim campaign goes on regardless.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s strategy has been to ignore it. That was apparent by the President\u2019s advice to our newspaper editors when he met them some weeks ago: publicize the campaign and it will become worse; ignore it and it will fade away. That strategy was proved to be completely mistaken by subsequent developments at Grandpass, which showed in fact that the situation had taken a turn for the worse. In an article published elsewhere I noted two epochal developments.<\/p>\n

One was that the Muslim Ministers and Parliamentarians supporting the Government came out with a loud, clear, and unequivocal condemnation of the anti-Muslim campaign. That was epochal because over many decades Muslim politicians have been notorious for refusing to speak up on behalf of the Muslims over matters that might be controversial.<\/p>\n

The other epochal development was that there actually was a clash at Grandpass. Earlier the Muslims watched in dumb anguish while the Sinhalese super-patriots went on the rampage against them. At Grandpass Muslim youths who were members of an Islamic fundamentalist group stunningly engaged in counter-violence, and actually got the better of it.<\/p>\n

I must now bring out the significance of those two developments. Traditionally the Muslims were regarded as a business community, and their identity was basically a religious identity. It was meet and proper therefore that the traditional Muslim politician should speak up for the Muslims mainly or only on religious and business matters. But profound changes took place within the Muslim community as a result of free education and the peaceful revolution of 1956. Modernity was catching up with the Muslims, and the mass of the Muslims were struggling towards a better life just like the members of other ethnic groups. The traditional type of Muslim politician failed to represent those changing interests, and notably they failed to speak up on anti-Muslim discrimination. That provided the rationale for the emergence of the SLMC. <\/p>\n

Over the recent anti-Muslim campaign the Muslim politicians preserved a typical silence, outraging many exasperated Muslims. But one Muslim politician, Azath Sally, spoke out, he was jailed and then released, after which he fell completely silent. It was thought that the Government had taught a good lesson to uppity Muslim politicians who could henceforth be expected to be silent whatever the outrages perpetrated against the Muslims. But now, contrary to expectations, all the Muslim politicians have spoken out. This is indicative of profound changes taking place within the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

The second epochal development is that at Grandpass Muslim youths belonging to a fundamentalist group engaged in counter-violence against the rampaging Sinhalese super-patriots. This must be viewed in the perspective of the growth of Wahabism in Sri Lanka. It appears that the Wahabis have been making very significant headway in recent times. I would relate this fact to the anti-Muslim hate campaign which has been going on for about a couple of years. There are complex factors behind the spread of Wahabism, one of which is most certainly the deep sense of insecurity felt by many Sri Lankan Muslims. A Muslim lady told me the other day that the main reason why she wears a head-scarf is that it gives her a deep sense of security. The probable explanation is that the head-scarf and other ethnic markers enhance the sense of belonging to a group, and security is to be found in the group and not in the isolate individual who cannot possibly withstand majoritarian hatred and violence. In the present context the most significant fact about Wahabism and other fundamentalist movements is that they show a proneness to violence. It is commonsensical to surmise therefore that if the anti-Muslim campaign goes on, it could well lead to a second violent ethnic rebellion in Sri Lankan.<\/p>\n

There are compelling reasons therefore for the Government to put a stop to the anti-Muslim campaign. This problem should be viewed in terms of a paradigm of racism. The present anti-Muslim campaign may gather or lose momentum, or it may fade away altogether, but the problem of anti-Muslim racism will continue. We must view this campaign in the perspective of developments over many decades. From 1975 to 2002 there were anti-Muslim ructions, sometimes minor sometimes major, practically every year. I analysed them in earlier articles in terms of anti-Muslim racism but the media consistently held that the ructions were no more than fracas between thugs without any ethnic dimension to them at all. Later an eminent Buddhist monk used his television program to express extreme anti-Muslim views. Now the Bodi Bala Sena has erupted and several other extremist groups have been engaging in anti-Muslim action. It is no longer possible to deny that there is such a thing as anti-Muslim racism.<\/p>\n

What should be done by way of effective action to halt the anti-Muslim campaign? To answer this question we have to identify what is special in the present anti-Muslim situation. I believe that what is special is that we are witnessing what might be called anti-Muslim State racism. When anti-Muslim rioting took place between 1975 and 2002 nobody imagined that the State was behind all that. Certainly the State failed to take the requisite tough action against the rioters, which showed the anti-Muslim bias of the State, but nobody imagined that the State was behind the rioting. I referred above to the eminent monk who expressed extreme anti-Muslim views on TV. That was on a Government TV channel, but when Lucian Rajakarunanayake and others registered their protest his program was stopped. Today the State refuses to take any meaningful action to stop the anti-Muslim campaign.<\/p>\n

There have in fact been widespread suspicions, right from the moment that the BBS made its presence felt, that it was a creation of the State. It had its headquarters in a Government-owned building, and very soon the Defense Secretary expressed his enthusiastic support for its program. That was at a time when there was widespread public outrage over the blatant anti-Muslim racism of the BBS. But all that is highly speculative, not amounting to hard proof. I would focus rather on just one hard fact about which there can be no dispute whatever: the inaction of the Police when confronted with anti-Muslim mob action. It is not a question of an occasional dereliction of duty by the Police or inadequate action because of special circumstances. It has been a consistent inaction over a period of many months, over which the Government has refused to take any corrective action. I believe that focusing on this point could lead to effective action to stop the anti-Muslim campaign<\/p>\n

I must now make a clarification before proceeding further. In this article I have been using the term “state” rather than “government” even where the latter term might seem more appropriate, for which I have two reasons. One is that there has never been any decision by the Government as such sanctioning Police inaction over anti-Muslim mob action. That inaction is clearly the consequence of decisions made by very powerful personages within the State. It is clearly a case of anti-Muslim State racism. My other reason is that anti-Muslim racism is not something that is peculiar to this Government, but something that has been prevalent over many decades. It is a fact that Sri Lanka has failed to come up with even one party that the minorities can accept unequivocally as non-racist. The State in Sri Lanka is racist, which means that the problem of racism cannot be solved through mere government or regime change. It can be solved only by our addressing the problem of racism.<\/p>\n

With the above clarification in mind there should be nothing odd in the suggestion that Muslim Parliamentarians who support the Government should now loudly demand that corrective action be taken over the Police. They should be joined in this by the Sinhalese Parliamentarians supporting the Government, the Opposition, other political parties, and the civil society. There should be insistence on one single point: our leaders should have no difficulty whatsoever in making the Police carry out their normal functions. The failure to take corrective action over the Police could mean that President Rajapakse might come to be seen in history as having been the leader of a neo-fascist and racist anti-Muslim Gang.<\/p>\n

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By Izeth Hussain There should be a broad consensus in Sri Lanka that something effective should be done to halt the anti-Muslim campaign that has become what looks like a permanent feature of our political landscape. There have been statements against it by a wide range of civil society institutions, by our political parties, and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Present Anti-Muslim Campaign May Gather or Lose Momentum but the Problem of Anti-Muslim Racism Will Continue’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25379,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25378\/revisions\/25379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}