The forgotten Muslims of Sri Lanka

By Irfan Husain
As the civil war in Sri Lanka enters its endgame, there is one group waiting for the conclusion that has been virtually forgotten in the conflict. The Muslims of Sri Lanka, constituting the third biggest community in the island after the Sinhalese and the Tamils, have been among the losers in the North and the East. Indeed, many foreigners are ignorant of the very presence of the ancient Muslim population of Sri Lanka.Although the origin of the Arab presence in Sri Lanka is shrouded in myth, it is at least two thousand years old, thus pre-dating Islam by centuries. Ancient travellers mention Arab and Persian trading colonies along the coast, and after Islam was first revealed in the 7th century, the new faith was soon introduced to the island. Today, the descendants of this community constitute 95 per cent of the Muslim community, and are known as Moors.The remaining 5 per cent are divided between the ‘Malays’, brought in by the Dutch colonists from Java in the 17th century, and the Muslims who came from Southern India when the British ruled the island. There are also a few thousand Memons and Bohras who contribute to this diversity. Together, the Muslims make up just over eight per cent of the total population of 20 million. According to local Muslim sources, the actual figure is closer to 10 per cent. Although they were largely confined to the coast in earlier days, the Portuguese pushed many of them inland in the 17th century before the arrival of the Dutch. Today, they are represented in virtually every occupation and profession, and dominate the gemstone industry.The Muslims in Sri Lanka represent a remarkably successful example of integration. Speaking the local languages of Sinhala and Tamil, they are often distinguishable only by their dietary habits, eating meat when few Sinhalese Buddhists or Hindu Tamils do so. Along the coast, the men can be spotted by their wispy beards and skull-caps, while the women often wear the shalwar-kameez favoured by their sisters in India and Pakistan. Their mosques dot the small towns of the coast, and the azan is heard pretty much all over the island. Over time, they have lost the use of Arabic, but they remain socially conservative, and few of them drink alcohol, except among the sophisticated circles of Colombo and Galle.Despite the fact that the Muslims constitute the third biggest community in Sri Lanka after the Sinhalese and the Tamils, they remained politically inactive for decades after the island gained its independence from the British in 1948. It was only after the rebel Tamil forces of the LTTE turned against them in the North East in 1990 that they became conscious of their rights as a separate community. Around 100,000 Muslims were evicted from their shops, homes and farms in a savage act of ethnic cleansing that sent thousands of families into refugee camps, where many of them live to this day.The tension arose because Prabhakaran, the ruthless leader of the Tamil Tigers, judged that the Muslims living in the area he controlled did not sufficiently support the cause of Tamil separatism. The Muslims understandably wished to continue living under a secular central government where they had equal rights. As a result, they were forced out of the area in which their forefathers had lived peacefully for centuries.In the East, they have also been subjected to more recent attacks by a breakaway group of Tamils aligned with the government. Currently, an uneasy truce prevails among the coastal Tamils and the Muslims. Due to this hardening of attitudes, young Muslims have been organizing themselves into groups, even through there have been no reports of arms being acquired by them. Most Muslims are hoping that with the expected early end of the civil war, they might be able to return to their homes in the Tamil-dominated areas.In historic terms, the recent rise in tension is an aberration, rather than the norm. Apart from the Portuguese in the 16th century, the Muslims of Sri Lanka have got along with the Dutch and the British, being seen as shrewd traders, able administrators and invaluable interpreters. The majority Sinhalese saw them as no threat to their power, and the Tamils lived in peace with them for centuries.There is an illuminating story about a Sinhalese king who offered a big reward to anybody who would bring a group of Indian weavers to the island to teach their craft to local artisans. Two Muslim adventurers sailed across the Palk Straits dividing India from Sri Lanka, and told a group of weavers of the wonderful opportunities that lay in a nearby land. Unsuspectingly, the Indians set sail, but when they found out they were being taken to foreign country, two of them jumped overboard and drowned. However, the remainder were well received in court, and spread their craft among the locals. The king was delighted, and rewarded the Muslims handsomely.Today, although there is little overt hostility towards the Muslims, the community feels under threat. As Sinhalese nationalism becomes more pronounced in a country that has fought a bitter civil war over the last 25 years ago, Muslims feel more and more marginalized. The professional classes perceive subtle signs of exclusion from the top jobs, and feel they have been victims of a conflict in which they had no part.However, if the government is magnanimous in victory over the Tamil separatists, the wounds of the brutal war might heal relatively quickly. The reality is that the Tamils in the North were held hostage by the LTTE, probably the most ruthless terrorist organization ever created. With Prabhakaran consigned to history, it is possible that the island might emerge soon from its long nightmare, and the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims may live together in harmony, much as they have done for centuries.