Moors' Islamic Cultural Home (MICH)

Sinhala-Muslim Unity must be preserved

by SD Bandaranayake - reported in the Sunday Observer of Oct 30, 1983

extracted from the MICH Souvenir IV 1977-1982

We have still not got over the shock of the traumatic events of last July. It was a tragedy that we failed to avert. It was a tragedy that did the country no good. The duty, an inescapable duty, to the country is to see that another disaster of that nature never overtakes our people. Another holocaust is something unimaginable.

But, are some forces, anti-national forces, planning another disaster?

That question arises because there appears to be a mischievous campaign through anonymous letters, through a whispering campaign to threaten the Muslim people. They are being threatened with violence similar to that we went through last July. Whoever the people involved, they cannot be patriotic-minded Sri Lankans.

I am happy that the government is alert to this threat and has warned, through its official spokesmen, that mischief makers or subversive elements would be severely dealt with.

The Minister of Trade and Shipping, in Parliament, warned the country about the new strategy of the Northern terrorists of spreading fire and terror to the South. And one of the modus operandi appears to be to create diversion between two friendly communities. Therefore, it is not a purely Muslim issue, a threat to the Muslims - but a national issue aimed at subverting the unity and dignity of our country. It is a challenge to the nation. Therefore, this time we should close ranks and be vigilant so that these anti-national forces will not succeed in their wicked schemes.

The Muslims are peace-loving people. They have lived as a law-abiding people, for centuries, with the Sinhalese. A close bond of friendship and understanding has existed between the Sinhalese and Muslims. They have, not only, lived among the Sinhalese, but also, with the Sinhalese. Travel to any part of the country - from Devinuwara to Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and the Vanni - you see them engaged in theor peaceful pursuits of co-existing with the Sinhalese neighbors.

To my mind, the co-existence of the Muslims for so long, many, many centuries, with the Sinhalese is the best repost to the virulent campaign unleashed abroad that the Sinhalese are intolerant and bent on eliminating the minorities in their midst. Under no circumstances should our people fall prey to the designing terrorist elements determined to cause damage to the country by poisoning this happy relationship of two communities.

The task before any patriotic minded Sinhalese before all Sri Lankans, irrespective of their ethnicity, religion or other considerations, is to consolidate this unity and take it forward to include all our peoples belonging to all races, religions, and languages. That is the prime task. You turn your back on that when you turn your back on the country and our people's well-being.

The Sinhalese people have no grouse against the Muslims. The Muslims have never called for the division of Sri Lanka. On the contrary, they have opposed division and stood by the Sinhalese.

I have read that the Prophet of Islam has said, "Hubbul Watani min Al Iman". It means, "love of one's country is a part of one's faith". I, as a Sinhalese feel proud that my Muslim brothers have lived up to this noble precept of their great Prophet.

Obviously, the faceless anonymous letter writers have different views and different goals. They want to further blacken the image of the country. "The Tamils have been 'taught a lesson', now teach the Muslims a 'lesson'.. Let the world know that there is no place for minorities in this country." How could the country's good name be devalued than by going at another minority people?

After the country's good name was damaged in July, it was left to a Muslim to put the picture right. I am happy about that Foreign Minister Mr ACS Hameed told the United Nations General Assembly that what happened in July was tragic, but it was "an aberration in our civil and political life".

He had credibility because he is a Muslim. He told the world assembly, "No government in Sri Lanka has tried harder to resolve this problem by accommodating the claims of the minority Tamil community. For the efforts and concessions made one the one hand, the government is under severe criticism by the majority Sinhalese community."

"On the other hand, the representatives of the Tamil minority proclaim to the world outside that their civil and human rights have been violated and therefore their answer is a separate state. Perhaps this dissatisfaction of both majority and minority communities is in itself evidence that the government has been both balanced and impartial in handling of this difficult question."

He declared, "The Muslim community and a substantial section of the Tamil people residing in the North-West, East, North-East, and the South of the country have demonstrated in repeated elections that they are vehemently opposed to separatism or a division of the country..."

When I read this convincing speech I got in touch with him in New York and said that the speech should be debated in Parliament to record our appreciation of his formidable defence of our common motherland when we needed support from the international community. He graciously declined.

It was a proud moment for Sri Lanka when a member of a minority community, a Muslim defending the good name of the country in an international forum. It meant, primarily, two things. The people of this country have faith that a Muslim leader could present an unbiased picture of the country to the world, and, that the world knows that the Muslim people of this country are loyal and contended.

I want to warn the Sinhalese that the forces that are itching to pit the Sinhalese against the Muslims and raise it to the level of an international agitation should be thwarted.

The country is facing, both, nationally and internationally, problems that require unity of all peoples so that they could be resolved without any diminution to the country's sovereignty. Fomenting conflict between the Sinhalese and the Muslims will not amount to contributing to that unity

Muslims have always been loyal to the country. That is a great quality in the people who profess Islam. Wherever they have made their homes, they have always shown loyalty and patriotism to the country of adoption. I must tell you that the patriotism of the Muslims in Sri Lanka has never been in doubt. They were in the forefront of all our struggles resisting the foreign invader, winning back our lost freedom and consolidating the newly won freedom.

They fought in the armies of Mayadunne when the Portuguese colonialists were trying to entrench themselves in the country. Every resistance movement of the Sinhalese, whether it was Kotte based or Kandy based, had Muslims in their ranks. So much so that they became targets of persecution under all the colonial powers, Portuguese, Dutch, and British.

We are familiar with Albuqerque's massacre of Muslims in Goa because they put up resistance to Portuguese penetration. The conquest of Goa was complete in 1510. After Thanksgiving Mass, Albuqerque, the conqueror, ordered the bloody massacre of 6,000 Muslims, men and women and children. The massacre of the Muslims of Matara in 1643 was no less heinous. All because the Muslims stood for the Sinhalese.

King Senarat settled the Muslims in the strategically important areas of the Eastern coast between Trincomalee and Pottuvil to resist the Dutch. They paid a price for this. The Dutch denied them even the freedom to practice their religion.

For a period of roughly three centuries, between the arrival of the Portruguese, in 1505, to the departure of the Dutch in 1795, the Muslims in the maritime provinces underwent untold suffering at the hands of the colonialists.

The Muslims have a proud record of uncompromising resistance to the foreign invader.

Has it ever struck you that the Muslims do not even have a political party of their own? Not having a party is a matter arrived at by the Muslims after deliberation. They feel that their interests could be better served by not having such a party. They have put their faith in the mainstream political parties. Instead of seeking to manipulate the mainstream parties from "positions of strength". They believe that others when shown confidence would respond with greater confidence.

The Sinhala people have understood and responded to the Muslim people on many matters in many fields. This understanding co-operation and friendship for the greater glory of our country. We, the majority community have a duty to show the world that the Sinhala people are a magnanimous people. This is needed more so today than ever before.

The winds that blow from across the Palk Straits these days are cold winds that bring no good.

The "koottams" around the tamarind trees across the arid stretches of Tamilnadu where the slogan is "Vaala Thamil Eelam", should not be dismissed as imaginative slogans and terrorist, and their South Indian patrons have many ambitious dreams. They see in fanning conflicts between the Sinhalese, on the one hand, and the Muslims and the Christians, on the other, an easy road to vivisecting our country.

The Sinhalese in particular should not fall for this ruse.

Sri Lanka's image received a severe battering as a result of the July violence. e cannot afford another repetition. This is the hour for all of us to put the entire interests of the country above all other consideration and to make one solid bid to unite all our peoples on the basis of patriotism. Forging the unity of all our peoples is a challenge today, not only to the statesmanship of our leaders but to every Sri Lankan.

We are, indeed, fortunate that at this crucial period we have the wise and benign leadership of President JR Jayawardena.

We should strengthen his hands if the many unresolved problems are to be solved to the satisfaction of all our peoples and continue to build a united Sri Lanka where we could live in peace, harmony, equality, and dignity.