April 2, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion |
By Rifai Naleemi -
It is imperative to examine and gauge the true nature of Muslim
peoples’ patriotism to mother Lanka. Particularly, this is a timely
needed subject in the context of prevailing current debates about Muslim
people in Sri Lanka. Muslim population in Sri Lanka according to the
recent census constitutes 9. 2% and do they really have loyalty and
allegiance to this land? Do they love this land as the majority people
of the land do? Or do they have loyalty to another land in the world
map?
Do they belong to Saudi or Pakistan or do they belong to somewhere else. A strange mystery has been created in the mind of some people that minority people do not belong to this Island and it has been debated by some section of people at least in utter arrogant to say that this country belongs only to the majority people alone and others are just visitors or unwanted guests. Does such political rhetoric help any one in Sri Lanka? What a wrong perception is this? What evil perception is this? Who is going to benefit from this type of propaganda? I shall examine some of these questions in this article.
Do they belong to Saudi or Pakistan or do they belong to somewhere else. A strange mystery has been created in the mind of some people that minority people do not belong to this Island and it has been debated by some section of people at least in utter arrogant to say that this country belongs only to the majority people alone and others are just visitors or unwanted guests. Does such political rhetoric help any one in Sri Lanka? What a wrong perception is this? What evil perception is this? Who is going to benefit from this type of propaganda? I shall examine some of these questions in this article.
Sri Lankan Muslim people are not new arrivals to the Island rather
they have been living more than 1000 years and it is historically
documented that Arab traders settled in this Island in pre-colonial
periods. During the Silk route trade between Middle East and South
Asian countries Arab people used Sri Lanka as one of their trading hubs.
Since these periods of history Muslim people have been living in this
Island generation by generations. The bulk of Sri Lankan Muslim
population is a mixture of different ethno-linguistic and cultural
groups. The entire Muslim population of Sri Lanka Muslim people
constitutes of Arab, Indian, Afghanistani, North/south Indian, Malay and
Indigenous Srilankan People. There is no doubt that many
inter-marriages took place with other communities and still some Muslim
families have families of names/house names of Singhalese people.
Thus, historical origin, antiquity and history of Sri Lankan Muslims
people could be traced from early period of Sri Lankan history. It is
not my objective here to trace historical origin of Sri Lankan Muslim
people rather it is my objective here to examine the true nature of
Muslim loyalty to Sri Lanka and to gauge if any Muslim people have done
any treason to Mother Lanka since ancient time up to now.
The meaning of loyalty in Islam
Before we examine this issue we would like to shed some light on the
meaning of loyalty and allegiance in Islam: What is the doctrine of
loyalty in Islam? Does Islam accept any sense of nationalism or loyalty
to any piece of land/country/tribe or ethnic groups or clans? In fact,
Islam demands from Muslim people to have full faith, allegiance and
loyalty only to God alone not for nay temporal / earthly matters of
these types. Muslim people believe that very thing in this universe
belong to God and we people too belong to him alone and our full loyalty
should be to Him alone. Theologically speaking this is the true loyalty
and it is the eternal and real loyalty. In this sense, languages,
castes, tribes, colour and country all are temporary and materialistic
realities ant these are confined to this world alone.
In a recent survey in England among Muslim people a question was
asked: Are you a Muslim or British first? More than 90% of Muslim people
said that we are Muslims first and foremost then we are British born
people. This is a theological question for any Muslim and unfortunately
the interviewer did not have deeper understanding of Islamic theology
and put this question to Muslim people simply from western political and
social perspectives to gauge the level of Muslim peoples’ loyalty to
Great Britain. It would not be theologically and religiously fitting to
say that our loyalty belongs to any land on earth rather our true
loyalty should be only to God alone: people in Saudi do not say that
our loyalty belong to Saudi land. People Pakistan do not say that our
eternal loyalty belongs to their land or tribe or language rather Muslim
people believe that we belong to Allah and we return to Him:
Islamic communities are not formed or originated on the basis of
language, colour, race, ethnicity, tribe, lands or nationalism of any
particular geographical or ethnical enclaves. You do not choose your
colour, you do not choose your language or you do not choose your place
of birth or you do not choose your race: These are bestowed upon you by
God beyond your control and you have no choice on these sociological
issues. In Islam nationalism, patriotism to any particular piece of land
or ethnicity or language does not become bedrock of Islamic ideology or
Islamic doctrines. On this Islam goes beyond all worldly and physical
considerations and drives its ideology from God alone. The Holy Quran
depicts the true believers of international Muslim communities are one Ummah:
This description is beyond all languages, ethnicity, nationality, and
geographical enclaves and limitations. In this sense any one embraces
faith of Islam from any part of world or nay class of people or any
linguistic groups becomes an integral part of wider Muslim ummah: It is
faith that makes bond and brotherly relationship between Muslim people:
In this any Muslim living in Non-Muslim government also becomes part
and parcel of International Muslim community.
Then people might ask us. Do not you have any affection/ love to
your own country? Do not you love for the country of your birth? Do not
you have any sense of patriotism to your mother land? Does Islam teach
to show love and affection to the lands where Muslim people are born
and brought up? It is a natural instinct of people to be attached to
places of their birth, families, villages and countries of origin. I
have been living in the UK for more two decades now and yet, my
nostalgia always goes back to my country and my village where I was born
and brought up. It is a common human feeling for all people. Islam goes
along with this natural sentiment and its respects this human instinct
and indeed, it does encourage having patriotic national feeling of your
own village/ town/district and country: There is no harm in having
such feeling as long as such patriotism does not lead into prejudice,
injustice and discrimination.
Does this notion of Islamic ummah deem to be detrimental to our love
and affection to our mother land or to abide law and order in the
countries we live in. No, not at all. Islam instructs us to love our
mother lands: It demands us to abide with laws and orders of our native
places. Today, a large percentage of Muslim people migrate from Muslim
countries into Non-Muslim countries in the Western European nations and
when they get citizenship in these countries very often they will be
asked to take oath sometime giving affirmation that they would abide
with laws of the country: Such undertaking does not contrast Islamic
teaching of loyalty and allegiance to Islamic faiths: This oath is
between you and that government that guarantee you protection and return
you laws and order in this land: This an agreement and Islam instructs
to honour any agreement.
Islam indeed, recognises and acknowledges patriotism of each persons:
Indeed Allah created mankind into different groups and nations: so that
we human beings know each other, understand each other, and appreciate
one another, It is the beauty of divine design. There is no harm in
having affection towards one’s language and tribes and yet we should not
have mania and craziness about our language to extent to look down all
other tribes and language: We should not have superiority complex
because of our language or tribe. That is wrong and Islam condemns such
feeling. Yet, having nationalistic feeling is not wrong with these
conditions.
Prophetic examples on patriotism towards native people:
Do we have any prophetic model or examples to justify patriotism in
Islam? Yes, of course the prophet himself had some sentimental
patriotic feeling towards his place of birth: It is well known saying of
the prophet that prophet said on the eve of his migration from Makka to
Madina: looking at the soil of Makka prophet said that “ you are the
beloved place for me. If the people of Makka had not chase me out I
would not have left you”. This is natural feeling of every one towards
his own place of birth. Even the companions when they migrated to Mania
they had nostalgia feeling about their life in Makka and they wished
that they come back to their native place one day:
Moreover, when different people come to see the prophet he used asked
them the names of their tribe in reorganization of their tribes: We
know well that prophet once praised Salman al-Farisi tracing his Persian
origin. All our Muslim scholars are nick named with their tribal or
village names: al-Bukhari hails from a place called al-bukhara, al- Qurtubi from Qurtuba, and Imam al-Shatibi from Shatiba.
Thousands of Imams like these imams related the village affiliations to
their names to show their patriotism and identity? This is an Islamic
tradition to attribute our Islamic scholars into their places of birth:
This has been for many centuries that this shows that they had some
sentimental patriotism towards their places of birth and nothing wrong
in that. This helps us to trace their historical origin and identity.
Muslim patriotism during the colonial periods:
Muslim lands were occupied for more than five hundreds years by
different colonial powers such as French, Italian, Dutch/Portuguese and
English. During these periods Islamic scholars engaged in freedom
struggle and patriotic speeches and poems were made in this freedom
struggle: from Jamal-al-Din Afghanis to Imam Hassan Al-Banna all Muslim
intellectuals and scholars motivated people to enhance nationalistic
feeling and there is nothing wrong in that as along as such feeling does
not undermine universal brotherhood, justice and equality of humanity:
In India sub-continent many Muslim sacrificed their lives for the
freedom of Indian lands and like that in many Muslim land people laid
down their lives to free their lands from occupation;
Our pioneers in Sri Lanka fully participated in the freedom struggle
of Sri Lanka. Though we in Sri Lanka did not make any political or
military struggle to free the Island from British and yet, during the
colonial periods many Muslims people did fight along side Sri Lankan
kings to safeguard it form invasions of the Dutch and Portuguese.
Even during the independence time Muslim people unanimously voted
with Singhalese members to secure independence of Sri Lanka from British
Empire. ¾ majorities was required by Soulbury commission to secure Sri
Lankan Independence and Tamil congress led by Ponnampalam did his best
to get support of Muslim members to get his own Tamil Elem then, but
People members unanimously supported Senanayake
and he managed to secure 51 votes. This was a historical turning point
in Sri Lanka history and had Muslim members gone with Mr Ponnampalam the
history of Sri Lanka would have been different today: British would
have created Tamil Elem long time ago or they would have created another
Kashmir in Sri Lanka long time ago yet, it is regrettable that some
Singhalese people are becoming seemingly ungrateful to all service and
sacrifices Muslims made for the integrity of this Island.
Even throughout the pre-independence history our leaders made many
contributions and they had shown their patriotism to the nation: they
never made any conspiracy to divine this country and they never
collaborated with any one to divine this Island and they never made any
treason in Sri Lanka: It has been Muslim leadership’s dream to develop
and enhance this Island not merely on communal line rather in a national
line: from DR TB Jaya
to modern time Muslim political leaders we have had a dream in this
Island of Sri Lanka: that dream to contribute to the progress and
development of this Island as Sri Lankan with due recognition to
diversity of culture and language and religions.
What happened in Sri Lankan history since independence was that we
have failed to create any Sri Lankan Identity as Sri Lankan people
collectively: Each community begun to think in its on communal line:
Tamils feel that Singhalese are trying to dominate them and Singhalese
feel that their mere existence is threaten by the separatism and
diversities of cultures and religions. All other minorities begun feel
that their mere existence is threatened by the rapid development of Buddhist extremism.
It is not myth to say that in recent years a growing trend of
anti-Christian and Muslim drift has been orchestrated by some extreme
elements without any proper geopolitical knowledge and without
foreseeing any dire consequence of such extreme trends:
Countries like India,Malaysia, and Singapore with its all diverse
cultures, ethnicities and religious managed to maintain their own
national identity: Malaysian whether is Buddhist, or Hindi or Muslim
feel proud to say that he or she is a Malaysian. We do not need to tell
you about Indian nationalistic feeling: We have not seen any nations so
proud about their nationality like Indians: They are so proud about
their nationalism or nationality: It may be Indians from North or South
or from West or East: it may be Muslim or Hindu or people of other
religions in India. All are proud to be Indians: yet, we in this small
Island do not have that sort of national identity or nationalistic
feeling between us: Do not we see that When Indians play Cricket with
Pakistan Indian Muslims whole heartedly support Indian team rather than
Pakistan team and do not we see that a large proportion of Indian Muslim
army officials work in the Indian army to protect the sovereignty and
integrity of India? Otherwise, how could this huge country with hundred
of ethnic groups hold its grip on the power.
India was ruled by Muslims for more than 700 years and Muslim people
have had all their cultural and religious monuments in India. Thaj Mahal was build in the name of Mumthaj
by then Muslim ruler. Do you see that any Indian government tries to
destroy this historical monument simply because it comes from Muslim
history? Why do not have such broader and wider concept of national
identity in Sri Lanka? Why do we still think in confined communal line
in Sri Lanka? We have failed to celebrate the beauty of our diverse
culture, languages and religions: It is generally believed that
Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity are world major religions.
People in Sri Lanka are practicing these four religions and this gives
more beauty to our nation and yet, we have greatly failed to appreciate
such diversity.
To be continued..
Who gave muslims weapons to protect them from LTTE..? the govt of Sri lanka. Can you imagine this happening in any muslim country , giving weapons to minorities so taht they can protect themselves....then why ,what on earth prompted muslims to kill buddhist policeman in Puttalam (Remember he begged them to leave him alone and that his wife is pregnant ).The whole world knows that muslims when they are majority in a region act in very cruel ways . You may get paradise if you become a martyr for your religion...but buddhists believe in living on earth .They don't believe in false paradises...and hooris waiting to serve people or virgins in paradise.A somali or afghan ,who is living in a hell can dream about paradise,But japanese or taiwanese who are living on earth with the comforts of paradise need not worry about it,If God is so powerful then why is that saudis have to buy even the basic necessities from other non muslim countries,Oil was discovered by British in arabian peninsula...if that hadn't happened Arabs would still be living on camelback...may be british KUFFARS did them a favor...:)
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