The book that asserts that Muslims are ‘a part’ of Sri Lanka and not apart

The book ‘We are part not apart’ authored by Rauf Hakeem and published by Vijitha Yapa, is an attempt to show Sri Lanka that the Muslim community of this country is an intrinsic part of the island’s social fabric and not some outside isolated segment of population. 

In this widely researched book, he is seen as appealing to both the Muslims and the Sinhalese to look with an open mind at the different perspectives and circumstances that have shifted or changed over the years with regard to the view of the religion of Islam.

In the first chapter ‘Desire for peace or a discontented destiny’ he begins by quoting Prophet Mohammed as follows; ‘He is not a believer, whose neighbour is not secure against injury and ill treatment at his hands.”

This saying becomes all the more relevant following the horrendous Easter Sunday bombing by eight Sri Lankan Muslims, purportedly in the name of Islam but violating the crux of that faith which as Hakeem shows is peace. However, in this context, where those attacked were Sri Lankan Christians (who have been never known to be involved in anti-Muslim rhetoric) it would have been perhaps pertinent for Hakeem to go more into detail on Sri Lankan Muslim-Christian relations of the past. Also pertinent could have been the fact that the Catholics/Christians of Sri Lanka did not retaliate after the Easter attacks and how this could be a stepping stone to strengthen the Christian-Muslim relations within the country.

We now realise that indeed our community has harboured extremist elements that actually produced some terrorists amidst us, who have gone unchecked. Is it the experience of youth, growing amidst the systemic violence of the 30-year war and the violence thereafter specifically targeting Muslim communities at regular intervals, that produced such ruthless terrorists or were they carrying out some other agenda? This question baffles me to date

It is also possible that the author will write some time later how attitudes that create such barbaric acts could be nipped by vigilantes within the Muslim community and those who preach supporting such crimes denounced publicly as heretics the moment they start spouting such poison. The book could possibly merit a sequel on these lines, especially because as he mentions in chapter one, the concept of peace is an essential core in Islam.

Rauf Hakeem writes as follows; “A religion of peace” was the name given to our early Islamic school textbooks in Sri Lanka. This peace is our very conscious state of mind and body – a peaceful being. 

He focuses on incidents of hate crimes against Muslims and on incidents of hate that go unchallenged and also on the insularity and isolation of Muslims. 

“The Muslims and others must understand that all communities must strive in solidarity towards a shared destiny or perish in isolation,” he states. 

The second chapter of the book is titled ‘Demystifying perceived threats: Muslim population and Sinhala fears’ and tries to analyse the Sinhala fear that Muslims will demographically overrun their community. 

There is possibly more room for further dispassionate questioning as to why such animosity is there and this would necessitate some very detailed uncomfortable analysis in the Lankan context including aspects of social psychology, irrespective of ethnicity/religion. Those such as Prof. Ameer Ali have tried to include this difficult task in his many writings to the media in the past few years. 

What should be emphasised is that Hakeem does do justice to a large segment of the argument and he places his analysis within the global sphere and the global phenomena of allegations and fears of the rising Muslim population. 

His intention he points out is to explain local and global trends as a means of explaining the ‘current reality of chaos and uncertainty in contrast to the harmony and tranquillity of a bygone era’.

“Today our faith in the non-Muslim mind is intertwined with Arab wealth, internecine Arab conflicts and the resurgence of the primitive Wahabi Salafist cult.”

“The global literature and the inherent mode of thinking of the majority community today is towards ‘othering’ communities that are not your own and framing them in racial or religious terms. Christianity being the religion of the of the world’s largest population, Islam is being projected as a global competitor that ought to be named, shamed and crushed,’ he notes. However, to look at this objectively one can possibly compare the leadership positions given to Muslims in the West and the rigid stance on ‘others’ taken by most of the Middle Eastern countries. As Deshabandu Jezima Ismail commented to this writer in a post-Easter Sunday interview, Sri Lankan Muslims enjoy the freedom of having the Azaan (the public call to prayer, five times a day beginning early morning) while such a public pronouncement of religion would not be possible for Buddhists or other non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries.  With regard to local fears of population growth of Muslims Hakeem rejects these fears using demographical projections and with the final conclusion, for local as well as global that the Muslim population is not the only one growing compared to numbers of other religions and communities and that such a growth is not a uniform phenomenon across the globe. 

In the local context Prof. Lakshman Dassanayake’s research paper titled ‘Recent Fertility Dynamics in Sri Lanka’, published in the Sri Lanka Journal of Population Studies in 2016 and his presentation to the National Planning Department in the same year on the same topic is referred to, showing that there is a tendency to misread fluctuations of fertility rate in the country. 

Hakeem quotes Prof. Dissanayake’s policy brief ‘Making the Connection; Population Dynamics and Development in Sri Lanka’ that showed that the carrying capacity of the Sri Lankan population would be about 25 million and that hence the total population would be 25 million during the second half of the century. 

The goes on to dissect other allegations such as unethical conversions and the wandha pethi syndrome and also the bias on women’s dress code. 

Hakeem should be given credit for the use of logical reasoning in dissecting many of these social fears. His frank post 2019 Easter Sunday assertion as follows shows that he is ready to ask soul searching questions from his community. 

“We now realise that indeed our community has harboured extremist elements that actually produced some terrorists amidst us, who have gone unchecked. Is it the experience of youth, growing amidst the systemic violence of the 30-year war and the violence thereafter specifically targeting Muslim communities at regular intervals, that produced such ruthless terrorists or were they carrying out some other agenda? This question baffles me to date,” Hakeen writes. What should be reiterated in this review is that Hakeem and other Muslim as well as non-Muslim leaders/writers need to take this discourse forward.

What is needed right now alongside the printing of such books is to create the 

avenues for open discussions using the content of such books so as to soften rigid ideologies enabling middle ground to be reached. This will merit all the communities of Sri Lanka in general and the country in particular especially as it moves forward in this COVID-19 phase of the world. Such writings and discourses for the genuine purpose of questioning, understanding, peace and stability is the need of the hour. 

The Harmony page will continue in one more instalment to review this book further alongside relevant interviews but in conclusion so far what could be said is that empathy which is vital to both Islam, Buddhism and Christianity needs to be used to the maximum when we understand people’s fears and conflicts. On the subject of Sinhala-Muslim relations Hakeem has achieved this to an extent and it is likely that there will be more writings by him detailing this out more and possibly this will inspire Sinhalese writers to do the same. While speaking of Sinhala Buddhist vs Muslim relations it is also important to look at Sinhala Christian vs Muslim relations in this country, given that the victims of the Easter attacks were Christians. (SV)