Muslims and their insular mindset

2016-02-26

Ask even an educated Sri Lankan Muslim woman in a black Abaya about Wahabism or Salafism. Most probably she would know nothing.

Following reports that some 36 Sri Lankans had travelled to Syria out of whom some had joined the dreaded Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); Fears had been expressed that many more Sri Lankans might team up with the terror group, that had vowed to bring several countries under its rule which they call Khilafath.

However, with the way some journalists and certain anti-Muslim groups in Sri Lanka had tried to blow up the issue, it seems that under the guise of expressing fear, they are in fact, jubilant in finding an issue that can be used as a wedge between the Muslims and other communities, especially the majority Sinhalese in the country. 

They would be happier than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the ISIS if another batch from Sri Lanka left the shores to join the Khilafath struggle, the ruthlessness of which is in fact a slur on Islam. 

There seem to be genuine concerns as well, such as last week’s “open letter” to the Sri Lankan Muslims written by Dr. Ranga Kalansuriya and published in the .

The intermittent and isolated clashes between various Sri Lankan Muslim groups over religious issues and the Muslim women’s garments such as the Abaya (A robe-like dress), Burqa (Face veil) and Niqab (Face veil without covering the eyes) that have been spread during the past three decades are the main concerns and signs of possible break out of “Islamic terrorism” in Sri Lanka for many, who had expressed fear genuinely as well as imaginatively.

For instance, an article carried in a website recently had stated that “Islamic Fundamentalism” had crept into a leading Muslim Girls’ School in Colombo and that it was evident with many girls in the school wearing the face veil.                      

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