Malevolent Journalism, Benign Cardinal & Beleaguered Muslims 

By Ameer Ali –DECEMBER 6, 2020

Dr. Ameer Ali

“Sharia Law Played Major Part – Cardinal”, was the sensational and mischievous headline of a report by a columnist, that appeared in Ceylon Today on 4 December 2020. Given the prevailing atmosphere of post-2009 Islamophobia that seems to grow unabated, a headline like this and words put into the mouth of a benign and erudite Catholic Archbishop is typical of malevolent journalism. May we take the liberty to reformulate that headline into a question and ask the Cardinal or the columnist, “Sharia Law Played Major Part in What”? 

The headline was certainly meant to provoke angry reaction from the less discerning, and the establishment thrives on such mischievous journalism, because it diverts peoples’ attention away from the more crucial issues relating to the economy, the pandemic and oppressive rules, which affect their life and livelihood directly. The columnist went on to add that the Archbishop insisted, “Muslims may consider Sharia Law important, but that does not mean it could be interpreted or introduced as the law of the country and forced on other communities or used to intimidate and influence other communities”. These were not the words of the prelate but of the columnist, and it is also doubtful whether those aggressive sentiments were actually expressed by the Catholic Archbishop. At a time when the entire Muslim community is facing an existential crisis from Sinhala-Buddhist ethno-nationalism, no responsible religious leader would like adding fuel to the fire by such provocative remarks. That reporting was intentionally malicious and malevolent. 

However, what is the relevance of sharia to what happened on that fateful Easter Sunday in 2019, if that was the chief concern of the Cardinal? Before answering this question, the confusion surrounding the term sharia needs to be cleared. This word sharia occurs in the Quran only once, and that too not in a legal but ethical sense, meaning, the path to follow. The literal meaning of that Arabic word is to take the horse to water. Therefore, the term sharia law was an invention by medieval Muslim jurists, who were all men, to sanctify humanly derived rules and regulations called fiqh, which no doubt was derived from principles embedded originally in the holy text, the Quran and the Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad. There were also other supplementary sources or mechanisms in deriving those laws. The important point is that these man-made laws were written by Muslims for the Muslims and when Muslims were rulers. Today, almost over 350 million or one-fifth of world Muslims are living as minorities in non-Muslim countries, and they are governed by laws of the country of docile, except in personal and religious matters. No Muslim ever imposed on any non-Muslim any of the religious norms and rules governing his or her personal life, such as birth, marriage and death. It should also be remembered that to obey and follow the laws of the land in which Muslims live is part of sharia or the right path.

Sri Lankan Muslims were living like this for more than a millennium without complaint from anybody. How then did this hoo-ha about sharia Laws originate? It originated from four sources. First was ACJU’s halal certification program. This was a program to charge fee from manufacturers and businessmen exporting food products to Muslim countries. Halal certification was adopted internationally for meat products, because importers from the Middle East demanded it. Exporters had no choice but to comply. Sri Lanka is neither a meat exporter nor an exporter of dairy products. Yet, ACJU insisted on halal certification for other food product exports, because it saw in it a lucrative source of revenue. This naturally put up the cost of exporters and reduced their profit. Not only that, even domestic consumers were made to pay a higher price for halal certified products.  

Muslims of this country were eating halal food for centuries without anyone certifying it and even non-Muslims were eating halal meat without any complaint. ACJU’s greed and lack of foresight created a problem, and to anti-certification protestors sharia law became a convenient slogan to target their attack on ACJU. 

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