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Sri Lanka grapples with Islamic
threat
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - While the emergence of armed
Islamic groups in Sri Lanka's explosive Eastern
province as well as increasing clashes between
moderate and hardline Muslims are cause for
serious concern, the raising specter of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorism there is just as
worrying.
For several years, reports from
the violence-torn, ethnically diverse Eastern
province have drawn attention to the emergence of
armed Muslim groups. Names such as Osama Group,
the Muttur Jetty Group and the Knox Group have
often figured into reports in the media. Analysts
this correspondent spoke to in Colombo recently
admitted to hearing about Islamic militias active
in the East but not knowing much about them.
While "money from the Middle East" is
believed to be funding the Muslim militias in Sri
Lanka's Eastern province, it is local concerns -
fear of anti-Muslim violence by the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and apprehension that
the Sri Lankan government would not address Muslim
grievances - that appear to be encouraging Muslims
to take up arms. The easy availability of guns in
this strife-torn province has facilitated the
emergence of armed militias among Muslims.
During the 1980s, it was the Sri Lankan
government of the time - specifically the Special
Task Force - that provided Muslims with weapons,
ostensibly so they could protect themselves
against Tamil militant groups. By arming Muslims,
sections in the Lankan government were also hoping
to deepen the divide between the Tamils and the
Muslims in the Eastern province. When the LTTE
unleashed violence against Muslims from 1990
onwards, many Muslim lads picked up weapons, if
only to protect their homes and villages from
Tiger terror.
The ethnic conflict in Sri
Lanka is often depicted as one between the
island's Sinhalese and Tamils. The Muslim
dimension of the conflict is often ignored. Most
Sinhalese are Buddhists while most Tamils are
Hindus, although there are a sizeable number of
Tamil Christians as well. Unlike the island's
Buddhists, Christians or Hindus, whose identity
stems from the language that they speak, religion
determines the identity of Sri Lanka's Muslims.
The Muslims speak Tamil in Tamil-dominated areas
and Sinhalese on the rest of the island.
The demographic complexity of the Eastern
province - once predominantly Tamil, it is today a
volatile mix of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim
populations - makes it a veritable ethnic
tinderbox. It is the East that witnessed the worst
of the two-decades-long civil war. It was here
that the bloodiest inter-ethnic killings and
internecine fighting took place. It is here that
the ceasefire today is the most fragile. And it is
the East that is expected to explode first if the
current ceasefire collapses. It is in this context
that the reported proliferation of armed Muslim
militias assumes importance. Unlike in the past,
when Muslims were by and large at the receiving
end of violent attacks by government forces and
Tiger militants, this time the Muslim militias can
be expected to unleash violence and fight back.
Armed Muslim groups have existed for
several years in the East. What has heightened
concern about them today is that they are being
equated with jihadi groups. The post-September 11,
2001, paranoia with all things Muslim has resulted
in many Sri Lankans and others equating the
visible assertion of Muslim identity - more women
wear the burqa and the hijab today
than they did in the past, especially in the East
but also in cities like the capital Colombo - with
growing Islamic fundamentalism.
There is a
visible assertion of orthodox Islamists within the
Muslim community. Radical Muslims are said to have
attacked moderate Muslims for engaging in
"un-Islamic activity", such as gambling, drinking
and so on. They have attacked Muslims belonging to
more liberal and syncretic sects. In October last
year, followers of Sufi Islam in the town of
Kattankudy near Batticaloa in the Eastern province
were attacked and their mosque demolished by mobs
incited by orthodox Wahhabi clerics trained in
Saudi Arabia. It was even reported that hundreds
of Sufi Muslims were forcibly converted to the
orthodox faith.
But this assertion of
orthodoxy is only in a few pockets. It is not
widespread. Reports of the growing threat of
Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in the East are
not just a flawed reading of the current
situation, but also they are dangerous. Analysts
are warning that the specter of Islamic extremism
could be used by the LTTE to convince countries
such as India and the United States, which have
branded it as terrorist and are intensely worried
about radical Islamists, that the Tigers could
serve as an important buffer against the rise of
radical Islamist groups in the East.
Tisarane Gunasekara, writing in the Asian
Tribune, argues: "If it can be shown that armed
Islamic fundamentalists exist and are becoming
stronger in the East, then it will be easy to
divert the attention of the global and the
regional superpowers away from the Tigers to this
new threat. In fact, in such a context the LTTE
might even be able to persuade one or both
countries to accept its presence as a necessary
buffer against the growing 'Islamic threat' and
perhaps even to become an ally in the struggle
against this new threat."
There are people
who are willing to buy the argument of the immense
threat currently posed by Islamic fundamentalism
in Sri Lanka. In April, Steen Joergensen, the Sri
Lanka Monitoring Mission chief for the Batticaloa
district, expressed his concern over growing
religious extremism among Muslims. "I do not think
it is a healthy sign if Muslims here practice
their religion as extremists do," Joergensen told
the Pakistani daily Dawn. "There are indications
that Muslims in the region are incited with
extremists views. I have seen a clear increase in
the number of completely covered women. A large
number of people are sent to Saudi Arabia to study
the Koran in the orthodox way."
Incidentally, Joergensen hasn't spoken up
about the acquisition of arms by the LTTE, its
conscription of children, its killing of political
opponents and so on, even though these are
violations of the 2002 ceasefire agreement. But
the assertion of Muslim identity is seen as a
worrying threat.
The assertion of Islamic
fundamentalism in the East and the emergence of
armed Muslim militias there is also worrying.
However, the problem is not as serious as it is
being made out. The militias are still small -
most of them have about a dozen men. And while
they might spew jihadi rhetoric occasionally and
have names linking themselves to al-Qaeda, they
appear to be driven more by local concerns -
protecting themselves and their people against the
LTTE - rather than by global visions of jihad.
Neither do they seem keen to overthrow the Sri
Lankan state.
At the same time, the threat
posed by these militias to the security situation
in the East could turn problematic in the future.
And that would become difficult to tackle if the
Islamic fundamentalism that is visible in pockets
today grips the community, providing the militias
the support they need to thrive.
To nip in
the bud the long-term threat posed by radical
Islamic groups it is essential that Sri Lanka
tackles the clear and present danger posed by the
LTTE's campaign to silence the claims of Muslims
and of Tamils who don't agree with its methods.
Successive Sri Lankan governments have ignored the
claims of Muslims in order to appease the LTTE.
This has had the effect of deepening Muslim
alienation and anger.
The most effective
buffer against the proliferation of radical
Islamic groups in Sri Lanka's east would be a
provision of institutional guarantees protecting
the security and rights of Muslims. Believing that
the LTTE could be an effective buffer against
Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is naive and
foolish. The LTTE cannot provide the solution when
it is part of the problem.
Sudha
Ramachandran is an independent
journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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