By Ameer Ali –
Dr. Ameer Ali
At a time when an entire community is unjustly called upon to account for the barbarism of a few lunatics, and, because of that, when an organised mob, backed by sections of the media, saffron-clad firebrands, racist law enforcers and power-hungry politicos, has taken upon itself to inflict collective punishment on that community, by desecrating, vandalising, burning and looting Muslim mosques, madrasas, homes and businesses, it is important to understand the fundamental issues that underlie the anti-Muslim wave that started long before the Easter infamy. Before doing that however, it is now becoming increasingly clear that it was the incompetency of men at the top to take prompt and preventive action on information received from multiple sources, including from Muslims, which led to the Easter carnage and consequent mayhem. These men stand condemned before the public. Sooner they leave the scene better for the nation.
The following discussion, is a long neglected subject that now requires serious consideration in the interest of Muslims’ future and national harmony in Sri Lanka.
Theoretical Backdrop
With the explosive entry of ISIS onto the world stage in 2013, and with its leader Abubucker Al-Baghdadi’s declaration of a caliphate, inviting all Muslims to migrate to his Utopian earthly paradise in which peace and prosperity was said to prevail, an old issue between Islamic faith and Muslim belonging re-emerged with disturbing consequences, especially to minority Muslims living in non-Muslim polities. Theologically and doctrinally, all followers of Islam belong to one transnational super community, the Muslim umma, a nation defined in terms of people and not territory. Since the concept of a nation-state was alien to Islamic theory and practice, Muslims, from the time of Prophet Muhammad, always had their allegiance to the community of believers and to the caliph who ruled over them. At least in three instances the Quran insists that “All Believers are one Brotherhood” (21:92, 23:52 and 49:10), and Prophet Muhammad in his farewell sermon (there are several version s of this sermon) reinforced that idea when he said that, “know for certain that every Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, and that all Muslims are Brethren. No Arab is superior to another Arab, nor a white over black”. Thus, doctrinally to a Muslim, belonging to the transnational umma takes precedence over belonging to a territorially defined nation.
Building upon this Quranic edifice, medieval Muslim theologians viewed the world through a binary, dharul Islam (abode of peace) and dharul harb (abode of strife and conflict). What this binary meant in practice was a division of the world into one part ruled by Muslims and another yet to be conquered and brought under Muslim rule. The theologians went a step further to encourage Muslims living in dharul harb migrate to dharul Islam, at least temporarily until the latter falls under Muslim rule. Later on when migration became difficult under territorially defined and sovereign nation-states, that binary became trinary with the inclusion of dharul sulh or dharul amana (abode where Muslims are allowed to live in peace and practice their faith). Sri Lanka falls under this last category.
However, these divisions have become largely irrelevant today, although after September 2001, as Akbar Ahmed noted, “Muslims everywhere felt under siege. Nowhere was safe… Violence was routine. The entire world had become dar al-harb” (Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam Under Siege, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2003, p. 17). Not only the binary and trinary, even the transnational umma lost its relevance and substance in the context of Muslim societies themselves becoming nation-states following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. Thenceforth it was the spirit of secular nationalism and nation-states (watan) rather than that of a faith-based umma that determined the actions of governments and leaders in Muslim majority countries. Muslim minorities in classical dharul harb and dharul sulh or dharul amanah were left to fend themselves in the new secular environment.
It was this abandonment of the faith based umma in preference to the secular nation-state system designed by the West that was challenged by ISIS, and when it tweeted the end of Sykes-Picot agreement and declared a caliphate its message to the Muslim world was clear. The caliphate signified the reunification of a Muslim’s faith (iman) and his/her belonging. ISIS caliphate became a magnet overnight pulling towards it thousands of Muslim young men and women who felt disgruntled and disgusted at the plight of Muslim nations and an umma trapped under the ruling world order. Following the example of the Prophet of Islam these youngsters embarked on a hijra (migration) to live in ISIS caliphate. To all Muslims in general and to those living as minorities in particular, belief and belonging posed a serious dilemma.
Sri Lankan Scene
Since their arrival in the 8th century as traders, pilgrims, mystics and sailors, Muslims adopted Sri Lanka their permanent abode. The hospitality, tolerance and generosity extended to this new community by the ancient Buddhist monarchs was unparalleled in the history of Asia. Lorna Dewaraja’s meticulous study of “The Muslims of Sri Lanka: One thousand years of Ethnic Harmony 900-1915” tells only part of this happy and exemplary blending of two communities and two civilizations, Islam and Buddhism. The rest of the story is yet to be written. Even four centuries and more of colonial rule failed to disrupt that historic blend. If at all there was one instance in the entire history of pre-independence Sri Lanka when believing and belonging clashed for Muslims that was in 1915, when Buddhist nationalists targeted their attack at the exploitative economic and commercial practices of Indian Muslims or Coast Moors, who were a 19th century addition to the population. During the riots that ensued the indigenised Muslims demonstrated sympathy towards their foreign brethren in the spirit of the umma. Buddhist anger eventually turned against them too. Yet, that bitter episode was soon forgotten, old status quo quickly returned and local Muslims remained rooted in Sri Lanka in every sense of that term. To them believing and belonging posed no dilemma at all, and their syncretic Islam carried a Sri Lankan image. After independence however, there entered certain religious and cultural forces from outside that drew a wedge between believing and belonging, and the umma identity gradually tended to overshadow the identity of watan.
Tabligh Jamaat (TJ)
The advent of TJ in the mid-1950s marked a departure from the syncretic Islam that was practiced in Sri Lanka for centuries. (On the origin and philosophy of TJ, see, Ameer Ali, “Tabligh Jama’at and Hizbul Tahrir: Divergent Paths to Convergent Goals” in Dialogue and Alliance, vol.20, no.2, 2006, pp. 51-66). TJ is a door-knocking and peaceful Muslim missionary movement that invites Muslims to “enjoin good and forbid evil”, as commanded by the Quran. It was a mission to convert not non-Muslims to Islam but rather nominal Muslims to practicing Muslims, by constantly reminding them and preaching to them to observe the obligatory ‘Five Pillars’ of Islam, devote time regularly to read the Quran (even if one didn’t understand its meaning) and Hadiths (sayings and practices) of the Prophet, follow the Prophet’s life as the exemplary model, and more importantly, to prepare oneself to succeed in the Hereafter. “One of the constant themes that comes out in the sermons and lectures of TJ leaders is the impermanency and fleeting nature of this life and the need to prepare oneself to life in the Hereafter… The leaders of TJ profess to preach a philosophy of non-detachment to this world while being noncommittal to it… However, the fine line between detachment and commitment is not always understood by the followers … and never spelled out clearly in the teachings of TJ” (Ameer Ali, ibid.). This has led to a total indifference towards and even avoidance of worldly matters by Tabligh devotees. “Going out on Tabligh” or going on gusht for days, weeks and even months has resulted in dereliction of duties by professionals, neglect of studies by students, abandonment of family-care by husbands and breadwinners, and as a Pakistani cricket coach once noted, even demoralisation of team-spirit in sports.
Because the outlook of a Tabligh member is focussed more towards the Hereafter than this world the member’s commitment to the country in which he lives and its problems is marginal at best and zero at worst. Perhaps, it was this detachment that provoked Late Colvin R. De Silva, the LSSP minister in the 1970-77 government, to describe Muslim attachment to Sri Lanka as one between a cow and the grass. In TJ’s philosophy, a Muslim believes in Islam and belongs to the Prophet’s umma, a super community. This transnational attachment explains why Muslims feel strongly about sufferings of fellow Muslims in every part of the world. Two journalists, John Cooley (Unholy Wars, London: Pluto Press, 2000) and Ziauddin Sardar (“Watch this grass-roots group carefully”, New Statesman, 4 September 2006) in two different contexts have shown how TJ had become a recruiting ground for jihadists. Although TJ insists on spiritual jihad to purify one’s self, it does not take much convincing for a TJ devotee to take the next step to turn it into a political mission.
TJ concentrated mainly in preaching to the men rather than women. Therefore, it had an impact on the external appearance of Muslim males, many of whom started wearing the long Indian cotton shirt or sherwani with sarong and a white cap or turban. The fez, to which the Muslim elite s fought a court battle and won in the early decades of 20th century, and the black cap went out of fashion after TJ’s influence. Some men of TJ even carried a kettle with water for ablution and a miswak stick to brush the teeth. (Use of miswak is a Saudi custom and is said to have been followed by the Prophet at a time when modern tooth paste and brush were not invented). Because of regular prostrations, the foreheads of Muslims also began showing zabeebas or dark spots prominently. By the end of 1970s Sri Lanka’s fame for TJ activities had become almost world famous and Muslim men had begun to show their religious identity more elaborately.
1980s and the Arab Influence
The 1980s marked a milestone in the history of the Muslim world. On the one hand, part of the Muslim Arab sector had been transformed into a financial behemoth because of the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Oil Exporting Countries), and on the other, a new wave of religious awakening ushered in with an outlandish ambition of creating a new Islamic World Order. There were two other epoch making events which gave strength to this ambition and euphoria. One was the success of a theocentric revolution in Iran in 1979 and the expulsion of Americans from Iranian soil, and the other was the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, which heralded the beginning of the end of international communism. Political Islam or Islamism had come to the stage after 1980.
None of these events had any direct impact on Sri Lanka or Sri Lankan Muslims. However, the political and economic transformation of the country after 1977, from the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy to a hybrid presidential system, and from a largely dirigistic economic model to an open market economy, set in forces that introduced Islamism into Sri Lanka through the backdoor. The political changes brought for the first time a Muslim political party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) with Islamist leanings, and the economic changes open the gates for Muslim labour to flow out to Arab Middle East while allowing Arab money, tied to Arab religious and cultural values, to flow in. For a detailed treatment on this twin flow readers should refer, “From The Safest To An Insecure Sri Lanka For Muslims” (Colombo Telegraph, 6, 9 and 14 May 2018) and “Anatomy of An Islamist Infamy” (Colombo Telegraph, 5, 6 and 9 May 2019).
The Arab influence strengthened the umma identity of Muslims and quite unintentionally, promoted a trend towards self-alienation. While TJ influenced Muslim males’ attire, the Arab link added another layer to it and brought changes to female attire also. With changes in personal appearance, with proliferation of bigger and elaborately designed mosques and madrasas, and with the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema’s (ACJU) vigorous pursuit over the halal issue, the Muslim community was set on a path of self-alienation at a critical time when the Tamil ethnic issue was ripping the country apart. The Arabization that was creeping was in total contrast to the millennial identification of Muslims with Sri Lankan culture and Sri Lankan values. In this regard, the utter failure of Muslim political and religious leadership to detect this isolationist trend and take counter measures to arrest and reverse it, allowed some observers from both inside and outside the community to raise the question about Muslims’ belief and belonging. Are these Muslims people in or citizens of Sri Lanka? While this issue was not a serious concern to the vast majority of Muslims in the country, a small but agitated minority amongst them was preparing to provide the wrong answer. What prompted this minority to take that diabolical step?
Rise of the Buddhist Far-Right
The emergence of a political far-right is an international phenomenon in 21st century. The reasons for its emergence should be sought in the collapse of Marxist socialist and communist economic experiments at the end of the Cold War, and in the disappointing performance the highly touted liberal economic model that came to replace them and was globalised. Sri Lanka joined the liberal family with a vengeance after 1977. With that membership its inaugurator, President JR Jayewardene, dreamt of turning the country into another Singapore. All that he achieved was to push the country into a costly civil war and turn communal harmony a distant dream.
With the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, Sri Lanka witnessed the rise of several far-right Buddhist groups, all of whom wanted to carry that momentum of military victory into an aggressive and hegemonic mission to Buddhisize the country in every respect. In the view of these groups, Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhala Buddhists only and therefore every other ethnic and religious community that chooses to live here should be virtually subservient to Sinhala Buddhists. Now that they had vanquished the Tamils militarily, their focus turned on the second minority, Muslims.
Unlike the Tamil community, whose chief industry before the civil war was education, Muslims are historically known for their excellent business acumen, which earned them the sobriquet, “business community” during colonial times. Unlike the Tamils and Sinhalese, Muslims were late comers to the field of education. When the Sinhalese army burnt down the famous public library in Jaffna in 1981, it actually went to the jugular of Tamil pride. In the case of Muslims however, there is no such single iconic structure except their mosques and business establishments. It was these that became targets of attack by the far-right. By attacking Muslim businesses the far-right warriors were aiming to impoverish an entire community.
Anti-Muslim violence did occur sporadically even before 2009 and in the 1970s, but swift action by government authorities did not allow them to escalate. After 2009 however, it became a regular feature and the authorities were not only slow to act but at times even tended to justify them. Among the notorious incidents were the riots in Alutgama in 2014, Gintota in 2017 and Ampara, Dighana and Kandy in 2018. Leading Muslim retail business premises in Colombo city and in adjacent Panadura were also attacked and burnt down on a number of occasions. What annoyed the Muslim community more than the material losses was the relative inaction by the security forces to control the rioters. The fact that some members of the Buddhist clergy were also participating in the riots demonstrated that the government was failing absolutely to provide protection to the Muslim community.
One should not forget in passing that in other parts of the world, and particularly in Europe, the far-right is enjoying a period of honeymoon at present, because the traditional parties of centre-left and centre-right realise that the only way they could come to power is in coalition with the far-right. That realisation is abundantly clear in Sri Lanka, where none of the major parties, including the President who is dreaming to be a nominee at the next presidential elections, is prepared to condemn or criticise the outrageous violence unleashed on Muslims by far-right groups like BBS, Sinha Le, Mahason Balakaya and few others. It was the President who released a convicted monk who within days started his anti-Muslim campaign.
Belonging to Where?
It was in that environment of insecurity for Muslims, Zahran Hashim, a madrasa drop-out, leader of the National Tawheed Jamaat (NTJ) and the mastermind behind the Easter infamy, brought the question of believing and belonging once again to the fore. In one of his recorded speeches where he described Sri Lanka as dharul kufr (abode of unbelievers) for the first time, and said that it was haram (prohibited) for Muslims to live in this country, he erased at once the entire history of peaceful co-existence of the community in this island and threw his allegiance to the ISIS in the name of umma. To Zahran and his NTJ it was the umma and not watan that demands primary allegiance. For that matter, NTJ would have joined any international Islamist extremist faction to vent their anger. ISIS was the best available in the market. ISIS itself was in search of a theatre where it could unleash its terror for losing the caliphate to the so called Crusaders. On that fateful Easter Sunday, NTJ’s thirst for revenge for Muslim losses at home and ISIS’ yearning for the same for losses in Syria conflated, and what followed is all history now.
That the trend towards Islamising Muslim politics and Arabizing Muslim culture since 1980s set the community on a collision course is a bitter pill that Muslim leadership should swallow. Similarly, that the Buddhist far-right is determined to make maximum political capital at the expense of the Muslim minority is also not in doubt. The issue that faces both the Muslim and Buddhist leaderships therefore, is how to recover the community’s golden heritage of peaceful co-existence in this blessed country. The identity of Muslim community must merge with the identity of Sri Lanka, because the community belongs to this country. Buddhist compassion that made this country a swarnabhumi must be brought back to prevail. The situation demands serious introspection and calls for creative leadership from all sides, which at the moment is sadly lacking.
ekelbroom / June 10, 2019
“The identity of Muslim community must merge with the identity of Sri Lanka, because the community belongs to this country.”
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This could only happen when the Muslims discard their decades-old descriptive label ‘Sri Lankan Muslims’ and adopt their national identity label ‘Muslim Sri Lankans’.
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If the Muslims find it difficult to identify themselves primarily as ‘Sri Lankans’ (who are Muslims) and choose to continue identifying themselves primarily as ‘Muslims’ (who are Sri Lankans), then how on earth can they expect other Sri Lankans to accept them as such without a sense of ambivalence ?
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The Noun serves to identify, while the Adjective serves to describe an individual.
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Amarasiri / June 10, 2019
Dr. Ameer Ali,
Thanks for a concise explanation of the ideological conflict of the Muslims who claim to follow Islam, written in the 7th Century Uthmanic Codex, called the Quran, as interpreted by the Theologians, the Ulama.
Tradition Muslims and Sufis in Sri Lanka, had no problems living with non-Muslims for a 1,000 years. TJ aim was to make Muslim men “better “ Muslims, by being irresponsible to the Family, Community and the Country by not contributing, on the belief of a “better” afterlife.
Is there any conclusive data on afterlife, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Limbo, where unbaptized children end up, per Augustine, Nirvana and Rebirth? No, No,No.
How come the Muslims, mean IQ 79, did not fall into this trap for a 1,000 years? Because they used Reason, and kept the Revelation aside in these matters. However, with the Ulama imposing the Revelation rules, and Hadith and Prophets traditions as well, Reason was set aside. Revelation and stupidity prevailed.
So, according to the Ulama, the Earth is Spread out like a carpet, (Flat), the Sun goes around the Earth and sets in Muddy waters, are all compatible. So the direction of prayer to Mecca works In a Flat Spread out Earth, and the Sun.
So, will the ACJU, and the Muslim politicians aided and funded by the Wahhabi Petrodollars change? No. It has to be externally imposed.
What did they do when the Satan following Wahhabis attacked the Sufis?Very little.
Ref. Hadith of Najd
That is why the Ulama fought the Philosophers and banished them, like what happened to Ibn Rushd, in the 12th Century.
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parangii Leftover / June 11, 2019
Amanasiri looks like an expert on Islam too, in addition to being a Para -Thambi.
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Amarasiri / June 11, 2019
Parangi leftover,
This is a conflict of the Paras, Para-angus, And other Paras left over after they illegally landed on the Land of Native Veddah Aethho, with their Para beliefs. So Amarasiri is trying to be an expert in the Para Beliefs in the Land like Para-Hinduism, Para-Buddhism, Para-Islamism,Para-Christianism, Para-Catholism etc. to under their convoluted brainwashings and mindsets. Do any if the Para-beliefs above have any definite proof if afterlife , Nirvana , Hell, Heaven, Purgatory, Limbo, Rebirth etc.,? No, No, No and not yet.
So how do they maintain this farce? The children are brainwashed from a young age, almost hard wiring their brains, and they grow up to be hardwired brainwashed adults, lacking and devoid of reason. Then, they after the others beliefs claiming that they are wrong and we are right.
The Monks, Priests, Ulama and Mullahs thrive in this environment, as it is all about power and tribe.
To understand these issues, learn philosophy, science, Reason, scientific method etc. Even your low mean Para IQ 79, “Intellect “ will be able able to get some enlightenment.
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K.Anaga / June 10, 2019
Eklebroom!
The Muslims deliberately do not wish to identify themselves as either Fish or Fowl. There is no doubt that they are Tamils from south India,who came over here to do business. and some of them were successful. But most of them who are concentrated in the east were successful farmers- feeding the nation along with the Srilankan Tamils. Up to 1948 they existed cordially so much so that quite a number of Muslims were elected to the Parliament on Thamil Arasu Kadchi ticket.. After a short time the Sinhala governments( all Sinhala parties) baited them with offer of ministries to which they succumbed to and forgot the purpose for which they were elected. They continued to flirt with the governments, not for the benefits of the Muslim/Tamils but for their own Personal Benefits. Thus the Sinhalese were temporarily successful in their Divide, Rule and Destroy policy.
It appears, they have been successful to a great extent. Some of the Muslims adopted an attitude, which is consistent with Tamil saying ” Enakku Mooku Ponalum Paruwai Illai- Athu Ehirikku Sahuna Pilai Entral” meaning’ It does not matter even if I lose my nose as long it is a bad omen for the enemy’ whether the the Tamil enemy is imaginary or real is questionable. This is exactly what happened in the East and with the subtle support of the governments, Kathankudi became Arabianized. . Perhap the Sinhala governments never thought it will boomerang on them and Muslims never expected a boomerang from the Sinhalese.Finally the Tamils suffered the worst by paying with their lives in the Churches and the war.
If the Tamils and Muslim Tamils were united, today we could have got at least a federal state and lived in harmony with the Sinhalese.
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K.Anaga / June 10, 2019
Ameer!
I hope you can remember my meeting with you at the beach with your friend where we discussed Barathi Thasan, a revolutionary Tamil poet who said that ” Odaiyile en sambar karaium pothum on Thamile sala slathu oda vendum” and’ Veru oruvan nulayathu veli ittu Thamil nattan valthathillai” Meaning,(1 )” Even when my Ashes flow down the stream it should utter Tamil words(2) Tamils never barricaded their country to prevent others coming in. Perhaps that seem to be the problem now.
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edward upali / June 11, 2019
Anaga,
“Tamils never barricaded their country to prevent others from coming in”
Are you Sure of what you say? Lot of Sri Lankans could not even visit Jaffna, till just a few years ago. If they did they were killed by the LTTE.
Sinhalese Sri Lankan students enrolled at the Jaffna University in the 1980s were harassed and some were killed. This harassment of Sinhalese students occurred even just last year ?
Some Moslem Sri Lankans were summarily expelled with 24 h notice from their homes in the North by the LTTE. A large number of Moslems were massacred in Batticaloa area by the LTTE, at one of their mosques.
It is strange that the TNA, who were the spokesmen for the LTTE at the time in parliament, never spoke against this ethnic cleansing or condemned the many killings of innocent Sinhalese or Moslems by LTTE.
Is it possible that the current leader of the TNA, R Sampanthan or the former Chief Minister Vigneswaran, probably never heard of Bharathi Thassan ?.
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Mohamed Wadood / June 11, 2019
K Anaga , Every politician is a opportunist none of them wants to fix the problems facing the Srilankans . Majority of the Buddhist they are not Racist . We do have politicians who have ignited the hate from Bandaranaike, chelvanayagam ,JR Jayawardene R Premadasa Cyril Matthew Ranil Wickremesinghe ,Ashroff Champaka Ranawaka Wijedasa Rajapakse , Gamanpilla the rest the layman are political pimps supporting the Rajapakse politically thru Nationalist agenda Mahinda Rajapakse never been a racist until Ranil conspired with Sarath fonseka to Oust him at the Presidential Elections and the majority of Muslims Voted for Racist Fonseka . It’s a political Vengeance. Majority of Tamils hated the Muslims because of the loyalty to the Buddhist Sinhalese . Cos Many patriotic Muslims Including T B Jaya opposed the Chelvanayagams federal solutions for East and north . Srilankans are with short Memories. I am a Patriotic Srilankan My Grandfather a confidante of Dr N M Perera and Dr Colvin R D Silva Who harbored them during the time of Our Independence . We are all Srilankans . In spite of the Hate the Muslims are currently going through I hope Former President Rajapakse and the future President Gotabaya Rajapakse will unite The entire people of Srilanka as Srilankans and treat them Equally
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 12, 2019
Muslims if tey were patriotic and loyal would have opposed state sponsored Sinhalese Buddhist racism and would have been loyal to their Tamil ethnicity and language instead of claiming all sorts of fake origins and heritage for political and economic advantage. The Sinhalese have always hated them and looked on them. It was the Tamils who had always saved them even now. They ran to the Tamil areas and took refuge along the North West coast that was part of the Tamil Jaffna kingdom , when they were kicked out of South India, as they were ethnic Tamils, The Tamils allowed them to live and flourish here. Later when the Portuguese persecuted them and they fled to the Kandyan Sinhalese lands , they Sinhalese did not want them and they were given refuge again in the Tamil east. You are a bunch of selfish opportunists who betrayed your fellow non Muslim Tamils in the name of Islam and a fake Arab origin for petty benefits and with the intention to steal Tamil lands in the east and Mannar for your immigrant fake Arab converted low caste Dravidian community from South India. Stop posting all this garbage about patriotism. Patriots you were not but selfish opportunists , still after committing all this damage trying to score a point against the Tamils with this fake patriotic garbage. You are not loyal to anything not even to your Tamil ethnicity but to your alien Arab masters
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Sugandh Thomas / June 11, 2019
Edward Upali:
You’re putting your own spin on things to advance your bigoted perspective.
First hand experience is valued over third party interpretations such as yours merely to advance your bigoted agenda.
Having experienced history first hand, your account of history and your interpretation of history are ignorant of facts.
LTTEs actions are well documented. But your interpretation of events are completely lacking an earnest effort on a fair analysis. Many Tamils never supported the LTTE. Many who do supported the liberation movement but certainly not the terrorism on civilians of any race. You seemed to project a picture only Sinhalese and Muslim civilians were affected. Tamil civilians were affected too. But let’s not fool ourselves where the weight of terrorist lies incomparably the heaviest – It’s on the Sinhalese thugs and the SriLankan security forces spanning several decades.
Did you ever experience any of what you have presented here as facts?
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Bodin / June 11, 2019
Tamils never barricaded “THEIR COUNTRY”!
Ponnambalam said that all of Sri lanka was the country of the Tamils.
BUT, Ponnambalam was replaced by even more hard-line racist separatists.
Chelvanayagam (whose was a member of the South Indiasn Church, born in Malaya, and whose grand parents are from the Malabar coast), said that Tamils have an “EXCLUSIVE” homeland in the North and East.
Prabhakaran who took the racist torch from the TULF drove out the Muslims at gun point carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of the alleged tamil homeland.
During the Tsunami, when low caste Tamils sought water, food and help from a high caste village that escaped the Tsunami, they were turned away.
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Lester / June 11, 2019
Good point, Bodin. The mindset of separatist Tamils is apartheid, whereas the mindset of Sinhalese has simply been to retain control of the land. The Sinhalese have never chased anyone off the island. In fact, both the Muslims and Tamils at various times sought protection under Sinhalese kings. So who is the biggest racist? It is the entity that practices apartheid, as apartheid is based on the notion of racial superiority. Apartheid is an attempt by said group to control all the natural resources and wealth of the land, as well as ensure population growth of the group. Apartheid means separation, along the lines of Nuremberg Laws, so that a “lesser” group cannot procreate with the “superior” group. It is exactly this notion of apartheid that Tamil political leaders subscribed to in their quest for “Tamil Eelam” and which culminated with Prabhakaran.
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K.Anaga / June 11, 2019
Bodin!
Yes what Chelvanayakam said was 100% true. But he never said exclusive home land. If a federal state been established, the need for Prabaharn to fight for a separate state would not have arisen. The Muslims too who were found to be playing a double game, would not have done so. You can write pages and pages on this episode of Muslim activities against the Tamils during the war. However their activities has been proved on 21/4, apparently in association with the a couple of Sinhala leaders who made use of them – aspiring to be Presidential candidates. That is why the devotees who were killed in the churches were 80% Tamils.. It is a pity that the Mob attacked the innocent/and not so innocent Muslims as an after thought to erase the suspicion on the Sinhala leaders.
Your imagination with regard to activities after Tsunami with regard to low casts and high casts are blatant lie. I was personally involve with some of the NGO in distributing food , clothing and shelter including lively hood projects, unlike your treatment of the Rodiyas and the Tamils on equal footings along with veddas as seen in the TV news..
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Lester / June 12, 2019
“If a federal state been established, the need for Prabaharn to fight for a separate state would not have arisen.”
If a federal state had been established, Prabhakaran would have fought until the entire North and East were independent Tamil entities. After that, Prabhakaran would have made his forces bigger and stronger and then waged a war to capture the whole island. Prabhakaran had the same megalomaniac fascist mindset as Hitler. He signed a peace treaty with Stalin, then what? With Chamberlain, then what? He broke all of them, just as Prabhakaran broke all treaties with Rajiv Gandhi, Premadasa, JR, CBK, and Mahinda.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Bodin
–
“amils never barricaded “THEIR COUNTRY”!”
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You know why dumbass?
–
Here is a verse from 2000 years old Tamil sangam poetry:
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யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்
Kaniyan Poongundran, Purananuru – 192
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To us all towns are our own, everyone our kin,
– Translated by G.U.Pope, 1906
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Listen to Abdul Kalam
and the poetry Yathum Oore Anthem-
Theme Song of 10th World Tamil Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtHYz6FuiAc&feature=youtu.be
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How long HLD M has been sitting on your head?
You should pull your head from wherever it is now for the sake of breathing fresh air.
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Deva / June 11, 2019
Anaga,
“Tamils never barricaded their country to prevent others coming in.”
You should be careful when you utter something. The Tamils barricaded their land to prevent others coming in 3 centuries ago by their Boomi Puthra law known as Thesawalamai.
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K.Anaga / June 11, 2019
Deva!
Thesawalamai does not prevent others buying properties in Jaffna But the first preference is to brothers ,sisters., relations and there after to others if they are co-owners.. Thesawalamai has been misconstrued.
For the Sinhalese it matters not as they forcibly colonize with the help of the government..
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shankar / June 12, 2019
k.anaga
thesavalamai should be scrapped.by the time you go after all the brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces the buyer would have moved on.Anyway there should be only one law for all in one country.Muslim laws on marriages etc where under 18 girls can marry etc also should be scrapped.they are pedophiles.One person can marry only one.Otherwise bigamy.Divorce laws same for everyone in sri lanka.Schools not segregated on race,religion,gender.
One country,one people,one set of laws.Sri lankans first and foremost .
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 12, 2019
We should also scrap Kandyan law and Sinhalese Buddhist fascist laws and Sinhalese only and Buddhism as the state religion. SO what if the buyer moves on? Then it shows he or she was not interested. Other co owners should always be given preference before complete outsiders. Most of these co owned properties are ancestral properties , that have been within the same family for generations, so it is fair that when a person wants to sell their share for what ever reason , the first preference should be given to another family member , buy and preserve their family heritage , and property , than to an outsider. 99% of the times a co owner , who is a sibling or a cousin will buy the other person’s share , so another buyer is not needer. Most probably you are not a Jaffna/Northern/Trincomalee Tamils and from somewhere else, so you do not appreciate our ancient customs and traditions , that have been there for thousands of years.
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shankar / June 12, 2019
siva sanka
“you are not a Jaffna/Northern/Trincomalee Tamils and from somewhere else,so you do not appreciate our ancient customs and traditions , that have been there for thousands of years.”
our ancestors thousands of years ago did not have toilets.They went and did it in the open air.Do you still want to go and squat in the open fields or do you want to come to the 21st century.I’am not interested in ancient customs and go backwards.I like to go forward.I am a born and bred colombo tamil so i don’t have your antiquated ideas,thank god.Live in colombo for a change and then you can be welcomed into the 21st century.
evrything changes except change itself.Don’t be afraid of change .
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 13, 2019
For your information . I was born and bred in Colombo and can speak Sinhalese fluently. My ancestry is from Jaffna and still own some property there but most probably some one must have encroached. I have lived and worked in the Arabian Gulf and can speak Arabic to a certain extent to get my work done but can speak fluent Hindi/Urdu. I have lived in London and have travelled extensively throughout Europe and SE Asia now live in Melbourne Australia. I have been to more places than you can dream of and seen far more changes than you will ever see . You frog in the well racist Eelam Tamil hater.
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shankar / June 14, 2019
siva sankaran
can you tell me at what age you left sri lanka?After you left how many years/months you came back and lived in sri lanka.How many years you worked in the middle east.Were you treated well by the muslims there?How many years/months you lived in south east asia.Are you a brahmin?Do you feel brahmins should be the ruling class?
“You frog in the well racist Eelam Tamil hater.”
if prabhaharan had got eelam,would you have left the middle east or the west and settled in prabha’s eelam?
I have a healthy respect and love for brahmins so answer truthfully without letting them down.
ps.my ancestry too in my mothers side from jaffna and hundreds of acres of land of her ancestors in kottady.People have taken over and lived on the lands and my mother was advised by others not to go there and start inquiring around because the type of people now on the lands are such that there would be a possibility of her being killed.
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K.Anaga / June 13, 2019
If it is “Srilankans first”, first scrape the Sinhala only act together with Buddhism the Foremost Place. A horse running with 3 legs( One leg Broken by the Sinhalese) cannot compete with the 4 legged horse.- The Sinhalese.
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ralli hamid / June 11, 2019
Anaga don’t talk nonsense by saying Muslim Tamils to SL Moors because that is the identity of us now. Just because we talk in Tamil which is very much different from Tamil’s Tamil you cannot come to that conclusion. The feeling we are not Tamils is there for centuries, do the Sinhala Christians feel they are not Sinhalese? African American speak English so are they Whites? Ethnicity is a complex subject.
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K.Anaga / June 11, 2019
ralli hamid!
If you are not Tamils from India how is it that the Muslims speak Tamil from Beruwela to Bandarawela, Hambantota to Hanwella and Jaffna to Badulla and so on. Muslims pronunciation may be different in certain areas but when they write they write they do so properly . Even Ameer Ali who migrated to Australia.Even in areas in India Tamil pronunciation differ from Thirunelvli to Thanja-oor.. Pronunciation of English too differ even in England.
As I have said earlier Muslims turned their caps after the Sinhala Only Act was introduced.but they cannot escape from reality. I studies in a Muslim school where the Muslims studied Tamil and not Sinhala. I won’t be surprised if they have changed now- vasi pathata hoi. Check your Quran and and find out when the translation to Tamil was done both in India and Srilanka.?
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ralli hamid / June 11, 2019
J. Anaga, African American speak English in all over USA but as you know they were all brought from Africa and had their own dialect. Can you tell how is that. Muslim came to Malabar and then spread all over Tamil Nadu. Since majority speak Tamil the trading language was Tamil. In Sri Lanka all coastal area were monpolized by Tamils so intermingling with them and marrying their women Tamil became their spoken language. Tamil is one of the old language having a very old civilization so I will be really proud to call Tamil is my mother tongue. But history is different. You are having a donkey head so you cannot understand what I meant above. Tamil pronunciation does not differ anywhere in India but the accent differ. Same with English. My grandmother’s time old people did not know how to write in Tamil so they used Arabic -Tamil to write letters. As education became available following generation started to write in Tamil.. You are not a Moor so you don’t know about Moors history. We know this from generation to generation through our culture and customs this is imparted to us.
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Ahmed / June 11, 2019
K. Anaga:
.
“The Muslims deliberately do not wish to identify themselves as either Fish or Fowl. There is no doubt that they are Tamils from south India” – There are Muslims from south India, but not the majority. Actually, it is the Tamils who deny their origins back to south India and the Portuguese bringing labor from south India for tobacco farming in Jaffna is almost a few missing pages in Tamil history. Otherwise, where are these settlers as per you?
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K.Anaga / June 11, 2019
We have been in Eelam long before you and the Sinhalese came in You came after the Sinhalese but you failed to Speak Sinhala as your mother tong was Tamil. Now you want to discard your mother and look for Mothers elsewhere to satisfy the Sinhalese and escape their wrath periodically.
We do not deny that we are originally from India like the Sinhalese and Muslims like you. We are always linked to Indian Tamil culture and we will not discard it.
I can write a lot more, but it will be like pouring water on Ducks Back, because of your preconceived ideas and prejudiced mind..
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Amarasiri / June 11, 2019
K Anaga,
See what happened to the Tamil Catholics and Tamil Christians, even Tamil Buddhists, if they identified as Tamils? They would be subjected to the inhuman discriminatory caste rules, and VP, the LTTE, would have recruited them as soldiers and child soldiers.
The Muslims escaped this fate, but paid the price of being killed by LTTE and being expelled, ethnically cleansed.
Wonders what would have been the situation, if the Tamils were Tamil Buddhists instead of being Tamil Hindus. Would the Separatist Eelam war have happened? Just curious.
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K.Anaga / June 11, 2019
Where did you see the ‘happenings’ to Tamil Catholics and Tamil Christians. It is said that Prabaharan was of low cast by the Sinhalese, how is that he was able to lead the Tamils? Chelvanayakam was a Christian, Dr. Naganathan was a Catholic and Vanniyasingam was a Hindu they were the stalwarts of the federal party. There were number of Muslims too like Kariapper, Mustapha , Mohamed Ali elected to the Parliament on the federal party ticket supported by both ‘Tamil Muslims’ and Tamils. As per their habits they changed . You seem to have conveniently forgotten the murder of the Tamils by Muslim home guards and the confession made by Hisbuula as to how he destroyed Hindu Temples to make way for market place. They made hay while the sun shone on them, projected by the Sinhalese.
If the Tamils were Buddhist,The Tamil language would have reigned supreme over the religion and the division would have been there like Bangaladesh and Pakistan. Despite the the fact they were all Muslims the Bengali language separated them and a new country was established with the help of India, a predominantly Hindu Country. and from where Buddhism came to Srilanka without a visa., helped by Devanampiatissa who was a Tamil.
If you wish to assess the Cast discrimination please refer to the Matrimonial pages of the Sunday Times where cast is one of the prerequisite for consideration of Bride and Bridegroom of the Sinhalese. Do not forget the Fact that Gowthama was born to Hindu parents and he never preached a new religion or supported cast system. In addition he was a vegetarian like me.
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shankar / June 12, 2019
k.anaga
“It is said that Prabaharan was of low cast by the Sinhalese, how is that he was able to lead the Tamils?”
prabhaharan was not low caste.The karayar/karawe were seafaring people and under the kings were sailors and soldiers.The king used to have a core group of armed forces paid by him regularly,but others like the farmer vellalas had to down their tools and fight for him when he asks them to.Their were no large standby armies like today.The core group in the armed forces consisted of a large number of karayar/karawe.When they were not in the armed forces they had to do fishing because the sea was the only thing they understood well.A farmers wife knows that her husband will come back unless bitten by a snake which is rare,but a fisherman/sailors wife never knows whether her husband will ever come back from the raging seas and unlike now with trawlers etc at that time the boats and ships were flimsy and many lost their lives.So the karayar/karawe were the bolder types and naturally led the others.It was not surprising that prbhaharan and wijeweera became unforgettable leaders, but you are mistaken when you say prabhaharan led the tamils.He and wijeweera did not lead the tamils or sinhalese as a whole,though it was not for lack of trying,they were able to lead only their respective outfits the LTTE and JVP.
It was under the british that the vellala/govigama got the leadership because the british did not trust the karayar/karawe who were prominent during the first colonisers,the portuguese.The british would have felt their loyalty was still towards the portuguese and dutch and not with them.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 12, 2019
Karaiyar especially the Kurukula Karaiyar to which Pirapakaran belonged are not low castes. They are a middle caste. Fighters and warriors for the Tamil kings. They never came under the control of the Vellalar/Brahmins and were outside it. Even their Hindu temples are manned by priests from their caste. Vellalars consider them lower than them but never considered them as low castes. Sri Lankan Tamils never called Pirapakaran a low caste as in the Sri Lankan Tamil caste system they were considered a middle caste. It was the Sinhalese and Indians who considered him as such. This is just like the eastern Mukkuvas in Sri Lanka. Here they are powerful and own land many even farm. The traditional eastern law is the matriarchal Mukkuva Tamil law , that even the eastern Muslims follow, however unlike the Northern Thesavalamai law this was not codified. However in Tamil Nadu and Kerala the Mukkuva are considered to be very low and were subjugated. Most of the Mukkuva in Tamil Nadu and Kerala have now converted to Christianity or Islam but in eastern Sri Lanka the Mukkuva are still Saivaite and again run Hindu temples, as they are powerful here.
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D.P. / June 10, 2019
This is one of the best article I ever read on this subject. This identity crisis highlighted by Ali may affect SL Tamils as well. I believe that a vast majority of S/B tend to see this not as crisis but as threat. I hope that this article can help leaders of all races & parties at all levels to find a common ground to resolve the burning question of the day.
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / June 11, 2019
Tamils are not suffering from identity crisis, because they have always maintained that they are Dravidians (Tamil and Malayalam), with mixture of Kalinga (Bengali) and indigenous people. This has been corroborated in two genetic studies undertaken among the population in Sri Lanka where DNA of Tamils are 65% South Indian, 29% Bengali and 6% Veddha. In contrast both Sinhalese who claim as Aryans and Muslims who claim as Arabs are the ones who are suffering from identity crisis when the said genetic study came to the conclusion that core genetic material of both Sinhalese and Muslims is south Indian.First migrants to Sri Lanka are the veddhas who are considered as the indigenous population being in the country for more than 100,000 years. The next migrants are Dravidians who had been in Sri Lanka for more than 20,000 years as evidenced by several urn burial sites discovered, the last being at Ibbankatuwa and that the same people lived on both sides of the divide as evidenced by discovery of potsherds similar to those found in Tamil Nadu, last being in Naanattan school playground, corroborating to geological evidence that more than 10,000 years ago Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka were a contiguous land mass. There is no doubt that the first religion to be practiced in Sri Lanka was Saivaism, which was in existence at least 3000 years before the advent of Buddhism as evidenced by Veddhas worshiping Tamil God Murugan. It is for Sinhalese and Muslims to fall in line and adopt a common identity as Dravidians with a different language and religion.
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Lester / June 11, 2019
“Tamils are not suffering from identity crisis…”
Tamils are not only fighting with Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, they are fighting with North Indians in India. The Tamil notion of superiority is very strong indeed. It rejects Sanskrit and Hindi as major languages in South India, it rejects Sanskrit as an authentic language, it rejects Vedic Hinduism altogether, and it rejects the possibility of Sinhalese having arrived in Sri Lanka first, despite overwhelming evidence from Mahavamsa, Ramayana, and Mahabharata. This Tamil notion of superiority is surely linked to an identity crisis!
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / June 11, 2019
Because you are a Sinhala sycophant with bigoted mind, you are coming out with stupid statements. Where is the overwhelming evidence from Mahawamsa, Ramayana and Mahabaratha that the Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka first. In Mahabaratha there is no mention of Sri Lanka at all. It was Ramayana that labelled the island as Lanka and there is no mention of that name prior to that. In Ramayana , King Ravana is described as a Dravidian and Siva worshiper. Ramayana is a racist literature describing south Indians as monkeys and Ravana’s people as demons. It is a description about triumph of Aryans as a superior race over Dravidians. Both Sanskrit and Vedic Hinduism are not indigenous to India, having brought by Aryans from central Asia who were nomadic tribes. Prior to their arrival worship of Siva was in vogue in India, and these Aryans who brought the concept of Brahma the creator and Vishnu the protector incorporated them into existing practice forming the triumvirate. As for Sanskrit till recently the Aryan propaganda was that Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world and Tamil derived from it, which has now been trashed by linguistic scholars that Tamil is the oldest language in the world. Only after that North Indians agreed to declare Tamil as a classical language on par with Sanskrit. Just because Sanskrit words have crept into Tamil due to the influence of Hinduism, it does mean that Tamil was a language independent of Sanskrit which is evidenced from ancient Tamil literature such as Thevaram and Thiruvasagam, which are free of any words derived from Sanskrit. As for Hindi, it is a rubbish language a mixture of Sanskrit and Parsi formed recently. There is no notion of superiority when claims are made on facts based on scientific proof about antiquity and richness of Tamil Language.
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Lester / June 11, 2019
” In Mahabaratha there is no mention of Sri Lanka at all.”
There are multiple mentions of Sri Lanka in Mahabaratha. “Lanka” is a Rakshasa kingdom ruled by Vibhishana. It is then conquered by Sahadeva. In Book 2 of Mahabaratha, it says Sinhala kings arrived for King Yudhisthira’s sacrifice. In book 3, it says “The king of the Singhalas gave those best of sea-born gems called the lapis lazuli, and heaps of pearls also, and hundreds of coverlets for elephants.” If we follow this logic, then “Sinhala” was a colonial state in what is now “Lanka”, belonging to the Vanga Kindom. Vanga is located in modern-day Bengal; Prince Vijaya is thought to have originated from Orissa (Odisha) in Bengal, so Mahabaratha corroborates what is written in Mahavamsa. Tamil is not the oldest language in the world, let alone in India. There are tribal groups in India, such as the Sentinelese, who speaker older languages.
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D.P. / June 11, 2019
Genetics has nothing to do with how people identify themselves with. If Genetics is the basis, then we all should be in one group b’cos we all are homo sapiens. Tamil identity as an indigenous group probably was true during the pre-LITTE era but I think that LITTE changed it by making SL Tamils a part of Global Tamil community. Don’t get me wrong here b’cos I’m not racial at all; Even though I do belong to one race & religion by birth, I have given uo religion since I was 12. I don’t don’t consider myself belonging to one particular race either. I can’t change the way I belong but I can change the way how I believe. The racial identity & ensuing ethnic tensions can be easily eliminated if all can think the way I do.
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Ranjith(SPRRW) / June 11, 2019
Lanka means Island by old North Indian Languages. When was Ramayanaya compiled ??? Doctor ??? who are Arunthathiar ??? who are Adi darvada ??? who are Adivasins ???? lived in south Indian darvadian countries ??? Do you think Tamils are pure Darvadians ??? No mixer of Adivasin ??? Who are Chakkiliyar or Sakkiliyar ??? Darvadians or Adi darvadians or Arunthathiar ???? Who did genetic affinities tests you mentioned here ????? You or somebody ???? At last tell me the languages Adivasin spoken in those so called Darvadian blocks ??? Have you done any genetic affinities test between Adivasins & Tamils in south India. I heard Genetic affinities is very large and Tamils are mixer of Adivasins and Godavary Darvadians. Tamils language is a mixer of Proto darvadian & Adivasins Languages. Do you know that ????
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Radical Ideas / June 11, 2019
Mr. Ameer Ali, good writing. With regards to the last closing para’s lines that gives you hopes to find a COMMON GROUND to resolve the issues will not happen until the Racist Sinhala Elite Mafia is pumped with Arab Muslim money that secures the economy with billions of Dollars a year to the comforts of the Sinhala Racist population to have nice cozy lifestyle. This easy incomes made from the Arab Muslim money have total monetary security and a lot of savings and extra money as PINKAMA to FUND the SINHALA RACIST outfits (JHU which is the umbrella organization to BBS, Rawana Balakaya, Sinha Le, Mahason etc) with their selfless charity and contribution to Build and operate the massive WAR ON ISLAM which is progressing at a very fast pace to the RSS/BJP & Myanmar 969 levels leading up to the FINAL SOLUTION of Genocide. Champika Ranawaka is indeed a lucky man for having sneaked into the govt., that which was massively elected by the 65% of the good people (who are Anti Rajapakse ) of SRi Lanka and supported and voted to 90% by the minorities (Tamils and Muslims) and then use that power to implement his long standing ANTI MUSLIM policies without any hindrance nor any problem. What you see the policies which are being implemented with high speed action are Champika Ranawaka’s deep hatred he has against Islam. Since he is mentally disturbed retard and a Psychopath, he single handedly have made all Sinhala racist leaders held captive to his Fascist Ideology which is a mixture of Zionism and NAZI philosophies to achieve horrendous results.
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D.P. / June 11, 2019
As I have said in my earlier comments on this subject of identity, I think that, since we all are humans, the “identity crisis” is common to all humans everywhere in the world. The opposite side of identity is xenophobia. Race & religion probably is the largest “set” (circle) of commonality but it certainly start with a smallest possible set (group) such as family, close relatives, neighbors, community, etc. These feelings obviously are instinctive; and the emotional nature of them makes it extremely hard to convince to behave rationally. This is the challenge community & political leaders of all level has to face.
In any case, I think that Ali has omitted the Shia Sunni conflict from his explanation of “Believing vs Belonging”. This is weakness in the article b’cos most non- Muslims are not so much familiar with distinction and therefore tend treat all Muslim as one single group. I hope Ali can add a few word to explain this a bit.
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Deva / June 11, 2019
ekelbroom
“This could only happen when the Muslims discard their decades-old descriptive label ‘Sri Lankan Muslims’ and adopt their national identity label ‘Muslim Sri Lankans’.”
What Nonsense!
Before the Muslims discard their decades-old descriptive label ‘Sri Lankan Muslims’ and the Tamils discard their decades-old descriptive label ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ the Sinhalese should discard their Sinhala-Buddhist label and adopt Buddhist Sri Lankans. Let the majority set an example for the minorities.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
ekelbroom
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“‘Sri Lankans’”
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Could you define and explain the above.
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When, where, how, why, what, …………. ?
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Saurus / June 10, 2019
So as per the writer it is clear that we are infected by a lunatic racist stone age cult.
The normal people of this country have no choice but to bring in Gota for 10 years of clean and to fully support venerable honourable galagoda aththey apey hamuduruwos national agenda.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Saurus
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“The normal people of this country have no choice but to bring in Gota for 10 years of clean and to fully support venerable honourable galagoda aththey apey hamuduruwos national agenda.”
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Gota and his clan definitely will clean the coffer, crime scene, wipe off democracy from this island, ……….. of course the Muslims, Tamils, Hindus, Christians, Sinhalese, Buddhists, ……….. and my people too.
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By the way how is Gota?
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By any chance you are the love child of the saffron clad thug?
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saurus / June 11, 2019
@Native Thamizh
Gota is fine mate…….only 5 more months to go.
As for your comment about love childs, sticks and stones mate…….one day you should ask your old friend Velu about how far love of his children got him; surrendered, fat, unfocussed and begging for family.
Remember those without children are always better suited to carry a national agenda.
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Native Vedda / June 12, 2019
saurus
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What has Dead Velu got to do with me?
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“Remember those without children are always better suited to carry a national agenda.”
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Being a father, Gota is not fit for the job. Is that what you are suggesting?
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saurus / June 12, 2019
@native
National agenda will be run by the honorable venerable Galagoda Aththey Apey Hamuduruwo (PBUH). No children so fit for the job.
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Muhandiram / June 10, 2019
Ameer Ali
The word ” Arabization” has entered the lexicon in Sri Lanka recently and has been used to decry the Muslim community. Even MR has referred to Arabization when the ex Ministers met him 2 or 3 days back.
Can you please define and explain what Arabization is and why it is so bad?
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Lanka Perera / June 10, 2019
Muhandiram the stupid Islamic infidel, if you go to Katankudi you will see what is the meaning of Arabization. When did Katankudi have Arabic name boards, date palm trees and people in Arabic dresses. 400 years ago Katankudi was a peaceful village with only Tamil residents. Now it is a lunatic town with only Muslim residents. How can this come about if not for ethnic cleansing. All non Muslims are united to get rid of this Arabic nonsense. It is so bad because it is backward and barbaric, turning a land of pleasant scenery into a place of ghostly gloom. It is so bad because the sweet smell of the land has been converted into fetid odour by unclean Arabic customs.
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Muhandiram / June 11, 2019
Smart guy, Lanka Perera, are you a Sinhalese or a Tamil pretending to be a Sinhalese?
For you Arabic name boards and date palm trees ONLY in Kattankudy is Arabization. Do you see them anywhere else in Sri Lanka?
And what are the so-called Arabic dresses?
“400 years ago Katankudi was a peaceful village with only Tamil residents.”
Really? How did this come about? If Kattankudy was ethnically cleansed of Tamils by Muslims, from where did the Muslims come to do this?
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Muhandiram / June 11, 2019
Ameer Ali
Why don’t you respond to the claim that
““400 years ago Katankudi was a peaceful village with only Tamil residents.”
And also the insinuation that there was an ethnic cleansing of the Tamil inhabitants of Kattankudy?
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saurus / June 11, 2019
The time for half measures is over. The country is facing a clear and present danger from a lunatic stone age cult with their pagan rituals and weird practices.
A good dose of Kasaya is required to get rid of the fetid odor that @Lanka mentioned. It is high time that the Kafirs in the country understand the threat, band together and finally elect a strong leader. 10 years of clean up and one national agenda should be enough to bring some level of normalcy and safety from this racist lunatic stone age cult
The venerable honorable Galagoda Aththey Apey hamuduruwo has been warning about the dangers of this cult for years now. If people had listened 300 innocent kafir lives could have been saved. It is high time to give the backing to his national agenda. To be unveiled in July, the next stage will be unveiled in November.
Finally the normal people of this country can take back some measure of control, after all who in their right minds would want to live in a country where crazy lunatic Mohemmedans run amuck and force their crazy practices on others?
The so called moderate Mohommedans have failed to control the lunacy within their cult, it’s time for the Kasaya. Say Bismalluh and open up……..
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Gaus / June 11, 2019
You are an ignorant Lanka Perera. Muslims can show their culture in whatever way they want just like Hindus and Buddhist build statues of dead men all around the country. Have you not been to Jaffna and other Tamil dominated places. Have you not seen their culture been shown everywhere. This is the case with Buddhists if you go to down South. Terrorist’s bombing and Arabic Language what is the connection? There is no problem with showing one’s culture where they live as a majority.
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Mohd / June 11, 2019
Lanka Perera, so your problem will be sorted out if Katankudy is converted back to 100% Tamils with ‘sweat smell’? So how can Sri Lanka feel better by just replacing an Arab culture with Indian culture? One calling himself “Lanka Perera” should think from nationalism point of view, not spread Indian customs. All problem is because your daddie didn’t use a rubber, hik..hik..hik
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Lanka Perera
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“400 years ago Katankudi was a peaceful village with only Tamil residents. “
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Seriously, I am told by Sinhala/Buddhist bigots the Islamic Republic of Kattankuddy was part of Kandyan Kingdom.
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Could you support your assertion that Kattankudy was a peaceful village only with Tamil residents.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Muhandiram
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“Can you please define and explain what Arabization is and why it is so bad?”
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Seriously aren’t you self aware of the visible changes taking place among the Muslims for the past 30 years and how these changes were being enforced on them?
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Please ignore my comment if you are not aware of any changes. If you are aware please define what you think what others believe as Arabisation and we could discuss the impending arrival of Caliph and subsequent enforcement of Sharia laws on all people of this island? The Arabisation (whatever that is) through backdoor used to be covert unlike now.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 10, 2019
Amir Ali the Tamil Kattankudi Muslim now living in Australia stop distorting the truth. Any sort of Muslims, Arab or other were never in the island until the late 1300s more around 1380, when the short Muslim Delhi sultanate rule fell in the Tamil country South India and they were chased out of the Tamil country for good by various Hindu dynasties. The local Tamil Hindus chased out many converts to Islam ( largely low castes) and the small minority of half castes ( the offspring of Muslim Afghan/Arab and other North Indian, western /Central Asian soldiers/traders and loose moral Tamil Dalit women or rape cases). These people fled to the island on shallow wooden boats named Marrakallam in Tamil, hence the common term Marrakalla minnisu to describe the Muslims in Sinhalese. The captain or the community who manned this boat was called Marrikarayan or Marrikar in Tamil. Marrikar, Lebbai, Rawthar, Kayalar, Kutti, Thambi which are all common Sri Lankan Muslim family names until they decided to Arabise their names, are Tamil Muslim castes. Proving their Dravidian Tamil converted origin, with a few having a slight other blood. A person of high standing is traditionally called Nainar in Tamil, hence the name or title Naina Marrikar meaning Marrikar of high standing.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 10, 2019
Contd: Arabs or other Muslims never came to the island and this is a big lie and fake history now being concocted by the Muslims. A few Arab or other western Asian emissaries in the courts of the Sinhalese and Tamil kings have nothing to do with these local Sri Lankan Muslims of Dravidian South Indian origin and many of these emissaries at that time were not even Muslim but Christian or other religion. Arab explorers who came to the island even as late as 1377 never mention about any Arab/Part Arab or Muslims settlements. anywhere in the island. The Arabs traders only arrived in South India , not here and this was a few hundred over a span of a few centuries and only a few amongst them took local low caste Tamil women as their keeps. Most of the Muslims are converts, largely from the lower castes. When they to the island they landed along the then Tamil north west coast and western littoral , as they were ethnically Tamil and were more at home amongst their fellow Tamils. Even where ever they settled along the western coast originally they gave Tamil/Malabar Tamil names. No Arabic or Sinhalese names although many are now Sinhalised. Peru vallai( the big bend in Tamil ) is now Signalised to Beruwela . They were settled along then Tamil western and north western coast that was part of the Tamil Jaffna kingdom and traded from here.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 10, 2019
Contd: The Portuguese captured these areas and persecuted them 1) for not converting to Catholicism 2) Trading rivalry. It was then they fled to the Sinhalese Kandyan kingdom. The Sinhalese at the beginning reluctantly accepted them but when more and more of them started to arrive, started to kill and persecute them. In desperation King Senarath of Kandy asked the Tamil chiefs of the eastern Vanniamai who were under his lose control to accept these fleeing Muslim refugees, as they will be more at home amongst the Tamils, as they spoke Tamil and were ethnically Tamil. They took pity on these Muslim Tamil refugees and settled them in certain areas, where the majority of them still live. Kattankudi being the first settlement and also gave many Hindu Tamil Mukkuva women for these Muslim men to start families. As most of the refugees fleeing were men, as the Portuguese had killed most of the women and children or they had perished whilst fleeing.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 10, 2019
Contd: This is the real story of Muslim settlement and origin. However all sorts of fake history is now being concocted so that they can make a claim that is not valid on the ancient Tamil lands along the north western coast and east, that they have no right to. Many of these so called Sri Lankan Moors/Muslims only migrated from South India after the British rule. Muslims came 1000 years ago and are descended from Arabs but they still speak a South Indian Malabar Tamil Muslim dialect and until 20 years ago, their culture was very Tamil South Indian in every way until they started to radicalize and Arabise themselves.
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Eagle Eye / June 10, 2019
Siva Sankaran Sharma,
“However all sorts of fake history is now being concocted so that they can make a claim that is not valid on the ancient Tamil lands along the north western coast and east, that they have no right to.”
Demalu are notorious for concocting all sorts of fake history to claim a ‘Traditional Homeland’ in Sinhale. The area that Demalu claim as so called ‘Traditional Homeland’ was the cradle of Sinhala Buddhist civilization. Sinhala Kingdoms that lasted for thousands of years were in the Northern part of the country. Those Kingdoms were razed to the ground by Dravidian invaders forcing Sinhalayo to move to the South.
===
Knowing that the descendants of slaves brought to Sinhale illegally by colonial rulers cannot claim a separate State or a Federal entity in Sinhale, illegal immigrant Chelvanayakam started a project to distort the history of Sinhale to make a claim for a separate State.
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If it is not for the import of slaves from Malabar by colonial rulers, the present Demala population in this country is around 3%. That 3% is from the Demalu who came with invaders and were allowed to stay in this country by Sinhala Kings.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 11, 2019
Half Malay half low caste Sinhalese Eagle Blind aka Mahindapala , now living the good life in Melbourne Australia , thanks to his Tamil wife’s relatives , the descendants of all these low caste/untouchable slaves from South India , imported in to the island by the Portuguese and then the Dutch to do menial labour and service work , are the Sinhalese Karawa, Salagama, Durawa, Hunu, Hali and many other Sinhalese castes and they make up around 50% of the present day so called Sinhalese population , many like you now beating the anti Tamil drum. The vast majority of the so called low country Sinhalese , especially the ones from the western and southern littorals are descended from these low caste South Indian slave imports . This is the reason the present day Sinhalese share a 70% DNA with Indian Tamils compared to the 17% shared by the Sri Lankan Tamils , proving who is really descended from Indian Tamil immigrants and invaders , from ancient to modern. Most of you so called Sinhalese aristocracy and upper castes are also South Indian imports. just look at all the Govigamma family names, all a Tamil who is who. 40% of modern Sinhalese language vocabulary is derived from proper Tamil or its local dialect Elu. 100% of Sinhalese grammar , lexicon, syntax and alphabet is derived from Tamil not Sanskrit or Pali. Everything about the Sinhalese is Tamil and not from anyone or anywhere. Even your wife is Tamil . Go and take a hike
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Mohd / June 11, 2019
Siva Sankaran Sharma,
.
“all these low caste/untouchable slaves from South India , imported in to the island by the Portuguese and then the Dutch to do menial labour and service work”
.
An unwashed pot calling the kettle black :-(
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Rohan / June 12, 2019
The unwashed pot is you low caste converted fake Arab Dravidian immigrant from South India. This island is in a mess because of fake Arab converted low caste South Indian Dravidians like you , brainwashed by your selfish and opportunistic , power hungry politicians and elite, to consider yourselves as Arabs and spread Wahhabism, desert Arab culture and Sharia at any costs and Sinhalese Buddhist Fascists largely again descended from low caste South Indian slave labour and immigrants but again brainwashed by their selfish power hungry politicians, elite and most in Buddhist monks to consider themselves as some sort of blue blooded Aryans andto converte the island a Sinhalese Buddhist into a Sinhalese Buddhist Fascist land. Both these people largely descended from low caste converted Indian Tamil immigrants one lot in the name of Islam brainwashed to consider themselves as Arabs and the other lot in the name of Sinhalese Buddhist Fascism brainwashed to consider themselves as Aryans and both these brainwashed creatures with some sort of identity crises are leading the island into chaos.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Eagle Blind Eye
–
Let’s forget about Sinhala History and talk about your family ancestry.
Which part of South India did your ancestors come from?
When and how did they sneak into this island, as part of Erivirar mercenary contingent, or artisans, …. b***s carriers to Tamil Merchants, …….. or simply economic refugees.
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Did the agent who smuggled you into this island promise you heaven on earth?
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K.Anaga / June 11, 2019
When you do not have appropriate arguments you descend to personal level Eagle. It is the Pot calling the Electric Kettle black.
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rbh / June 10, 2019
Education for peacebuilding or start of division in time of admission to school in the past it wast there any sign board which say some are not accommodate have a survey get reading to find the proportion research. inequalities and root causes of conflict.
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Lankan 7 / June 10, 2019
It is Sinhalese racism that goes virus now.So, bad, it could destroy this nations. Consider, if they do not like Arab letters, Arab culture, Arab traditions, how on earth they love Arab money. 3 million Lankan works in Middle East? How do they love Arab loans interest free? while china charges a huge amount of interest. Arab did not ask a piece of land from Sri Lanka when they gave money.? what stupidity is this? where do you take this nation. Sri Lankan is trapped between Indo-Chinese game. So sorry.
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Real Revolutionist / June 10, 2019
Lankan 7
We have enough languages; Sinhala, Tamil & English to use in the country.
Why should we add more complexity to our social structure?
Extremism might demand in the future to add invasive languages to our language list so it’s wise to give it a full stop @ the very beginning.
Anybody has a right to learn any language, even tribal to use outside the country or inside in personal capacity.
As international trade is part & parcel of anybody’s life currency belong to everybody irrespective of where it originated.
As far as money is earned for labor or through business it’s that individual’s money.
Understand that there should be dignity for labor & stop belittling those earn money anywhere in the world.
It’s finance management/accountancy that requires interest for capital & it’s silly concept that interest free loans.
It’s clear from your own words that interest free loans demand goodwill as interest.
The fear that by planting their language, they may try to make it their one day as there’re such fools in this country to support them (probably like you).
We know very well that both Indians & Chinese are human beings so we can solve any issue with them but the problem is, are Arabs human beings?
In other words Indo-China game (if any) isn’t a problem for us.
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Tamil Man / June 10, 2019
Indo-Chinese game is not a problem for you. What stupidity is this? what is wrong with you. It is Indra Ghanaian who created Tigers? what is your guarantee that India or Tamil Nadu will not interfere with us again. you are stupid man. who live within 4 wall of Sri Lanka. You think about this, any political change in centre in India could make a hell for Sri Lanka like before. 75 Million Tamils live across the north of Sri Lanka. so, we must be careful about Tamil issue and Tamils. No Tamil Nadu leader visited Sri Lanka yet, they are holding grudge over Sinhalese race for treating minorities badly. that is not good for Sri Lanka. how long this cold war between Tamils and Sinhalese could last.. When will it become a hot war again as it took place before. Read Tamil News papers of Tamil Nadu to about this. You do not read Tamil News papers so you do not know anything about it.. Do not think that tigers are sleeping.
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Real Revolutionist / June 10, 2019
Tamil Man
It’s natural for some to take time to wake up to the truth.
The war for separate country for Tamils in SL is over but remnants may prevail for sometime (like you).
We needn’t bother the Indian population as it belongs to India, not Sri Lanka.
I don’t think you intend a threat upon Sri Lanka like one of our Muslim politician has said that though we’re minority here we’re majority in the world.
Let me say that tell the tigers awake to come again.
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TAMIL MAN / June 10, 2019
You are not real R. rather you are one of Racist Sinahalese. you will never learn lessons from history. You look like Hitler type racists. World must be free of people like you. Let us see your karma turn on you for your hatred of all minorities..
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Real Revolutionist / June 11, 2019
Tamil Man
It’s you highlight your race, identifying yourself as “Tamil” man.
Not in me dear friend, racism is so high.
On what grounds you call me racist?
On what grounds you say I have hatred for minorities?
Please don’t waste words.
To my understanding, in SL, there’re Tamil racists, Muslim racists & handful of Sinhala thugs (not @ all racists).
Tamil & Muslim racists instigate this handful of Sinhala thugs & call them by many names like racists, extremists, terrorists.
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Lanka Perera / June 10, 2019
Arabs are not asking for a piece of land, but they are aiming to gobble the entire country. Arab loans are given interest free to build mosques and madarasas to propagate Arab extremism. 3 million Lankans are working in middle east because those countries do not have adequate labour to manage the affairs. Once oil revenue finishes all these people will be sent home. Sri Lanka became trapped in Indo-Chinese game because of foolish act of Mahinda Rajapakse who wanted to bring China in to checkmate India, in the process pocketing money for allowing white elephant projects. China is using Pakistani agents to create trouble to this government who have the support of India, USA and west. They have done this by whipping up Muslim racism which is now rampant to challenge Sinhala authority. Wearing of Arabic dresses are signs of Islamic racism which have to be wiped out.
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Rishard / June 10, 2019
Indian interest in SL or in any other neighboring countries is linked to Indo-American relations. They need to satisfy their master who says them “you should not give it to China in the region, and we will provide you anything”.
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Amarasiri / June 11, 2019
Lankan 7,
“Consider, if they do not like Arab letters, Arab culture, Arab traditions, how on earth they love Arab money. 3 million Lankan works in Middle East? “
Para-Sinhala Buddhists did not like Para-Tamil languages and Para-Tamil cultures, as well as Para-Muslim cultures, especially the Para-Arab cultures. The Para-Western Religions and cultures were imposed by force by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English,, and the are now acclimated to the Para-Latin Western Alphabet, and the Para-Western Dress.
They have not yet acclimated to the Para Arab culture and dress, as it is still Barbarian and Greek to them. When the Paras initially arrived illegally, the Native Veddah Aethho thought about the Para culture and language the same way, the Barbarian and ‘Greek’ to them.
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Eagle Eye / June 10, 2019
When there is a cricket match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan or Bangladesh, I am wondering to which team Muslims in Sri Lanka cheer?
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Rishard / June 10, 2019
“which team Muslims in Sri Lanka cheer?” – 90% do support SL team, if they are inside Sri Lanka. 100% do support SL team if they are watching from our side Sri Lanka. Why doesn’t that 10% inside Sri Lanka support their own team is a great question. If you send the same 10% outside to watch a match between the same teams, they will definitely support SL team that is by seeing & experiencing ordinary Pakkis arrogance.
.
The sense of belonging that gets created automatically when someone outside SL, is not there when inside SL for these 10%. This is something majority, minority & politicians should work together to achieve. Agreed, idiocy of some Muslims play a role in such an attitude too.
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Muhandiram / June 11, 2019
Whom do the Sinhalese living in England or Australia support when SL plays against England or Australia? Obviously SL. Nothing Wrong with that, right?
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Ahamed Nadvi / June 10, 2019
Dear ( high cast Tamil) SSS
Why can’t you write an exclusive and extensive article on the subject of Sri Lanka Muslims rather than commenting paragraphs length on dffernt subject, enabling the interested parties to fully engaged with the subject matter and put their finding,research and facts?
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Mahesh S. / June 10, 2019
Ahamed Nadvi – he won’t do that since counter-attacks will reveal all about tobacco plants, Portuguese masters, Malabar and how Thesawalamai came into practice.
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Pandi Kutti / June 11, 2019
Lots of Thullkans now posting anti Thamizh hatred under fake Chingkalla/Thamizh identity
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Mahesh S. / June 11, 2019
Pandi Kutti – See, the moment I pull out your tobacco card, you get upset. Why? LOL
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Mallaiyuran / June 11, 2019
” See, the moment I pull out your tobacco card, you get upset.
Mahesh, you pulled out Piglet’s card, not yours. Piglet only said you are not his category. You consciously or unconsciously addressing to him as “Your tobacco card”. Isn’t that telling you are not a Jaffa Vellala farmer, but only a Northwest Cinnamon Peeler? I don’t get where Piglet went wrong. Then what is the reason for your jubilation, Mahesh.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Mahesh S
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Please tell us how Thesawalamai came into practice and explain what it is.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 11, 2019
There is enough and more historical research fake/concocted and actual. Please read. Just because I posted this truth ,does not mean I am anti Sri Lankan Muslim or casteist and want them to be harmed. Even if the Muslims started to arrive from South India from the very late 14Th century , they have been in the island for 600 years and have created a unique indigenous Tamil Islamic Sufi culture , that has to be preserved but not this recently arrived Wahhabi/Salafist Arabic culture and dress forms and aggressive behaviour. I also do not condone this anti Muslim witch hunt of innocent ordinary Muslims and the threat to their lives and properties. I may not like the Abaya. Burkha, Nikab b but that does not mean , a Muslim woman who wears this should be subjected to violence and humiliation and be fearful of her life.
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Amarasiri / June 11, 2019
Eagle Eye,
“When there is a cricket match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan or Bangladesh, I am wondering to which team Muslims in Sri Lanka cheer?”
Great Question. Low IQ Muslims, below mean of 79, support Low IQ Pakistanis and Low IQ Bangladeshis/? Anybody fasting unto death in Sri Lanka these days, besides killing each other? .
Is stupidity a virtue for Sri Lankn Muslims, just like for the Sinhala Buddhists, that becomes an asset in Afterlife?
High IQ Muslims support SL Team,.
Ask the same Question from the Tamils, when Sri Lankans Plays against India as well, . Muslims will support SL against India, as it is the Sri Lankan culture over 2,500 years even though they All are Paras from India.
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Hamlet / June 11, 2019
Eagle Eye:-
When there is a cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia, I am wondering to which team ‘Sri Lankan Born Australians’ Cheer?
Why don’t Sinhalese and Tamil Australians back Australia, and not Sri Lanka?
Why are they divided only in Sri Lanka?
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Eagle Blind Eye
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Stupid South Indian Kallathonie convert,
Nation of Islam does not respect borders, hence doesn’t corner and box the people into tiny spaces such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kattankudy, Saudi …. etc.
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Go read up on Global Caliphate.
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Chitra / June 10, 2019
The most important point is that these racists have sent thousands of their own including family members to Muslim nations, not to Buddhist nation Myanmar, to earn thousands of dollars, to build homes, buy lands, start their businesses, pay of their loans, and give their children in marriage. Is that okay? Despite some of those nation mistreating our workers, they still send them over there. What if those nations refuse to hire Sinhala Buddhist workers and hire Muslims only?
When they are critically ill, do they question whose blood is given to them to recover? Do they question who built that massive hospital wing at the cancer hospital in Maharagama, when they take their family for treatment that could be life saving? What if the people who built it say it is for Muslims only?
As they boycott innocent Muslims, and their businesses, do they have the intelligence to realize it is going to affect the economy of the entire nation? These racists could not tolerate the success of Tamil businesses, and now it seems the Muslims are targeted, is this envy, or the inability to realize that the success of these minority businesses are all through sheer hard work and sacrifice.
These racist new taxis services and others that are now springing up, should be banned from operating in our small island. This is sheer discrimination, and and the arrogance of some in the majority. This country is for all, and there should be laws banning racist businesses, run by anyone. Perhaps they are still not smart enough to realize that no racist business can succeed when they discriminate against a large portion of the population. Which leader in the government has the spine to address this, and set the rules on how businesses, and people must operate, without discrimination, in our multi cultural, multi religious nation?
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Eagle Eye / June 10, 2019
Soon after the terrorist attack, to my knowledge, not a single Muslim was harmed. Normally in this sort of situations, the backlash takes place immediately. Anti-Muslim riots started three week after the attack. Muslims should hold this rotten irresponsible Government for allowing those incidences to take place. This Government failed to prevent the attack and subsequent riots. Muslim politicians who are with the Government also should be held responsible for their failure to fulfil their duties. Could be the Government/Muslim politicians had a hand in those incidences as it happened in 1983.
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Native Vedda / June 11, 2019
Eagle Blind Eye
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“not a single Muslim was harmed. “
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The details of destruction, victims, ……… etc was given to the parliament by Rishard during a debate.
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Please contact Soma for his part in the riots.
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Please also find surgeons who can repair both of your eyes by laser eye surgery or laser vision correction. It doesn’t cost you much.
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Noor Nizam / June 10, 2019
“With changes in personal appearance, with proliferation of bigger and elaborately designed mosques and madrasas, and with the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema’s (ACJU) vigorous pursuit over the halal issue, the Muslim community was set on a path of self-alienation at a critical time when the Tamil ethnic issue was ripping the country apart”…….
“In this regard, the utter failure of Muslim political and religious leadership to detect this isolationist trend and take counter measures to arrest and reverse it, allowed some observers from both inside and outside the community to raise the question about Muslims’ belief and belonging……
RIGHT TO REPLY:
“The Muslim Voice” respects your view points in your article, but “The Muslim Voice” feels that it is the duty of “The Muslim Voice” to place facts before the Muslim readers/Muslim Umma in Sri Lanka concerning the matters affecting the Muslim community at large. Here is a reminder of some facts for your kind consideration, Insha Allah.
The ACJU – Rizvi Mufthi has still NOT answered the question raised by “The Muslim Voice” regarding their relationship with the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime during 2005 -1015. The ACJU received a large block of land in Colombo 12 from former President Mahinda Rajapaksa when they were politically flirting with the UPFA/SLFP government and no one knows what happened to this block of state land that the ACJU got from Mahinda.
The ACJU and Rizvi Mufthi should answer the questions raised by “The Muslim Voice” before he replys BBS. “The Muslim Voice” has been asking this/these questions many times before this too.
This is “NOT DECRYING”. The ACJU-The Halal Accreditation Council (Guarantee) Limited has “DEFAULTED” nearly 2 million Muslims in Sri Lanka, especially with regards to the pig oil presence certification of the imported and distributed/marketed milk powder in Sri Lanka.
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D.P. / June 10, 2019
I have suspicions as to your true allegiance. Are you another Jihadist worked under the cover of SLFP now living in Canada?
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Noor Nizam / June 10, 2019
I do NOT wish to respond to your “IDIOTIC” suspicion, other than these few words.
Noor Nizam.
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Ayathuray Rajasingam / June 10, 2019
We agree with the writer. But there are concrete evidences of some Ministers and Governors having close links with the ISIS. When the same thing happened to the Tamils in 1983 every one remained silent when the Tamils suffered during which period the Tamil militants were never heard of. The Tamils never had a struggle on religious line. It appears that just because about 70,000 innocent people died in each events in the JVP insurgents in 1971 and 1988 and in the Mullivaikkal, every were under the impression the same might be repeated to the Muslims after the Easter carnage. The incidents of bombing at the churches, hotels, hospitals at Kurunegala and Kurunegala and Kandy demonstrate that they have close links with the Muslim Minister & Governors in addition to the incidents at Hindu temples at Trincomalee and Jaffna by Muslims as pretended assistants to the priests. Leave alone the ISIS. When Wahabbism showed its presence in the Eastern Province, Muslim politicians should have protested, but they encouraged. If Zaharan was a Madrasa drop out, Muslims should have discouraged the formation of National Tawheed Jamaat. Instead Hisbullah has demonstrated his close links and it is surprising there are a large number if ISIS cadres. The resignation of entire Muslim Ministers after one month also raises suspicion whether they are staging a drama. When Indonesia can demonstrate the harmony of all religions, why can’t Sri Lanka follow that step. When Indonesia can have the image of Lord Ganesha in its national currency, why should Hindu temples be targeted with the blessings of the Muslims in the Eastern Province. The West appreciated Indonesia’s trend of religious harmony. It is useless speaking of the innocence of the Muslims which was rebutted by the 1917 Sinhalese-Muslims riots and recently by the activities of Hisbullah and Rishard Badudeen.
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JD / June 11, 2019
Ameer Ali: there is another side to this both Bathiuddin and Hisbulla began Loving Arab money. Sinhala poltiicians also helped in that by letting Bathiuddin import weapons and accepting Humongous political donations.
Remember why Mangala Smaraweera fired PSM charles, former GA who became the Customs BOSS. Bathiuddin imported container loads and sold to India with those weapons also came. Bathiuddin’s Brother and Zaharan Father in LAw with Bathiuddin. When those got caught Mangala Samraweera fired PSM Charles and tried to settle the case. So, sinhala politicians supported the Terrorist Attack. You can not forget the fact that USA wants Saudi Arabia to spend money on JIHAD terrorism and support it. So, Saudi arabia does both together. that is Jihadi Terrorism and spreading Desert version of ISLAM.
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M. Jabir / June 11, 2019
Our beloved Prophet (PBUH) said –> Every newly introduced practice into the Deen of Islam is an innovation, every such innovation is a misguidance and every misguidance leads to “Hellfire”. Therefore this “Tableegh Jamaath” (TJ) is one such innovation, regardless of which year it was introduced or by whom. Believers shouldn’t be trapped by this “illusionary cult” called TJ or any other rubbish.
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Aiyoaiyo2 / June 11, 2019
A iyoaiyo2
M Jabir
Have the TJ boys ever read the Koran. They do not have the IQ to go beyond the Thaalim.
Aiyoaiyo2
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Candid / June 11, 2019
M. Jabir you fool. Don’t quote Hadees without understanding what it means. Innovation is a word too big for your warped mind. Go to Montessori and learn Islam before putting your 2 cents comments.
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M. Jabir / June 13, 2019
@ Candid,
you idiot, imbecile & infidel…..who the hell are you to tell me what Innovation means, you bloody FOOL mind your language.
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Mallaiyuran / June 11, 2019
A long and complete explanation of what are “Umma” and “Watan”! In the recent days seeing the two phrases frequently, “Muslim in Sri Lanka” and “Muslim of Sri Lanka” and wondered what was that new strife is all about. Now it appears to be some Koranic or Hadith usage.
For me, those two differences are not matter. In Indian community, last century, first they argued the widows should be allowed to marry, because they needed personal income (Did not like to pay tax for social welfare). Then, when divorce and marriage was needed, they attempted to chastity as the faith of to the one living with. I was little bothered about those social issue those days. It long after I realized the ones trying to explain those circumstances were far away from the UN declarations, which defined those as simply a woman’s FR issue. The dedication & attachment to the country living and the country they were born are tearing apart, competing issue for refugees. Refugees are not the one left their land for their personal benefits. They were yank out and thrown away. My contention is people can be or “is” or “of” for the country when that is their adopted home. For example, in US, the government has had the agreement signed from all naturalized citizens that they will serve in defense when it is needed, and then it can be against their mother land too. In the WWII, Jewish refugees willing joined Canadian and US armed services and fought against their home land, Germany. Tamil refugees are thinking their mother land is Eelam, but they were plugged out from there by Appe Aanduwa. So they have no regard to Appe Aanduwa and if asked by their living country to serve against Aanduwa, none of them will have any hesitation. But Muslim living in Lankawe pledging by their heart to Mecca, not for Lankawe, where they live, not for TN (India) from where they came, is an issue.
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Mallaiyuran / June 11, 2019
Sinhalese so attached to their cricket team. They give their blood and flesh to its victory. But Muslim friends watching the game with them shouting “Go Pakistan Go” against Lankawe is an action demolish the faith on Muslims. Then, after spying against LTTE for money, when they claimed it was the ultimate patriotism, Sinhalese may believe the Thero de Silva’s smart patriotism, but not Muslims’ Arabic patriotism.
Rishard is the one as soon as the attack took place, claimed it was LTTE and there were no Muslims and he had confirmed with the defense heads. When he got came to know his people were arrested too, he called Army Commander to show his personality and get them out. Yet some decency should have been in him when Army commander had released that information to media, Rishard to resigned and wait until the inquiry is completed. Beyond that there are many links are suspected Hezbollah and Rishard having connection with NTJ, the local ISIS. At this time UNP’s popularity is at the bottom of the well. It is the opposition has the hay day. Opposition asked Rishard to resign and face the case, outside of cabinet. Rishard used Ranil. But Ranil and Mahendran created the worst example in the past. So no Sinhalese wanted to believe either Ranil or Rishard. This gave a chance to a Buddhist Monk to take the things in his hand & go for fasting. Then Muslim ministers helped Rishard to dodge the bullet. Muslim Ministers resigned unitedly against Sinhala Monks, who have the final say in the Lankawe politics. Muslim ministers directly took on the Sinhala Monks and then showed them the OIC and issued threat, that if their sayings are not going through. Ayatollahs humbled to ask to come back those who were not accused. Muslim ministers were not ready for any in between solution.
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Mallaiyuran / June 11, 2019
Are they using this blackmailing as the Arabic patriotism? Sinhala Monks and Tamils not at equal parity in Lankawe politics, but Muslim ministers failed to recognize that Tamil MPs too fasted, in East, and Central area. Tamil villagers went one step ahead and redeemed their offering to Gods with Pongal in temples for the ministers’ resignation. But Muslim ministers pointed their fingers on the Monks.
By Mistake, many in that community believed that spying on LTTE is forever and their favored minority status cannot be challenged. When they were supporting to impeach Amirthalingam and Hakeem made Sampanthar & TNA to sit & wait in the proposed meeting room for him, but he secretly negotiating with Old King and going home, this is what was in the leaders’ perception.
Ethically, one can be faithful to the newly married husband, or even to the devoiced one too, if that was only working out with in the men. But the Muslim members’ behaviors even cannot be explained by that metaphor. If I am requested to fight against Tamil Eelam, by the oath I took, the legal obligation to me is to fight, or cancel the US connection, if that will work like it did (“not”) for Old Brother Prince. But the case is not that clean and cut for Hezbollah. Hezbollah said 7000 richest Muslim are leaving the country, with a feeling, in addition to the 9 ministers resigned in protest for requesting Hezbollah to resign. As the third back up, he is saying that OIC is coming too. My question to Hezbollah is, if OIC launch a military action on Lankawe, because Appe Aanduwa has put Hezbollah out, where is Hezbollah Arabic Patriotism is standing? Is he going to fight for Lankawe or his allegiance is with OIC? So, when OIC win Lankawe, does he still want the nominated MP position from the Sinhala party, Minister Post from Ranil and gubernatorial position from New King? Come on Guys!
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Mallaiyuran / June 11, 2019
Leave that all, but let’s look at two matters to measure the patriotism of our Arabian ministers. From 1948, the Muslim ministers have been only with the winning political Sinhala Party. All these ministers were in the Chitanta government until 2015 Jan. Until last week they all were UNP MPs. Now they have resigned all together after New King announced the election date, hoping to jump the ship if Slap party candidate wins EP election. These guys are really, really patriotists? These guys are born Tamils in Tamil Nadu. They came to Ceylon few generations ago. Last 15 years they are wearing Burqa, planting dates, following Arabian architecture to building and struggling to speak Arabic to claim that they are original Arabians. In which dictionary it is defined that these opportunistic frauds are Patriotic citizens? Muslim Minsters definitely needs some psychological consultation for this dangerous behavior. I don’t think even pus dripping head Ranil, I suspect it was he who advised them to resign as Muslim Ministers union, will hire them back as the union in whole. It looks like some of them are permanently gone. Kafir Hassim may not get honest Sinhalese votes too. He is biggest looser. (May be 400 Kilos!)
After seeing all these ultimate destruction, Amir Ali said, it looks like Appe Aanduwa is the one rented ISIS(This is not the actual wording-but that is what he meant). Oh Ya? Where was he all these times for all these to happen? He never did who Zahren is, but he only knows all Muslims Mullahs had complained to police against him?
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Mallaiyuran / June 11, 2019
A note of caution:
” After seeing all these ultimate destruction, Amir Ali said, ……
“Amir Ali” is the Ex.Minister Amir Ali, not CT’s Dr. Ameer Ali. Sorry for the deficiency.
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Concerned citizen / June 11, 2019
Amir Ali
Your analysis is spot on, 100% accurate, what now for the Sri Lankan Muslims?
One of the main agendas of Buddhists is to reduce the Muslim population, by any means; the Tamils migrated in scores during the war and so is the burgers, hence they think the same strategy will work for the Muslims as well
But what they don’t understand is that majority of the Muslims are impoverished and struggling to make ends meet, and they are totally oblivious to the fact about population growth and other manufactured paranoia by the Buddhists, and those Muslims like you who can afford and qualified to make a living has already migrated
So if the Buddhist wants to reduce the Muslims population by getting them to migrate, what they should do is to pour money on them and allow them to come out of poverty, and get good education so that they will leave this full blown racist country in double quick time
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 12, 2019
No one will want these fake Arab radicalised low caste converted Dravidian Wahhabis from South India. They were kicked out of their original South Indian Tamil homeland for being for being traitors and backstabbers and they will never be welcomed back there. The Arabs and Pakistanis will use them, brainwash them , fund them and radicalise them , to create problems to suit their needs but are racist to the core and will never want them in their lands. Arabs from one nation, do not even accept other Arabs belonging to other nations, definitely not these fake Arab low caste converts fro South Asia , whom they treat a slaves , when they work in their lands. Pakistanis are very racist and colour conscious and will not accept these dark Dravidian Muslims. They treated the former East Pakistanis very badly for this same reason , as they were dark ethnic Bengali and will not want these Muslims. The Malays/Indonesians will not want them too for the same reason. The Malays treat the Indian Muslims like shit, so will every other Islamic nation , all despite talking about Islamic brotherhood are all racist to the core. The west will not want these radicalised , bask stabbing trouble makers in their backyard. All ready they have problems with the Muslims who arrived there a few generations ago , as immigrants and refugees and will not want more of them. They will never be generous to these Muslims , as they were to the Tamils , as they knew the Tamils will be an asset but these people will not and will be trouble on the long run. Especially after the Easter bombing of Christian churches. Many westerners even if they were not religious , were upset by this act and the wanton killing of Christians. This is the reason Sri Lankan Muslims used to go the west and seek asylum as ethnic Tamils and down play their Muslim religion/identity, however the west has no caught onto this game.
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Mohamed / June 11, 2019
Govt, non-Muslims and even most of the Muslims should realize that local Muslims started to isolate themselves, of course without themselves knowing after arrival of Tableegh Jamaath from India. It further deteriorated with arrival of Taweed Jamath from India. Govt, Muslim politicians and mainly Muslim religious leadership should be responsible for this. ACJU being the recognized organization in SL consisting thousands of learned Moulavis should have been involving more actively, and not allowing Tableegh and Taweed organizations to overtake them from the beginning. They should have held discussions time to time with other religious leaders, mainly Buddhists monks when these issues came out signaling some mild smoke, because whole issue didn’t start on Easter Bombing alone. Muslim community is clearly lacking leadership
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Hussain Fahmy / June 11, 2019
All Criminals irrespective of their faith / religion, who kill, plunder, life and property of the innocent people should be dealt with the full extent of the law. No mercy.
A choice in culture represents the freedom of expression. A dress code has no bearing on criminal intent / behaviour as such it should not be vilified or be a threat to anyone. Every country should give the right to its citizens to dress as they please, hopefully within the bounds of decency.
The danger is when one community / country tries to impose / enforce their set of values on the other and vice versa. Sri Lanka should move with the Times.
A progressive community embraces change as opportunity and to build a pluralistic society.
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Mallaiyuran / June 12, 2019
” A progressive community embraces change as opportunity and to build a pluralistic society. ”
Hussain Fahmy
So, when is this pluralistic society going to be born on the earth?
April 22, 571 AD?
1500 years back or forth?
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Socrates / June 12, 2019
The civilizational responsibility of unbelievers, non believers and other non Muslims on whom the Muslims hang like parasites for their existence is to phase out Islam with minimal physical harm to the brainwashed. This latter requirement is a serious constraint that will prolong the operation into a couple of centuries. However it is imperative that non Islamic ethical standards are maintained in this long drawn out process. Therefore the brainwashed should not be hated but looked upon with empathy, while of course safeguarding your life and limb.
X
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SJ / June 12, 2019
“…the anti-Muslim wave that started long before the Easter infamy.”
The Muslim politicians should have sensed it much before the likes of you and I did.
They did more and more to make things to make matters worse for the Muslims by bartering their political integrity for posts and positions.
Even now, has any Muslim leadership have the foggiest idea of how to address the aspirations of the Muslim nationality whose existence as a community is a lot more complex than other nationalities.
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What many political analysts miss out is that the vasty majority of Muslims are workers and peasants.
Likewise, the majority of Tamils did not make a living out of education.
Many were deliberately denied education, and there are vast regions that were educationally backward in the East and even the north.
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shankar / June 12, 2019
siva sanka
“so you do not appreciate our ancient customs and traditions , that have been there for thousands of years.”
our ancestors thousands of years ago did not have toilets.They went and did it in the open air.Do you still want to go and squat in the open fields or do you want to come to the 21st century.I’am not interested in ancient customs and go backwards.I like to go forward.I am a born and bred colombo tamil so i don’t have your antiquated ideas,thank god.Live in colombo for a change and then you can be welcomed into the 21st century.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 13, 2019
Yes may be your ancestors did not have one but mine had. You must be one of these recent Indian origin Tamils living in Colombo, or a Colombo Chetty or Thothukudi Paravan( Bharatha) with a grudge against the indigenous Tamils from the north and east , who have an ancient connection , history and traditions to their land , that you do not have and so do not appreciate these and hate them , as they have this and you do not have it and join with Sinhalese racists and Muslim opportunists to run them down. Have seen your types . You not interested in ancient history or traditions , as you do not have anything , like we have . People who have these like the Indians. British , Chinese and many others respect it appreciate and preserve it , even when others have tried to destroy it. Recent largely low caste or other opportunistic trading communities from South India like the Chetties and Nadars do not have it and do not like the indigenous Tamils trying to fight for their Just rights in their own land and preserve their ancient laws and traditions. Strange very sympathetic towards the Sinhalese preserving their laws and traditions but not the island’s Tamils. Many you are not even a Tamil of any sort but a Sinhalese racist posting under a Tamil identity , like many do
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Concerned citizen / June 12, 2019
The fake Arab low caste are fair skinned and well accepted everywhere than the assumed high caste dark skinned coolies from the jungle who has to suck up to every one to get accepted
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / June 13, 2019
Oh really the vast majority of the island’s Muslims are very dark skinned and only a very small percentage have light skin due to either selective breeding or slightly mixed blood from a distant Arab or otherWestern Asian/ North Indian/Afghan ancestor . These people will not even amount to 40000 out of a population of 2 million Sri Lankan Muslims. Take must be wearing some sort of tinted glasses , take out your stupid prejudice brain washed bias and walk around the streets of Colombo , Maradana and Slave Island slums or go to the Puttalam /Mannar regions or eastern province and see how the ordinary Muslims look . Just look at all the photos of all the Muslim columnists here . They all look very South Indian Dravidian that they really are. Not even one of them remotely looks like an Arab. Lots of Sinhalese and Tamils are also very light skinned but do not claim all sorts of origins , even if they have . Very poor and uneducated response as you like most Muslims do not like the truth to be told. There is nothing wrong with a dark skin. White westerners cannot differentiate much between the various shades of brown skin that Sri Lankans and Indians have. They make a big hue and a cry about this but to them we all look the same , just like many westerners and East Asians look to us. In fact many westerners prefer the darker skinned Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamils to the lighter skinned North Indians , Arabs, Afghans and this is the truth
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K.Anaga / June 12, 2019
If you go back to history you will never come to a settlement. Whether we liked it or not, we wee under foreign rule for over 400 years and supposed to have got our Freedom? in 1948. Whether it is a freedom for all communities or only for the Sinhalese is debatable. Hence look back at population which existed in North, East South and West in 1948 and form a federal solution according to population basis.
North and East will be Tamils and Tamil Speaking Muslims the rest Sinhalese divides as Kandiyans and other Sinhalese. SWRD also thought in those terms but when one race becomes greedy to own the whole country the Country will be in pieces and there won’t be Peace. Details could be worked out honestly and sincerely and no love will be lost, instead it will flourish.
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shankar / June 14, 2019
k.anaga
agree with you that this is the only permanent solution.However i feel that bhuddhist monks will always block it just like they did to the banda chelva pact.
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M. Jabir / June 13, 2019
@Aiyoaiyo2
In fact, the one who commented under “pseudonym Candid” understood my narrative, yet his arrogance and corrupt ideology won’t let him digest the truth, because he is one of the Satanic Thableegi, whose incorrigible mindset is so deeply entrenched into this TJ Shithole Cult, and he still has the audacity to write the gibberish he wrote – There are none so blind as those who will not see, – that’s all I can say in conclusion. Btw tks for ur comment.
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