28 March, 2024

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Northern Muslim Expulsion & Tamil Leadership

By Shahul Hasbullah

Prof. Shahul Hasbullah

Prof. Shahul Hasbullah

An event on October 30, 2016

Last Sunday, October 30, 2016, a commemoration event was organised in Colombo by the newly formed group “North Muslim Civil Society” on the theme of “A necessary Solution for Northern Muslims”. I was struck by the fact that the chief guest and guest of honor were the prominent political leaders of the Sri Lankan Tamil community, and leaders of the opposition. These leaders are spokespersons of the rights of Tamils of Sri Lanka. I decided to travel to Colombo from Kandy, to participate in the event even though I had not received a formal invitation.

A Similar event held in the City of Jaffna

On the same date, at the same time, Muslims of Jaffna, Moor Street organized an event in Jaffna City, the heartland of Tamil nationalism, hoisting black flags. A number of similar events were held during the third week of October in different concentrations of the displaced of the north Muslims.northern-muslim-expulsion-srilanka

Expulsion of north Muslims in October 1990

The third week of October has become a symbolic time period for the north Muslims as 26 years ago in 1990 Muslims who lived in more than 100 concentrations spread across the five districts of the Northern Province were forcibly expelled wholesale neither by the war situation that existed at that time nor by any sort of tension between expelled (Muslims) and majority population (Tamils) but by the “ order from the top” as said then by all armed cadres in all Muslims locations where they successfully carried out the order. The sudden proclamation in “Jaffna Moor Concentration” which consisted about 10 per cent of the total population of the city was early morning October 30 and the order was for them to leave in two hours, leaving behind every material thing that belonged to the community or otherwise face the death; Muslims of other districts and concentrations in the north were given a 48 hour-ultimatum.

“Muslim Displaced”

From the first of November 1990, the north became depleted of its Muslim population. Since that time to the present, most of the expelled Muslims have been living as “displaced” in the southern part of the country under the patronage of the state with minimal welfare assistance. In this quarter of a century, the expelled Muslims have attempted to return home and have failed though some have managed to return intermittently on their own in desperation indirectly benefiting from no war and peace-talk situations.

“Ethnic cleansing”

Commemorating the event of expulsion has become a yearly ritual of the north Muslims for 26 years and yet their cry for justice has rarely been a concern for the custodians and guardians of law and justice. The victims labelled the month of expulsion as “Black October” but this label has never take root in media parlance or in political and human rights discourses, nationally or internationally. However, last year to the surprise of many, the visiting special representative of the US Government, Ms. Samantha Powel declared the event of expulsion of North Muslims as an act of “ethnic cleansing” at an occasion in the Moor Concentration of Jaffna on November 22, 2015 and further said that north Muslims “had experienced ethnic cleansing even before the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ was coined”. She, in fact was referring to internationally known and recognized ethnic cleansing events that happened in Bosnia in the year 1993.

Mr. Sumanthiran

Mr. Sumanthiran was the first Tamil leader to pronounce the term “ethnic cleansing” concerning the expulsion of north Muslims and acknowledge the wrong done to them by the “Tamils”. He spoke of this on two occasions in the month of October, 2015. He was conscious of what he spoke on this subject and had the courage and conscience to speak openly on this matter. He was firm in his commitment to justice and called on the Tamils to acknowledge and accept the suffering of north Muslim and their right to seek justice and redress of grievances.

Sadly, his outspoken remarks on this was neither acknowledged by the Tamils in general nor welcomed by Muslim leadership. He was very heavy criticised for his remarks within the Tamil nationalistic forces. At the same time, no Muslim leadership openly appreciated what he said and in reciprocation acknowledged the suffering and genuine aspirations of the Tamils as regards the national question of Sri Lanka.

Expectations of the presence of two Tamil leaders in the October meeting

I went to Colombo to attend the October event with many expectations. My expectation was that the two Tamil leaders would introduce or at least discuss the need for a new programme for the re-establishment Tamil-Muslim community and on the plight of north Muslims. In a brief opportunity given to me by the organizers of the event I spelt out my expectations and said that my expectation is that the two leaders will spell out a new formula on rectifying the wrong done to the north Muslims. I openly said that what we would like to hear from two leaders’ ideas arising from the foundation for reconciliation laid by Mr. Sumathiran in his earlier remarks acknowledging the ethnic cleansing of north Muslims.

A moment of Disappointment

On their turn, both “Tamil leaders” spoke at length but not on the subject of the gathering. For the most part, Mr. Sumanthiran’s speech was a response to a previous speaker in the same meeting who happened to be a Muslim member of Northern Provincial Council closely associated with a Muslim minister who heavy criticised Tamil leadership for being discriminatory towards returnee Muslims. Mr. Sumathiran questioned the sincerity of Vanni Muslim leaders in their resettlement activities in the north. On his remark on ethnic cleansing that he did last year, he said that he has been criticized by Tamils and he said that Tamils are asking why Muslim leadership have failed to acknowledge the “massacre of Tamils”. Mr. Sambanthan continued in the line of thinking initiated by Mr. Sumathiran and indicated that the Muslim leadership had failed to align with the Tamil leadership to protect north and east as a “Tamil home land.” Neither spoke on the aspirations of the north Muslims and the necessary role that the Tamil polity has to play in addressing them.

The issues of the “black” October

The core issue of Black October was lost in this political tug of war. The organizers and participants became bogged down, in my view, less important issues. Many do not realize that today the need of the expelled north Muslims is not material benefits either in the places of origin (Northern Province) or in the places of displacement (e.g., Puttalam). It is the North Muslims’ hopeful future, their identity, recognizing them as victims of war and conflict; their dignity and self-respect; the challenges of reconciliation and integration; their political rights; the protecting their minority and cultural status.

Mr. Sumanthiran’s 2015 speech laid a foundation toward bringing about a dialogue between the communities. Unfortunately, that opportunity is lost. The Muslim polity, social movements and organizations have failed to capitalize on his forthright statement for paving the way for a constructive dialogue between the two communities. The Tamil polity and movements have also failed equally to turn his remark into a golden opportunity for rebuilding trust and mutual understanding between Tamil-Muslim in the north and east and in the country. It is sad that Mr. Sumanthiran himself will succumb to the tussles within the Tamil polity and the vicissitudes of political mobilisations predicated on majoritarianism. He could have stood high and adopted a principled stance as was outlined last year. It is not too late, still. Likewise, it is an opportunity for Mr. Sambanthan to be a statesman in addressing the core issues of the day, looking beyond ethnic and regional parochialism. The opposition leader has failed to deliver the opportunity offered by Muslim civil society organization on October 30. But still there is time and room for future action on this, I believe.

The hope

I hope my expectations are not in vain. A new momentum for Tamil-Muslim reconciliation is very badly needed. On the issue of the north Muslim, the Tamil polity and society have to make the first move by recognizing the historical mistake done to this community and expressing the willingness to rectify the injustice without delay. Tamil society and its institutions (e.g., Northern Provincial Council) should not wait any longer in initiating measures to remove the painful 26 year suffering of north Muslims. North Muslims are citizen of the Northern Province. It is their right to be so though now they had to live as displaced in Puttalam and other places in the south. It is the right of their children and grand- children to feel that they too belong to north. No one can deny this right and place conditions on it. Whatever various politicians do, their omissions and commissions have little to do with the recognition of the denial of justice to North Muslims and the need to rectify it. North Muslims’ right to return is not an issue for compromise.

Note: Author is a displaced Muslim of the Northern Province.

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Latest comments

  • 8
    3

    No worries

    Mr.Sampanthan already said if Muslims support N-E merger he will consider a Muslim C.M in the north …

    Ball is in Muslim side now.

    So Muslim C M s in North & East

    After great Saudies will pump money ..money..money

    Cheers

    • 2
      3

      cholan

      “Mr.Sampanthan already said if Muslims support N-E merger he will consider a Muslim C.M in the north …”

      Consider, consider, consider.

      Will Mr.Sampanthan consider ethnically clensing Muslims after N-E merger as well.

      After all Mahaveeran Preiyavar Velupillai Prabakaran did that.

      Mr. Sampanthan, first need s to get the Muslims back from where they were expelled from.

      Who can trust the Tamils? Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi? President Premadasa, Expelled Muslims? Sinhala Buddhists?

      • 6
        0

        Ethnic cleansing whoever carried out is a crime against humanity. There is no doubt LTTE did it, but are they alone in this crime. Government of Srilanka, Sinhalese and Muslims are also guilty. The first and worst act of ethnic cleansing is the deportation of one million Tamils of recent Indian origin. At every riot, Tamils have suffered ethnic cleansing at the hands of Sinhalese. In 1956, Tamils who lived for centuries around Kondavattuwan tank in Amparai were murdered and driven out. In 1973 Tamil estate workers in upcountry areas were thrown out from estates on to the road, and lands given to Sinhalese.In 1977 Kantalai which was a Tamil majority town was ethnically cleansed. In 1983 ethnic cleansing took place in various parts of the south. In 1984 Tamils from 30 villages around Manalaru were expelled with 48 hours notice and this land is now given to Sinhalese and the place renamed Welioya. There are reports of ethnic cleansing carried out by Muslim home guards in several areas of Amparai district and Valachenai with names of Muslim politicians implicated in it. The correct position is therefore to settle all displaced people in their original places with ejecting any usurpers of those lands. This will never happen as lands of Tamils have been appropriated by Sinhalese and Muslims and no government will take action as they are happy about the demographic alteration. Until and unless there is foreign intervention Tamils will never get justice in Srilanka.

        • 4
          0

          What you say is correct. The Sinhalese and Muslims will keep on talking about the displaced Northern Muslims but completely ignore the plight of the displaced Tamils who number in their hundreds of thousands. As they have already stolen their land and do not want to return it. Moreover around 70000 Muslims were displaced but now two or three times of that original number are claiming they were displaced and claiming land. There were only around 20000 Sinhalese the most living in the north and the vast majority of them in the southern parts of Vavuniya which was under government control, therefore very few of them were displaced at all. In fact as you stated in the Manal Aru area 30 Tamil villages were ethnically cleansed and thousands of out of area Sinhalese were settled. Now the Sinhalese extremists and hardliners are falsely claiming more than 165000 Sinhalese were displaced from the north. 20000 who were hardly displaces has miraculously increased to 165000. What was that nasty Muslim minister from Mannar doing when he was in charge of settling displaced people? Instead of settling the genuinely displaced Muslims and Tamils he was busy settling thousands of out of area Muslims in many places in the north, where Muslims never existed, using funds from certain Gulf Arab states. When Tamils or Tamil MPS question this they were aggressively branded as racists or LTTE supporters, like many Muslims and Sinhalese do here. All genuinely displaced people should be resettles in their original land and the usurpers ejected of these lands. However like you state this will never be done, as is will benefit the Tamils and not the Sinhalese and Muslims who have benefited by this large scale ethnic cleansing of Tamils and the resulting demographic alteration, especially in the east. What they want is more and more Sinhalese and Muslims now settled now in the north, using the displaced Jaffna Muslims as an excuse. They will never settle these displaced Jaffna Muslims as they are very good propaganda and political tool to gain international support and to gain votes. If the Muslims were genuinely interested in settling the displaced Jaffna Muslims they would have questioned that nasty Muslim minister from Mannar, when he settled thousands of out of area Muslims in the north, as this suited their agenda. Now they are coming here and double talking, about the displaces Jaffna Muslims, so that they can sabotage the Tamil right to self determine and steal the north and the east from the Tamils. They don’t like to admit their actual Tamil origin or heritage and openly hate Tamils and want everything from the Tamils, as they feel that we are now weak and helpless. Just like the cuckoo bird that lays its eggs in another birds and nest and gradually ousts the birds chicks and takes over. They came as refugees seeking asylum a few centuries ago and now want to steal our land

  • 12
    1

    Muslims speak for Muslims only, Tamils speak for Tamils only and Sinhalese speak for Sinhalese only. This is the chracteristic of Srilankan politics since the island became in the hands of Srilankans and Sinhalese took the control of this island. Not a Single political leadership or religious leadership or civil society leadership deviated with this principle and power & opportunism played a greater role to the current state of the country. Professor Hasbullah is not an exception. Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese were together fought (or justifying) for the independence of this island from British. Since then discriminative politics and opportunistic politics played a key role in dividing the people in line with race, religion, and language. ethnic cleansing did not start in 1990 but it started in 1950’s or even before. When it happened to Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese did not care, When it Happened to Muslims, Tamils and Sinhalese did not care, when it happened to Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims did not care. Unless we all raise our voice together when the rights are denied to any citizen, there is no reconciliation and there is no peace.

  • 2
    5

    Didn’t the Vellala Party TNA Leader say he would appoint a Muslim as the Chief Minister in the Federal North East Eelaam,after UNP PM Batalanada Ranil gives us the new Constitution?.

    One would have thought the Muslim Leaders who are on equal footing with the Tamil Leadrers in this U Beut Yahapalanaya have sorted out resettlement, return of land and everything else in an amicable manner, before this combined Eelaam comes in.

    Is Abraham holding back these concessions as a bargaining chip with Hakeem, Kabir, Mustafa and Baththudeen?.

  • 4
    0

    Every right thinking person in SL had sincerely and whole heartedly condemned the expulsion of the Jaffna Muslim community by the LTTE. That was a monumental blunder like the killing of the Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi.
    That ultimately led to the defeat of the fascistic LTTE.

    From the mid 1970’s the stage had been set for the escalation and profilation of ethnic conflicts in the island.
    The rise of militancy and the intensification of racial hatred expulsions, confiscations, massacres, calls for denationalisation followed by pogroms had manifested to unprecedented proportions in the country.

    The expulsion of the Muslims should be considered in that background when the completion for obtaining votes intensifies and fosters demagogues in the majority communities which resent and scapegoat the minorities with the shrill cry insisting that the nations wealth nation’s wealth should be reclaimed from the minorities.

    This is the process that is taking place in the country currently. That is the reason why it is imperative for the Tamils and Muslims to unite, which was the gist of Sumanthiran’s message.

    • 0
      0

      Correction
      Read ‘competition’ for completion.

    • 1
      0

      Utugan

      When you use the ‘blunder’ can you understand what we understand of your moral make up?

      Soma

      • 0
        0

        Soma
        Since your understanding of my moral is founded on your Mahamsa morals,I can understand your problem.

    • 2
      0

      Uthungan

      The absence of war does not mean the presence of peace.

      Well the conflict among various people cannot be solved unless all sides to the conflict put their hands up and say as a people we committed such and such act of violence from say 1970 onwards, own up their crimes, say sorry, beg mercy, adequately compensate the victims, ….. move on.

      This can only be done through an institutionalized process, hence the need to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

      Blaming each other, a much loved cultural practice would go on forever until some effective measures are put in place.

      Irrespective of their region, religion, race, all (including Muslims) have blood on their hands.

      It cannot be wiped clean until the truth is out in the open.

  • 9
    3

    It is about 30 years now this happened. Since then those muslims had been settles in many other places. Why muslims are pulling out this issue over and over again ?

    What is there objective ?

    Muslims are building mosques all ovedr the osland. HOw about that issue. In areas where muslims are now eatablished, they harass buddhists. aluthgama, Mahiyangan, Kataragama are examples.

    • 1
      0

      “Why muslims are pulling out this issue over and over again ?”

      when people are ethnically cleansed,it pierces the very heart of the community and they can’t forget it.that is why tamils also keep talking about july 83.

  • 2
    0

    Prof. Shahul Hasbullah

    RE: Northern Muslim Expulsion & Tamil Leadership

    1. //“North Muslim Civil Society” on the theme of “A necessary Solution for Northern Muslims”. I was struck by the fact that the chief guest and guest of honor were the prominent political leaders of the Sri Lankan Tamil community, and leaders of the o/pposition. These leaders are spokespersons of the rights of Tamils of Sri Lanka”/

    2. //”but by the “ order from the top” as said then by all armed cadres in all Muslims locations where they successfully carried out the order. The sudden proclamation in “Jaffna Moor Concentration” which consisted about 10 per cent of the total population of the city was early morning October 30 and the order was for them to leave in two hours, leaving behind every material thing that belonged to the community or otherwise face the death; Muslims of other districts and concentrations in the north were given a 48 hour-ultimatum.”//

    “Ethnic cleansing”

    3. //”Commemorating the event of expulsion has become a yearly ritual of the north Muslims for 26 years and yet their cry for justice has rarely been a concern for the custodians and guardians of law and justice”//

    4.//” He was firm in his commitment to justice and called on the Tamils to acknowledge and accept the suffering of north Muslim and their right to seek justice and redress of grievances.”//

    5.//”Sadly, his outspoken remarks on this was neither acknowledged by the Tamils in general nor welcomed by Muslim leadership. He was very heavy criticised for his remarks within the Tamil nationalistic forces. At the same time, no Muslim leadership openly appreciated what he said and in reciprocation acknowledged the suffering and genuine aspirations of the Tamils as regards the national question of Sri Lanka.”//

    6. //”Mr. Sambanthan continued in the line of thinking initiated by Mr. Sumathiran and indicated that the Muslim leadership had failed to align with the Tamil leadership to protect north and east as a “Tamil home land.” Neither spoke on the aspirations of the north Muslims and the necessary role that the Tamil polity has to play in addressing them.”//

    7. //” On the issue of the north Muslim, the Tamil polity and society have to make the first move by recognizing the historical mistake done to this community and expressing the willingness to rectify the injustice without delay”//

    8. //”North Muslims’ right to return is not an issue for compromise.”//

    Thank you. Expose, Expose and Expose. Picked up 8 salient points above.

    This clearly shows that the the Tamils, actually the Para(-deshi) Tamils of Lanka, the Land of Native Veddah Aethho, are racists and war criminals and ethnic cleansers.

    The Tamils will always come up with excuses such as the Muslims did not help their their Tamil Ellam struggle for a separate state , and did not help them when the Sinhalese attacked them etc. when the Tamil atrocities are brought up.

    Didn’t the racist Tamil Politicians vote wit the Racist Sinhala Politicians to disenfranchise the Estate Tamils in 1948? Onlt the non-racist Sinhala parties, LSSP and CP voted against it.

    Who says Tamils are not racists? Just look at the Valhalla Racism toward their fellow “low” caste Tamils. It is ingrained in Tamil Hinduism.

    Forgotten People – The Evicted and Displaced North Muslims of Sri Lanka (English

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JV60McNQ9o

    Published on Jun 1, 2013

    The Evicted and Displaced North Muslims of Sri Lanka. The expulsion of the Muslims and other nations from the Northern province was an act of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Tamil militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization in October 1990. In order to achieve their goal of creating a mono ethnic Tamil state in the North Sri Lanka, the LTTE forcibly expelled the 72,000 strong Muslim population from the Northern Province.

  • 17
    5

    The 70000 Muslims from the north were chased by the LTTE for acting like the enemy fifth column, by spying for the Sri Lankan armed forces against their fellow non Muslims and storing arms provided to them by the Sinhalese armed forces. The LTTE did not want a repeat of the what happened to the Tamil in the south and east at the hands of Muslim mobs and heavily armed Muslim home guards to the Tamils in the north at the hands of a Muslim population that was spying for the Sinhalese armed forces and was being armed by them. So chased them away. The general Tamil population and the Politicians have recognised this and acknowledged this.

    In contrast the general Muslim public their elite and politicians including the author of this article have never acknowledge or condemned the overt and covert support provided by the island’s Muslims to the Sinhalese since independence to all the anti Tamil activities ethnic cleaning and genocide against the island’s Tamils. It was a Muslim minister who introduced standardisation and regional basis selection for higher education to deliberately keep out Tamil students from higher studies and reduce their number to the bare minimum, whilst unfairly advantaging Sinhalese and Muslims student with far lower marks to enter university. Has this author or the Muslim elite and politicians ever acknowledge or apologised for this grave injustice that was perpetuated on the island’s Tamils by this Muslim Minister?

    Has the Muslims Leadership ever apologised or acknowledged to the Tamils, the part played by Muslim politicians and their leadership during the anti Tamil pogroms organised in 1977 onwards. When they organised Muslim mobs to go around the south to burn loot rape and kill innocent Tamil civilians their homes and businesses. Has the Muslim leadership ever acknowledged or apologised to the Tamils on the part played by heavily armed Muslims home guards in the east, who under the protection of the Sinhalese Sri Lankan Special Task Forces, were killing raping and ethnically cleansing thousands of Tamil Hindus and the Tamilised Hindu Vedda villages in the east. Burning looting raping and destroying Hindu temples. Many of these ethnically cleansed Tamil Hindus who are the real indigenous and owners of the east have still not been allowed to return to their lands in many parts of the east by the Muslims, who are now supported by the racist Sinhalese armed forces. This was of the reasons for the LTTE chasing the Muslims from the north, when they caught them spying for the Sinhalese armed forces and storing arms inside the mosques. The Muslims in the east were also storing their arms provided to them by the Sri Lankan armed forces inside their mosques and used to collect them before attacking a Tamil Hindu village.

    The marginalisation of the eastern Tamils and the Tamilised Vedda of who are the real owners and indigenous population of the east still goes on under the current Muslim led Sinhalese/Muslim coalition in the east. The TNA individually won the largest number of votes and seats in the east and should have formes the provincial government but the Muslims deliberately sabotaged this by forming a coalition with the illegal Sinhalese settlers to steal power and are now busy marginalising and stealing lands from the real owners of the east. The eastern Eelam Tamils. These Muslims came to the east as refugees seeking asylum from Portuguese persecution along the western coast and Sinhalese persecution in the central highlands where they fled. They were provided land, Tamil Mukkuva women to start families and refuge by the Tamil Vannimanai chiefs of the east, who took pity on them as fellow Tamils and are now being repaid by treachery and ungratefulness by the descendants of these refugees, who now with Sinhalese help want to steal the land of the eastern Eelam Tamil Hindus and create some sort of Salafist/Wahhabi Islamic homeland. Go to Kattankudi/Eravur or Kalmunai and see the future. This is the reason many people in the west have now become wary of providing asylum to Muslim refugees, as once they get established they want to take over. If they can do this to the eastern Tamils with whom they share a common language heritage culture and many times ancestry, in the name of religion, what else can they do to others with whom they hardly share anything? Why is this author and the Muslims leadership quiet about this and condemning this instead of silently condoning it.

    I also wish to ask the author of this article a few questions.

    1) Who asked them to do this and behave in this manner against their own fellow non Muslim Hindu and Christian Tamils with whom they shared a common language origin culture and history? What were they thinking? Prior to this incident the rest of the Tamil population and even the LTTE treated the Muslims from the north as part and parcel of the Tamil population. It is the Muslims through their behaviour, like in the rest of the island towards the Tamils broke this trust and behaved like enemy aliens.

    2) Why are the Muslims in Sri Lanka despite being ethnically Tamil
    are so much against the Tamil people the Tamil language heritage, culture and never acknowledge their actual Dravidian Tamil Hindu origin but keep on perpetuating a myth that they are descended from Arab traders and of Arab/Moorish heritage, that only a very small percentage of them only partial have. A distant male Arab ancestor amongst a few hundred Muslim families in Sri Lanka does not make them or the rest of the Sri Lankan Muslims Arab or Moorish. They are still ethnically Tamil with a little bit of Arab in a few of them. A few hundred Arab trader coming to the shores of South India and to then Tamil western Sri Lankan coast, over a span of a few centuries could have never produced around 17 million Muslims in then Tamil Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The vast overwhelming majority of the Muslims in this region more than 99% are descended from Dravidian Hindu converts. Just because my Brahmin ancestors migrated from North India a thousand years ago or more and arrived in the Tamil country, does not make me North Indian anymore. I Am now ethnically a Tamil with a distant North Indian ancestry.

    This Arab origin myth has been perpetuated by their leader and elite for their own selfish advantage and now they have brainwashed the 100% Dravidian Tamil Muslim masses in the island who make up over 95% of the island’s Muslims population, that they are all Arabs/Moors and to hate anything Tamil, and become and look like some pathetic Gulf Arab clones. This despite still speaking Tamil. Why hasn’t this author or the island’s Muslim leadership acknowledged this or condemned this.

    It is the behaviour of all Muslim leaders. politicians and elite and establishment towards the island’s non Muslim Tamils from the time of independence and their support to the state sponsored Sinhalese led racism towards the island’s Tamils, for their own petty selfish benefits for their immigrant community from South India that is the reason for the present deep distrust suspicion between the island’s Muslims and the Tamils. The effort to join hands with the state sponsored illegal Sinhalese settlers and steal the east from the actual Tamil owners and marginalise the eastern Tamils is not helping matters. Most eastern Tamils feel very betrayed by the behaviour of the Muslim politicians and their leadership in the east towards them. Especially taking into consideration of the shared history common language culture heritage and in many cases common ancestry. They also feel betrayed as they originally gave refuge to the ancestors of the eastern Muslims a few centuries ago, as they were fellow Tamils fleeing Sinhalese and Portuguese persecution and are now being repaid by treachery and violence at their hands.

    No one is stopping the northern Muslims returning to their lands. It is the Sinhalese armed forces who are not allowing them to return not the Tamils. There was a Muslim minister from Mannar who was in charge of resettling displaced Tamils and Muslims. However instead of resettling displaced Tamils and Muslims back to their place of origin, he was busy settling thousands of out of area Muslims from the south, using funds provided by certain Muslims Gulf Arab states, that practice a fundamental form of Islam in virgin lands along the Wilpattu national reserve, inorder to create new Muslim enclaves that had never existed and to increase his voter base. In a few years these newly created Muslim enclaves in the north that had never existed previously will demand Islamic homelands. Why is this author and the Muslim leadership very quiet about this. They could have questioned this minister and many other powerful Muslim ministers who belonged to the former and present government as to why displaces Muslims from the north were not settled but thousands of other Muslims are being settled? The reason is it suited their agenda.

    Displaced Muslims from the north will never be settled, and they will always be left there to languish in poverty, as this suits the agenda and politics of all the racist Sinhalese governments and the Muslim leadership and politicians, who just come here and at other forums to cry crocodile tears about their plight and blame the Tamils who now have no power whatsoever. The Muslims elite and the Sinhalese government have the power to resettle them but will never as they need them for their agenda to justify and deny the island’s Tamils their just rights and a federal solution to their ancient homeland by using and displaying these unfortunate northern Muslims as an example as to why Tamils should never be given any rights or a federal solution completely forgetting that fact for every Muslims refugee in the north, the Muslims and Sinhalese created thousands of Tamil refugees who are still languishing as displaces persons with their lands homes and places of worship stolen by the Sinhalese and the armed forces in the north and by the Sinhalese armed forces and Muslims in the east. They also have not been allowed to return and the Muslim leadership and this author is very quiet about this too.
    All these articled about displaced Muslims in the north by this author and many others here is just an eyewash to justify the denial of rights to the Tamils. No one is stopping the displaced Muslims or Tamils from the north and east returning to their homes other than the Sinhalese Sri Lankan armed forces, the Sinhalese establishment and armed forces and the Muslim leadership and elite. They were able to settle thousands of out of area Sinhalese and Muslims in the north and east, build huge tourist hotels golf courses Budda Statues Buddhist temples, farms on the displaced lands but prevent the genuinely displaced Muslims of the north and the Tamils of the north and east from returning

    • 2
      5

      “The 70000 Muslims from the north were chased by the LTTE for acting like the enemy fifth column, by spying for the Sri Lankan armed forces against their fellow non Muslims and storing arms provided to them by the Sinhalese armed forces.”

      Even the LTTE leaders would not have uttered such a barefaced lie.
      They stopped a little short of an apology for what they did, by expressing regrets in the early 2000’s.
      The less said about the rest of this text the better.

      • 4
        1

        sekara

        “The less said about the rest of this text the better.”

        Are you defending the psychopath VP for what he did and the spin surrounding one of the most inhuman act on the part of LTTE in Sri Lankan contemporary history?

      • 0
        4

        NV
        “The less said about the rest of this text the better.”
        The text that I referred to is the one whose initial lines I was responding to.

        If in your opinion it deserves comment, kindly have a go. I am not so inclined.

    • 1
      4

      bogus sivasankaran

      “When they organised Muslim mobs to go around the south to burn loot rape and kill innocent Tamil civilians their homes and businesses.”

      thats news to me.keep on piling it up mate,to justify your’s and wiggie’s hero’s ethnic cleansing.

      • 3
        1

        Most of those who looted the Tamil shops in Colombo during ’83 riots were Muslims. If it is news to you, that means you either suffer from amnesia or you were in deep slumber during ’83 riots.

        • 2
          0

          Not only did they loot burn and kill Tamil homes businesses and Tamils but later came to the north and east to sell these looted goods at quite a cheap price to the very same Tamil refuges who had fled to these regions, their own looted belongings. I can still remember hundreds Muslim hawkers appearing from nowhere on the streets of Jaffna, trying to sell clothes and other items at very cheap process to the Tamils. It was well known that these Muslim hawkers/traders have arrived from the south and were trying to flog off looted Tamil possession’s back to the Tamils. Most people in Jaffna ignored them.
          A famous Muslim minister and politician organised these Muslim mobs and thugs to attack Tamils in the Colombo region in 1983 and later at the request of then president J R Jayawardene sent these Muslims thugs to Kalmunai to create and start problems between the Tamils and the Muslims.

          • 0
            2

            real siva sankaran

            muslims are traders and would have bought the loot for a song from the sinhala thugs.Then they would have tried to profit on it.That is their concept of viyabaram(business),try to get profits.Sometimes they cross the line but justify it by saying viyabaram(business).

            To satisfy you too i will agree with you that the muslims were the culprits and the sinhalese were actually nice fellows.The diaspora who ran out of the country with nothing but the shirts on their backs must also take note now that all this time they have been blaming the wrong fellows for their plight and in future blame the muslims instead of sinhalese.Come to think of it they should even give an apology to the sinhalese and say “sorry we did it was these thambyahs that did all this.now we can be friends again just like old times(GG ponnaya days).

            how embarrasing,all this time we have been blaming the sinhalese and they have been considered as vile thugs by the rest of the world while the real culprits have been the muslims all the time,the bastards.

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          bogus shankar

          okay,okay,to satisfy you we will agree that it was the muslims who were the chief culprits and the sinhalese were innocent bystanders who had no interest at all in what was in the shops.satisfied i hope now.

          • 0
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            You sound very much like a Colombo Tamil. Now, please do not try to pretend as if you do not know anything. The Sinhalese attacked, raped, killed and burnt the Tamil people, their houses and their shops, the Muslims looted their belongings. They both were culprits. You are only trying to fool yourself.

            • 0
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              bogus shankar

              okay,okay to pacify you i will agree that the sinhalese are honourable and patriotic fellows and did not loot.They did not want to touch with their little finger even the tamil peoples goods,to maintain their self respect.A muslim must have looted my father’s fridge and sold it to a sinhala fellow down the road who had a small shop selling betle etc.He never had a fridge.When he was confronted and told that is my dad’s fridge,he said “but my dad is not there anymore no” because the house was burnt down and all the goods looted and he had left the place.

              Pity that my dad is dead now,otherwise we could have corrected what was in his mind that the sinhalese were the culprits.He would have been surprised that the muslims were the culprits all along and his anger could have been redirected towards these bastards.thanks for the info.

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    More atrocities were committed and are still being committed on Tamils at the hands of Muslims and Sinhalese in the south east and even in the north. They were brutally murdered bombed raped and ethnically cleansed. Hardly any of them have been settled. I have not seen a singles Muslim or Sinhalese leader acknowledge or apologise for these atrocities and you are blind to this too and only want the Tamils to apologise.
    If you want the Tamil leaders to acknowledge and apologise regarding what happened to the northern Muslims. Muslims leaders also acknowledge and apologise to the Tamils regarding the atrocities that were committed on them at the hands of Muslims in the East and down south. It is just not a one way street. You want to play the victim but now acknowledge that most of the time you were the aggressor or joined hands with the aggressor to commit atrocities.
    What happened to the former Muslim minister in charge of settling displaced people. Rishad? Did he not settle these displaced Muslims? He was busy settling thousands of Muslims in the north. Especially along the wilpattu corridor.
    If these were not the displaced northern Muslims then who are these people? Why were you and the rest of the Muslim organisations quiet then and did not question your fellow Muslim minister Rishad or even the other Muslims ministers in the cabinet? It is because you wanted these Muslims who had no connection to the north be settled in addition to the displaced Muslims. Very naughty and hypocritical.
    Only one lot of Muslims can be settled. Not thousands, falesely settled under pretext of displaced northern Muslims. Only 70000 were displaced and we cannot have around 300000 returning and stating they were all displaced and wanting lands in the north. This means your Muslim comrade/minister, was using government resources and support and was himself undertaking illegal colonisation and ethnic cleansing activities in the north by settling thousands of out of area Muslims under the pretext of settling displaced northern Muslims, who as per you have not been resettled at all but are still in refugee camps.
    You and the rest of the Muslim leadership/organisations were very quiet and mum about this and did not raise any objection but were busy giving him the wink and the nod, to what naughty Rishad was up to, as he was ignoring and not resettling the genuine displaced people Muslim or Tamil but using this as an excuse to settle thousands of Muslims with no connection to the north to create huge Muslim enclaves in many areas in the north that were not there. Very evil and very naughty. This is also called ethnic cleansing. Deliberately settling people who were not there to change the demography.
    Like Siva Sankaran has commented, the displaced northern Muslims will never be resettled in their original home, not because the Tamils object to this but it is in the interest of the Sinhalese and the Muslims leadership to keep them in their present condition, wallowing in their poverty and misery, then display them to the entire world as to how cruel the LTTE and the Tamils were and hence the Tamils do not deserve any form of self rule or rights. This what you call politics and power games. They are very good propaganda material.
    If the Sri Lankan government the Muslims leadership and naughty Rishad were genuine, it is they and not these thousands of out of area Muslims who would have been resettled.
    Good try. GO and cry somewhere else. You can fool some for some time but not all the time. I do feel genuinely sorry for the displaced northern Muslims and for all the displaced people Tamil Sinhalese but not for you or the rest of the other Muslim commentators and bloggers who are coming here, using them for your own evil agenda and shedding crocodile tears.

    • 0
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      rohan

      ” This is also called ethnic cleansing. Deliberately settling people who were not there to change the demography.”

      are you an educated man or a baboon?or a mix of both?

      definition of ethnic cleansing-the mass expulsion or killings of members of one ethnic group or religious group in one area by another group.

      did rishard badiudeen do this in wilpattu jungles?

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        You are no Shankar but a Muslim pretending to be Tamil. Your posts are full of anti Tamil bias. Ethnic cleansing is also done by deliberately changing the demography of a region, so that the original population of the regions are now made a voiceless marginalised minority in their own homelands. This is what Rishad the Shaitan was attempting to do in the north and in the east the Muslims were chasing Tamils away stealing their lands with Sinhalese help and also bringing outsiders and settling to further increase Muslim/Sinhalese population. Go and read the meaning of ethnic cleansing properly instead of posting misinformation under a false Tamil identity.

        • 0
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          rohan

          we were talking of wilpattu here.There was no tamils there.As for rishard doing various things in other parts like mannar,i don’t know anything about those and anyway my point is to give a clear definition of ethnic cleansing which you are trying to distort and confuse others.

          planting people in areas where their are no people is not ethnic cleansing.If it was our tamil leaders would have made a noise about it.In fact it was only gnanasera there who went after rishard on the wilpattu matter saying he is colonising wilpattu with muslims.Don’t try to confuse others by trying to make out that colonisation is ethnic cleansing.As for me being a muslim as mentioned by you,i have been called a muslim,a sinhalese and also an eelamist on this blog,which proves that iam indeed a srilankan first and foremost.

  • 2
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    All Tamil speaking people distributed across Sri Lanka should shed their differences in religion and date of arrival to form a common front, formulate a devolution model which covers at least 95% of them and present it for negotiations.

    Soma

    • 6
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      somaaaas

      “All Tamil speaking people distributed across Sri Lanka should shed their differences in religion and date of arrival to form a common front,”

      You will be the first one to destroy their new found unity (if at all possible), through varies devices and you pathetic cunning plans.

  • 2
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    This gimmick of Sampandan is a non stater – Islamists are too clever for that.

    There is tacit admission that without Islamist support Ealam project is a dead duck.

    Any affiliation with Tamil separtist will lead to Sinhalese demanding Islamist Tamils in the South to be relocated to East.

    Soma
    Soma

    • 0
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      //Any affiliation with Tamil separtist will lead to Sinhalese demanding Islamist Tamils in the South to be relocated to East. //

      Non affiliation with Tamils (Hindu and Muslim & christians) will lead to (loser) desi vedda and Karma demanding Hybrid creole sinhalese in the South to be relocated to Sundarban Forest.

  • 0
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    Muslims should not expect Tamils to speak for them as Tamils always see Muslims as potential threat to their socioeconomic values. Present honeymoon with Sambandan and Sumanthiran will last till merger of North and East only. A Muslim CM for N=E province will not solve the problems of Muslims.

    VP chased out Muslims to form a ‘Tamils only’ land. He ordered to rob everything from them including infant’s milk packets. There are many Tamils taking pride in that act, even in this forum too. They use the ‘blame the victim’ tactics to justify that. They say Muslims were traitors and amassed weapons at mosques. But the whole world saw how VP finally died after 20 years, with a shot in the backside of the head, the most shameful way of dying in a war.

    Now it’s time for Jaffna Muslims to shed that identity and look forward. As a first step, they should stop learning in Tamil medium.

    • 7
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      VP chased them from the north as they were spying for the Sinhalese armed forces and acting against the Tamils. He also chased them as in the south of the country Muslims mobs were joining Sinhalese hooligans/thugs and were killing raping looting Tamils their homes and businesses. In the east Muslim home guards,heavily armed by the Sri Lankan armed forces were again busily killing raping looting and ethnically cleansing many Tamil Hindu villages. Especially in the strategic Trincomalee district, that the Sinhalese now want for themselves and in the Amparai and parts of Batticaloa area. He did not want a repeat of this in the north, especially when the found arms stored inside mosques. Spying for the Sinhalese armed forces was bad enough but storing arms supplied by the Sinhalese armed forces inside the mosques was the last straw. Why were they storing these arms? and against whom they were going to use? Obviously against the Tamils. Hundreds of thousands of Tamils who were displaced in the east are still not allowed to return to their homes and lands by the Sinhalese and Muslims in the east. Tamils are the indigenous original population of the east. Not the Muslims or Sinhalese both have only arrived here very recently and are conniving together to deny the indigenous Tamils of the east their land and steal it from them. The occupying 100% Sinhalese armed forces and police are aiding and abetting them. You are very quiet about this. So is this author.

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    Shahul Hasbullah –naana

    Mahatma Gandhi enna sonnaru
    Ellaarum onna senthu onnuku iruakvendum enru sonnaru

    when the Tamils were slaughtered using weapons provided by the Muslim country Pakistan.

    The Sri Lankan Muslims kept quiet

    now after more than 30 years of civil war and genocide of the Tamils; displaced Tamils are still struggling to get back their houses and the NE is still a open prison

    Shahul Hasbullah –naana thinks all is well in the NE front

    what an idiot

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    Thank you Prof. Hasbulla. I am a Tamil who is fully with you for justice for the displaced Muslims.

    Do not be disheartened by the comments here. The negative comments are by a racist bunch that always spews out venom in Colombo Telegraph and prevents any real discussion from taking place — Rohan, Rajash, Siva Shankaran Sharma, and others.

    Do not be disheartened. Press on with all your strength for justice although I am sorry that my people will not help you.

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      No one is against the island’s Muslims or the resettlement of genuine displaced northern Muslims families, however stating the obvious truth about Muslim hypocrisy/attitude towards their fellow non Muslim Tamils and their double standards regarding the resettlement of displaced Tamils is not racism. May sound racist to you, as you also like most Muslims do not want to accept the truth.
      racism is when you go on advocating the denial of rights to another people. Neither Rajash, Rohan, Shiva Shankaran Sharma or the rest of the Tamils do this. Only Muslim and Sinhalese commentators and bloggers constantly do this. Giving all sorts of lame excuses as to why Tamil should not be resettled or any sort of rights given to them.

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        Mandu

        Thank you Mandu

        in the UK during BREXIT campaign ; those who argue for Brexit were immediately branded racist by those who are in favour of Remain

        Likewise here any one standing up for the Tamil cause is either a LTTE rump or a Tamil Racist.

        Arivu illaathavangal

    • 1
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      arivu

      i agree with you wholeheartedly except that rajash should not be lumped with that other vituperative anti muslim lot of rohan and real sivasankaran.

      I have met jaffna tamils in the west who are deeply ashamed of this act.

      • 0
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        Thank you Shankar

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    It is an established fact that over the last century, Tamils in Sri Lanka, especially northerners of the Vellala ilk, have systematically ensured that Muslims were treated as a separate entity, the same way they looked down upon plantation Tamils. That is an indisputable fact. This begs the question, who is a Tamil? A common sense approach of considering all who spoke the language as their mother tongue as Tamils, would have settled the matter altogether. Well, the Frankenstein monster was created then and there. The atrocities that have happened on both sides of this divide are merely the result of this mess.

    Furthermore, all the communities, Sinhala-speaking, Tamil-speaking, Burgher and Malay included, were never considered as one in the fight for Sri Lanka’s independence. as a result, patriotism has been along sectarian or nationalistic lines only. Former PM of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew had repeatedly talked about these fault lines.

    As a former colleague of yours, I salute you for being so forthright in highlighting not only the plight of the internally displaced northern Muslims, but also some of the overarching issues that plague this still troubled nation. Old animosities and prejudices still remain. Mutual respect (not rights!) and trust should be a starter first. I sincerely hope the plight of these people is addressed in a positive manner.

    • 0
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      Ivan

      “This begs the question, who is a Tamil?A common sense approach of considering all who spoke the language as their mother tongue as Tamils, would have settled the matter altogether.”

      95% of my my comments on CT are an attempt to clarify your question ‘who is Tamil’. I never get a straight answer other than idiotic personal vilifications. I suggest Sinhalese consider all those who speak Tamil language as Tamil and we can’t be bothered about their caste, religious, social status and date of arrival differences. Tamil political leaders are using the terms ‘Tamils’, ‘Tamil speaking people’, ‘Tamil nation’ , ‘Indigenous Tamils’ and what not to bamboozle us, depending on the occasion and purpose. It is time we sorted this question out once and for all so that a meaningful discussion can be initiated.

      WHO IS TAMIL?

      Soma

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    Ivan the terrible stop posting lies. Tamils never treated and still do not treat the island’s Muslims as a separate entity. In fact all Tamil leaders from past to present have always stated that the Muslims in the island are part of the Tamil nation and are our brothers and sisters, however this was treated by all the Muslim elite leadership, especially from the south with scorn and disdain and they kept on repeating the lie that the island’s Muslims are not Tamils but descendants of Arabs and Moors who now speak Tamil. When Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan a distinguished Jaffna Tamil Vellalar first stated this truth and later other Tamil leaders, there was a hysteric and aggressive reaction from the Muslims and their leaders. Even here in this forum how many times have I faced this aggressive reaction when I first stated this truth.
    Other than a few hundred families out of a population of around 1.9 million Muslims. The rest do not have any Arab or Moorish or any other western Asian blood but are descended from South Indian Dravidian Tamil Hindu converted who migrated to the island around 700-100 years ago. Even these few hundred families have only a distant male Arab ancestor or two. The rest of their ancestors are all Tamils. This does not make them or the rest of the Muslim population of Arab descent. DNA has also proved that the Muslims of Sri Lanka have very little Arab blood in them and they are the same as the island’s Tamils and Sinhalese and they are all related to the population of South India including the South Indian Muslims. When this Arab origin myth failed miserably their argument for being different from the Tamils is something laughable as they now state that they are not of Tamil ethnicity as their religion was introduced by the Arabs, therefore they are Arabic by heritage. What a stupid excuse. This means the Sinhalese and Tamil Christians are Jewish or European. as Lord Jesus Christ is Jewish and the religion was introduced by the Europeans. Most of the world’s Muslims are not Arabs and other than these Sri Lankan Muslims, none of them identify themselves or the Muslims religion with Arabs or Arabism, just because Islam originated from the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Only the Sri Lankan Muslims for their own selfish political gains do this and spurn their actual rich Dravidian Tamil origin and the 1000 rich Tamil Islamic Sufi tradition of South India and are now trying to be look like some pathetic clones of the Gulf Arabs. Even the Arabs do not consider them as a people of Arab descent but have classified them as South Asian coverts to Islam that they really are. Tamil Hindus who converted Islam centuries ago and are now denying this for their own selfish advantage.

    To add insult to injury and to prove a point that they are not Tamils but some fake Arabs/Moors, all Muslim leaders and politicians have overtly and covertly have connived and supported the Sinhalese in their genocidal dance against the Tamils and still continue to do so. Other than the northern Muslim expulsion, the Tamil people,despite many provocations and atrocities Tamils had faced in the hands of Muslims then and now have never retaliated against them, as they had always felt that the Muslims are a part of them. The Muslims have never reciprocated this feeling and are still doing everything to destroy the Tamils. the Tamil language and culture just to prove a point that they are not Tamil Muslims but Arabs/Moors. The Sinhalese on the other hand have attacked the Muslims many times, despite the Muslim support given to them locally and internationally to commit genocide on the island’s Tamils.
    This is a Colombo Telegraph article and it is not by a Tamil but from a Borah.https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankan-muslims-are-low-caste-tamil-hindu-converts-not-arab-descendants/
    It is obvious to everyone else, even to the Arabs that the Sri Lankan Muslims are descended from largely low caste Tamil Hindus who converted to Islam, other than the brain washed Sri Lankan Muslims themselves

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    Oh my! You do look like an Arab don’t you lol. Go and look at the mirror and see the typical Tamil Dravidian face staring back at you.

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    The expulsion of the Muslims from the north was one of the greatest injustices done to any ethnic community to which there is no parallel. This has to be atoned for as soon as possible. Bensen

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      The expulsion of Muslims from the north and the far larger expulsion of Tamils from the north and east are all injustices that have to be atoned. Not just the Muslims expulsion only.
      Muslims and Sinhalese and certain Tamils, only want to talk about this and completely ignore the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Tamils from the north and east by their hands. Even now more than 50000 acres of stolen Tamil land in the north and east have not been returned. The Sinhalese, the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Muslims in the east are occupying.
      There was a Muslim minister from Mannar who was in charge of resettling the displaced Muslims and Tamils, however instead resettling them, he was using government support resources, as well as funds obtained from certain Gulf Arab states to settle thousands of out of area Muslims in the north. When questioned about this he stated that these were the displaced northern Muslims who he was resettling and he accused many TNA MPS who questioned him, of being LTTE supporters.
      All the genuinely displaced Tamils and Muslims should be resettled but not these fake ones. Muslim and Sinhalese. They should be sent back to the south from they came from. You cannot have 70000 Muslims displaced from the north and then twice that amount or more returning and falesely claiming that they were displaced. There were only around 20000 Sinhalese the most in the north, now more than 165000 are claiming that they were displaced from the north.
      Killing and displacing any human is a crime not just Muslims and Sinhalese. It was the Tamils who suffered the most and constitute more than 95% of the displaced people. They suffered at the hands of everyone. The government the armed forces, the Sinhalese the Muslims the IPKF and the LTTE. Not just one party like the Muslims.
      It is not the Tamils who are stopping the genuine displaced Muslims from returning to the north but other interested parties who want to remain there for their own agenda and then come here and cry crocodile tears. If the Muslims were so concerned about resettling these northern Muslims., why didn’t the Muslim minister who was in charge of resettling them and other displaced people resettle them? Instead he used their plight to settle thousands of out area Muslims who had no right to be in the north. What were all the influential Muslim ministers in the current or Rajapakse cabinet doing? Don’t blame the Tamils they have no influence and their plight is far worse than the Muslims with hundreds of thousand of them still displaced and unable to return as their lands have been stolen by everyone. The government the armed forces the Sinhalese and the Muslims and no one cares about them. There plight is not pathetic to anyone. Why because they are Tamils and they deserve this.

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    “The expulsion of the Muslims from the north was one of the greatest injustices done to any ethnic community to which there is no parallel”
    Muslim is not an ethnic identity but a religious identity. Get that correct. Really no parallel? So the government and armed forces deliberately targeting and killing more than 145000 innocent Tamil civilians is not an injustice? Ethnically cleansing more than 1.2 million and chasing them from their lands to the west and to other parts of the island and stealing their land in not an injustice? Making more than a million Indian origin Tamils who had lived in the island for more than 150 years and had contributed most to the island’s economy stateless and then forcibly deporting them to South India, a strange land to them is not an injustice? Destroying Hindu temples, stealing more than 50000 acres of private Tamil owned lands and then building hotels golf courses, farms, Budda statues and Buddhist temple and settling Sinhalese and out of area Muslims in these land in not an injustice with no parallel. Only the expulsion of northern Muslims who were not so innocent and were spying for the Sinhalese army against the Tamils, in whose land they were living is a grave injustice that has no parallel and has to be atoned to your warped mind. All the other things that happened to the Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan government the armed forces the Sinhalese and the Muslims is not an injustice but something ordinary that the Tamils asked for and deserve and need not be atoned to your warped sense of justice.
    You don’t really care about the northern Muslims for if you really cared about them or justice you would have cared for justice for everyone. You are just using their plight for your own agenda to make a point.

  • 1
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    Arivilaathavan

    You should check carefully on what you write: “Muslim is not an ethnic identity but a religious identity. Get that correct.”

    I think you should get it right first. Here is what a dictionary says:

    ‘ethnicity — noun — the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.”

    Dont the Muslims fit under this definition as a separate ethnic group?

    Tamil racism lives on in good health from when Ponnmbalam Ramanathan claimed that Muslims are low caste Tamils in the most racist terms! Who is the Muslim who would want to be a Tamil after that?

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      He stated the truth, the Muslims of Sri Lanka are largely descended from low caste Tamil Hindus with hardly any Arab. However he and the rest of the Tamil leaders never looked down on them and have always stated that they are part of the Tamil nation and should be treated as such.
      If the Muslims in Sri Lanka have an issue with this truth and still insist on claiming a fake Arab/Moor origin to hide their real low caste Hindu Tamil origin and then do all sorts of things to the rest of the Tamils, as revenge. It is their problem and do not blame the Tamils, the Tamil leaders or others for stating the truth. More than 90% of the Muslims in the India and Sri Lanka are descended from low caste Hindus who converted to escape the Hindu caste system. Very few are descended from the Moghuls, Afghans, Iranians, Arabs or other central and western Asians, as they all now claim to be. This is a fact and not a fiction. The other South Asian Muslims have now accepted this fact. Only the Sri Lankan Muslims still stubbornly do not want to accept this and keeping repeating the lie that they are descended from Arabs/Moors and accept every one to blindly believe in this myth. Goodness even the Arabs have stated that the Muslims of Sri Lanka are descended from low caste Hindu converts. So it was fine to accept their verdict but not when Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan stated the truth. He never stated this in a disparaging way.

    • 4
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      Just wearing a Burka or Hijab, growing a beard and dressing like an Arab and following a certain religion and claiming this as a national or cultural tradition. It is called being pathetic and sad. Then there will be lots of national and cultural traditions. People wearing sarees. Bell bottoms and frocks, people attending different or denominations can all belong to different national and cultural traditions. as per your argument. Then there will be lots of national and cultural traditions.

      Do not misquote this. It means people who belong to a common origin heritage culture share a common history language culture etc. Not just being a Muslim wearing a Burkini or Hijab or growing a beard and praying in a certain way. If you still want to differentiate from the rest of the Tamils. You can but correctly classify yourselves as Tamil Muslims. Like the Muslims of Bosnia( Slavic Muslims) and not Moors. As more than 99% of the Muslims of Sri Lanka are Dravidian Tamil Hindu converts even the 1% is more than 80% Tamil by blood and heritage

    • 3
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      Arabs treat Sri Lankan Muslims as lowly converts speaking a strange tongue. They have rejected the Sri Lankan Muslims as not of Arab origin and cruelly treat them, like all South Asian Muslims . Look at the cruelty inflicted on the Sri Lankan Muslim house maid Rizana Nafeek. They falsely accused her and then executed her.they refused to recognize her as a person of Arab descent. Her status was indistinguishable from that of any foreigner in that country.
      Yet Sri Lankan Muslims worship everything Arab, now try to look and behave like Arabs and claim an Arab origin that the Arabs have rejected.
      However they do not want to be associated with the island’s Tamils and their actual Tamil origin, because more than 100 years ago Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan had stated the truth that Sri Lankan Muslims are descended from largely low caste Tamil Hindus who converted to Islam. What a flimsy pathetic excuse. Why being a Tamil or not being a Tamil depends solely on the late Sir Ponnamblam Ramanathan and his opinions. Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan stated a fact and he still stated Sri Lankan Muslims are Tamils.
      Arab masters insulting and ill treating Sri Lankan Muslims is fine and a badge of honour and an excuse to claim an imagined Arab origin and heritage. However if a non Muslims Tamil ever dares to state the real origin of the Sri Lankan Muslims and the truth that they are Tamils it is an insult and very offensive and an excuse not to be associated with their real Tamil origin and heritage.
      What a bunch of wankers

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        Everybody knows that the Tamil language spoken by the Sri Lankan Muslims is totally different from the ones spoken by others. If they are descendants of Sri Lankan Tamil mothers, they should speak like Sri Lankan Tamils; if they are descendants of Indian Tamils, they should speak like Thondamans.

        If Tamil mothers were the reason for their Tamil, why they didn’t teach Tamil pronunciation correctly?

        Tamil fake refugees in UK speak English, I will never encourage them to claim that they children of English women. Majority of toilets in Canada are cleaned by Sri Lankan Tamils, I would not call the Sakkili offspring.

        Sri Lanka Muslims want to be whether Tamils or not is their business. Why are you putting your nose in to their shit pandikutty? Didn’t your motherpandy teach you to dig your own shit instead of others?

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          Yes they still speak Tamil and not Arabic Sinhalese or any other language or dialect. All major languages have dialects spoken. National,regional,dialects specific to certain castes and religious groups. Go to Tamil Nadu there are not only various regional dialects of the Tamil language but also dialects that are specific to certain castes and religions EG: Brahmin Tamil, Muslim Tamil. Tamil spoken by the Gypsies.
          Tamil spoken by the Sri Lankan Muslims in the north and east is typical Sri Lankan Tamil dialects of the north and east as they have now lived here for a few centuries. Down south the Tamil spoken by Sri Lankan Muslims is the Tamil spoken by the South Indian Tamil Muslims slightly mixed with some Sinhalese words. Proving their recent South Indian origin.
          Stop posting lies. If the Sri Lankan Muslims want to be separate from the rest of the Tamils that is their wish and no one is stopping them but should be correctly identified by their real origin Tamil Muslim and not as Moors as hardly have any Arab or Moorish blood in them.
          Pathetically trying to use the Muslim Tamil dialect of South India, spoken by the southern Sri Lankan Muslims to claim a different origin and deny their real Dravidian origin is laughable. Only an idiot will think of this excuse.
          Basically everyone knows that these immigrant Dravidian South Indian origin Tamil Muslims of Sri Lanka now do not want to be identified as Tamils, as they feel it will be disadvantageous to their immigrant community, due to the historical hatred most Sinhalese have for the island’s Tamils. Moreover more than 70%of the island’s Muslims live in the Sinhalese south, therefore it is to their advantage not to be identified as Tamils, especially Muslim Tamils of recent Indian origin. So desperately concocted this Arab/Moorish origin that only a very small percentage of them only have in very small amount and used this to claim as the origin for the entire community.
          It may have worked but not now. People are more intelligent and educated and moreover DNA has proved that the Muslims of Sri Lanka have very little Arab and are genetically similar to the island’s Sinhalese and Tamils and to the people of South India including the Muslims of South India. Moreover all their surnames like Marrikar Lebbai, Rawther, Kutti, Thambi which are now being fast discarded for Arabic surnames are all Tamil Muslim caste names used in Tamil Nadu.
          Pathetic try stick to your village and look after the pigs. Oink Oink

  • 6
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    Tamil who Got it Right

    “Dont the Muslims fit under this definition as a separate ethnic group?”

    Could you define Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalese, Germans, ….. Arabs, Persians, …

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      Native Tamils Sinhalese Germans Arabs and Persians are ethnic identities. People from all these ethnic can be Muslim by religion or non Muslims. Being a Muslim is a religious identity as people belonging to many races nations ethnicities cultures and languages can be Muslim. Arab Muslim Tamil Muslim Malay Muslim, Punjabi Muslim, Turkish Muslim, Chinese Muslim.

      Within an ethnicity or race or even within a family people can follow many religions. You can get a Tamil Hindu, Tamil Christian, Tamil Muslims or a Tamil Buddhist or Jain. You can find Sinhalese Buddhist or Christian an Arab who is Muslim Druse or Christian. A Kurd who is a Muslim or a Yazidi. You also can be a Sunni Shia Sufi or a Wahhabi Muslim. Just like being a Theravada or Mahayana Buddhist or a Protestant Catholic or Orthodox Christian or a Saivite or Vaishnavite Hindu

      The answer is very easy and not confusing at all only the Tamil who could not get it right, like all Sri Lankan Muslims is very confused or pretending to be confused, as from they have all been brainwashed by their opportunistic selfish leaders and politicians to believe that they are Arabs/Moors and to equate being Muslim with only Arabs and Arabism and hate their actual Tamil origin.

      Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan only stated that the Muslims of Sri Lanka are Tamils by ethnicity as they are descended from Tamil Hindus who converted to Islam, therefore they belong to the greater Tamil nation. He never used racist language or disparagingly state that they descended from low caste Tamils who converted to Islam. This is an out right lie by now being perpetuated by the Sri Lankan Muslims to justify their treachery and backstabbing

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    why blame the present day Tamil leadership, where is your Muslim leadership?

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    [Edited out]

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    Read this latest National Geographic Article on Sri Lanka. The Comments are very interesting. You can see how the Sinhalese still blame everyone else but not their racism for the cause of problem

    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/11/sri-lanka-tamil-peace-civil-war/

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    I absolutely agree with you bro…..

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    @ Shahul Hasbullah –

    Can you Arabians be settled in your original home land Arabia, instead of resettling in North.

    you can have your own shariat law, mosque, language in Arabia.

    you people should not speak Tamil which is not your mother Tongue

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    if muslims do not accept their tamil origin why others are bothered?a few muslims behaving against in the interests of the tamils is no justification for their expulsion in the most cruel manner. there were tamils who betrayed the LTTE in the north and east. but ltte did not chase out the tamils from these areas. . then sinhalese can use the same reason to expel tamils from the south. it is also possible for sinhala racists to justify 1983 pogrom. what is objected is the justification for wholesale expulsion. muslims do not condemn atrocties against tamils.it is claimed that some muslims also participated in the anti tamil pogrom and benefitted. tamil opinion was not very sympathetic to muslims during aluthgama incidents-2014.
    -DAYAL

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    If they want to be separate from the non Muslims Tamils that is their wish and no one is stopping, just like the Muslims of Bosnia do not want to be identified with their fellow Christian Slavs of Bosnia, however they have correctly classified and identified themselves as Slavic Muslims, their real origin. Not as Turks or Arabs. Similarly Muslims in the island cannot be falsely classified as Arabs/Moors as they are not. A little bit of Arab/Moor amongst a few hundred families does not make them Arab or Moors. They should be classified correctly as Tamil or Dravidian Muslims not as Sri Lankan Moors as they are not.

    Point two it was not a few Muslims. Most Muslims, their elite/establishment as well as all their elected politicians in the south as well as in the north from the word go have always acted against the Tamils. This is not isolated and is widespread. Look at the eastern province to see the large scale marginalisation of Tamils taking place there at the hands of the Muslims and Sinhalese to deprive them of everything in their own land. The east is not Sinhalese or Muslim. It is ancient Tamil Hindu land. In Colombo and in other parts of the South Muslims mobs attacking killing looting and raping Tamils their homes and businesses was not isolated but was widespread. Whom are you trying to fool.

    Strange the Sinhalese attack the Muslims at Alughgama burn loot and kill them and you blame the Tamils for it. Tell me were the Muslims sympathetic when the government killed hundreds of thousands of Tamil in May 2009 ethnically cleansed them kept them in concentration camps and stole their lands. They were celebrating with the Sinhalese in the south and holding victory marches. You disgust me

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