19 March, 2024

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President’s Peace Overture Ignores Muslims  

By Latheef Farook

Latheef Farook

President Ranil Wickremesinghe in announcing his intent to resolve the long standing North East Tamil national question has already ignored the NE Muslim factors which are indivisibly intertwined in any solution of the Tamil problem. He has ignored on more than one occasion the consequential Muslim problem that certainly would be created in any attempt to ignore a comprehensive solution to the two major minorities in the North East.

Wisdom dawned, perhaps under Indian pressure, to solve Tamil issues. However this peace move cannot dismiss as non-existent the long standing grievances of the demonized, discriminated, battered and bruised Muslims. 

This has been the pattern since independence in 1948.For example during Prime Minister Srimavo Bandaranaike’s government Muslims were persecuted and their economy crippled. Her Justice Minister Felix R Dias Bandaranaike arrested and detained several prominent Muslim businessmen.  

Then President JR Jayewardene forcibly merged the East with the North under Emergency Regulations in 1987 amidst wide spread protests against the Indo-Lanka Treaty. He thereby gave the Northern Tamils statistically undue Tamil majority in the East, though Tamils were a minority of 46% in 1946 before independence and 42% in 1981 while there were 32% Muslims and an ever increasing Sinhala population reaching 25% in 1981.

JR’s forced merger led to the Muslims becoming a minority under another minority resulting in their much misunderstood demand for separation from Tamil rule in the Province. Muslims’ resistance to JR’s merger led the brutal expulsion of the innocent Northern Muslims from the North by 1989 and the massacre of   Muslims in several mass killings of Muslims in the East. In 2005, LTTE Eastern leaders too broke away from the Northern controlled LTTE signaling the Eastern Tamils opposition to merger. By 2006, the Supreme Court held the forced merger as illegal.

Is President Wickremesinghe acting on the manipulations of Norwegian LTTE broker Erik Solheim, his latest advisor, laying the foundation for problems in the East by ignoring not only the Eastern Muslim factor but also the 25% Sinhalese in the East? Incidentally didn’t Norway brainwash Gnanasara Thero in 2011 and 2012 in the Oslo University and elsewhere against the Muslims of this country which led to the anti- Muslim campaign from 2012 and the anti-Muslim riots in 2014, 2017 and 2018. The Presidential Commission on the Easter attacks of April 2019 blamed the anti- Muslim violence resulting in the terrible Easter Sunday attacks!

Former MP MM Zuhair PC in a speech at the biennial meeting of the National Shoora Council last Sunday had raised the timely question as to who benefitted from the 30 year war between the brothers! He has been quoted (Island 5th December 2022), “Arms manufacturers in the USA, USSR, Britain, France, Germany, Israel and China were the beneficiaries, though we must blame ourselves for it. The country’s wealth, savings and the dollars ended up in foreign countries during the next 30 years. Today, we are pleading with their governments, with the begging bowl, for food and fuel, for the survival of our people”. Nothing but the truth for not recognizing who our friends and who our enemies are!

Much has been written about successive Sri Lankan government’s destructive policies towards minorities which turned this paradise island into a living hell. Tamils and Muslims wanted to live as equal citizens with dignity in an undivided country.

For example Tamil Congress and Muslim League were integral parts of United National Party governments. Respected Muslim leader Dr MCM Kaleel served as United National Party treasurer and chairman. However discriminatory policies forced Muslims   to think in terms of separate political party.

For example late President JR Jayewardene dismissed a Muslim delegation led by Dr Kaleel which requested him not to bring in Israelis here, fearing they would pit Sinhalese against Muslims. Dismissing the delegation President Jayewardene said “I would even go to any devil and get help to fight LTTE”. He forgot Israel is a major exporter of wars everywhere! President Wickremesinghe cannot be unaware that Norway is another arms exporting country and that their interest conflict with Sri Lanka’s.

More than 45 years later today Muslims’ fears were proved right. For example Israelis were allowed in and was given an exclusive channel to spread their lies in the SLT which has removed popular Muslim channel “Peace TV” of respected Dr Zakir Naik, renowned international Islamic scholar on comparative religion.

Frustrated Muslims formed the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress, with the slogan of Islam and unity. However Islam disappeared and   Muslim Congress divided into more than half a dozen splinter groups with a disgusting and well known reputation for compromising community’s interest for perks and positions. The more recent one being the 20 th amendment to the Constitution to make President Gotabaya Rajapaksa a dictator. A Muslim Minister Ali Sabry presented and supported the amendment while several Muslim MPs voted and passed. What happened later is common knowledge.

Saudi Arabia built 500 houses to Tsunami affected Muslim families. Sinhala extremists, led by Buddhist monks, opposed. Thus the houses were not given. Today they are covered with thick jungle where snakes, reptiles and other wild animals live in an around these valuable houses.

President Kumaratunga initiated a move to sign a joint mechanism with the LTTE. But the Muslim tsunami victims were ignored by the agreement to please the LTTE which opposed Muslim participation.

In negotiating and signing the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), the President Kumaratunga, did exactly what Ranil Wickremesinghe did when he signed the Ceasefire Agreement, CFA, with the LTTE on February 2002, when Muslim interests were dismissed.

Columnist Sassanka Samarakkody said, “The main priority of our opportunistic political leaders is not the well-being of the people or the territorial integrity of the country, but to cling on to power at any cost. And as recent history has demonstrated, they will not hesitate to enter into a pact even with the devil to enjoy power.

Once the LTTE war ended in 2009, Muslims tried to rebuild their lives only to realize government sponsored   violence started against them .They burnt Muslim owned houses, commercial and industrial properties and even mosques where Holy Quran was not only burnt but urinated on them.

In the midst there appeared Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a government backed violent organization which terrorized Muslims. A German Jew gifted a house for BBS in the south. Myanmar’s so called Buddhist monk Asin Wirathu , described by Time magazine as the face of Buddhist Terror, was invited and accorded more than a head of state honor.

Frightened and cornered Muslims voted the Maithri-Ranil team to power in 2015 only to realize they were no better. Without any provocations Muslims were attacked, looted and their properties including mosques were burnt causing billions of damage depriving their livelihood especially during attacks in Central hills in March 2018.

Organized violence against Muslims proved that Maithri-Ranil government continued Mahinda-Gota’s racist policies. These attacks culminated in the Easter Sunday bombings on 21 April 2019 which killed more than 300 and wounded more than 500 and plunged the country into chaos.

Then Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters that there had been “several warnings from foreign intelligence agencies about the impending attacks”.

However President Maithripala Sirisena refused to act and went on pilgrimage to Tirupathi from where he went with his family on a three day holiday to Singapore while Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was holidaying in Bentota.

Muslim community had nothing to do with this carnage. Yet Muslim men, women and even children were treated with hatred. Maithri-Ranil government swiftly dispatched troops with shoes and dogs to search mosques. So called search operations became nightmare for frightened Muslim families. Not only hospital security but even shops and super markets forced Muslim women to remove traditional shawls though Covid 19 that followed forced everyone to wear masks.

In the midst knowing very well that mercenaries were awaiting to attack Muslims at Wennappuwa and adjacent areas Maithri left to China to attend an insignificant conference leaving innocent Muslims at the mercy of racist thugs awaiting to attack.

What had happened is common knowledge.

It appeared later that Maithri and Rajapaksas were hand in glove in their anti-Muslim campaign misleading Sinhalese whose 6.9 million votes elected Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president.

Battered, beleaguered and helpless Muslims did not take to arms. Instead they raised their hands in their daily five times prayers and left it to the Creator.

It did not take long for Sinhalese to realize that Rajapaksa brothers used racism to gain power while reportedly robbing the country of its wealth. The irony is that this very same 6.9 million woke up and ousted both President Gotabaya and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in most humiliating manner in the history of the island.

This vicious campaign continued until the economic collapse which turned the attention from Muslims to the increasing sufferings of people.

In the midst of the political confusion and economic bankruptcy nominated Member of Parliament Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was defeated in the elections and his party UNP wiped out, was appointed as prime minister  and then as president.

He has adopted a policy of ruthless suppression to crush popular uprising.

It was in this chaotic political environment President Ranil Wickremesinghe has offered peace talks to Tamils, ignoring Muslims. Thus the indifference towards Muslim grievances continue unabated to the detriment of communal harmony and the country

Any lesson learnt?

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Latest comments

  • 19
    7

    Mr Farook first of all the island’s Muslim identity is based on their religion and is not racial. They are ethnic Tamils of South Indian immigrant origin and the vast overwhelming majority of them only arrived on the island during the early British colonial era from South India. There may be a little bit of Arab, other western Asian and other non-Tamil ancestries, amongst a very small percentage of them, largely living down south and even these people are purely Tamil on their maternal lineage and more than 85% Tamil on their paternal lineage. A small minuscule amount of western Asian or other non-Tamil origins within a minuscule minority amongst the island’s Muslim or Sri Lankan Moor. does not make them Moor, Arab or anything else but they are still Tamils. The Portuguese used the word to describe the island’s Muslims only in relation to their religion and not to their race or ethnicity. Just because you are a Muslim and some have slightly mixed blood your ethnicity or race does not change. A Punjabi or Bengali Muslim is still a Punjabi or Bengali and not an Arab, Turk or Mughal, even if lots of them have these origins.

    • 17
      5

      Similarly, the Tamil Muslims from South India, from whom the Sri Lankan Muslims originated still call and proudly identify themselves as Tamils. The former Indian President and the father of Indian Space and Atomic science Dr Abdul Kalam proudly and closely identified himself as a Tamil. He belonged to the Tamil Muslim Marrikar community and a good proportion of the so-called Sri Lankan Moors are from this Tamil Muslim caste. Others belong to other South Indian Tamil Muslim castes like Lebbai,( priests) Rawthers, Kutti, Kayalar, Thambi or Thampi. These Tamil Muslim caste names were reflected in their family names a generation ago and have only changed recently due to the Arabization craze. There is a vast difference between the history and origin of the island’s Tamils and the Tamil Muslims or Moors and the Estate Tamils or Malayaka Tamils. The former is indigenous and has a long ancient history on the island at least around 2200 years minimum and the north and the east of the island have been their ancient homeland, where they have lived exclusively and ruled themselves until European colonization and this has been extensively documented.

      • 17
        1

        Even the Mahavamsa admits that the lands to the north and east of the island are Tamil lands and by trying to portray the island’s Tamils as outsiders and enemies of the Sinhalese it did the opposite, it proved that they were on the island for thousands of years and many of the so-called Sinhalese royalty and dynasties and people originated from them. The King who converted to Buddhism Thevanai Nambiya Theesan son of king Mootha Sivan( the great Siva) was a Tamil Saivite Naga. Later his name was Prakritised to Devanaampiyatissa but the meaning of both is its original Tamil form and Pali is the same. Similarly, the father of king DuttuGemunu was King Kakkai Vanna or Kaavan Theesan both pure Tamil names and titles, proving they were Tamil Nagas who converted to Buddhism. Dutta means in Tamil a person who is wayward or evil. He was called Dutta Gamini ( evil or wayward Gamini ) as he did not listen to his father and fought a war with the Hindu Tamil king of Aurdhapura Ellalan.
        Compared to this ancient history of the island Tamils and the very recent or fairly recent immigrant origin of the other two Tamil communities on the island the Sri Lankan Moors and Estate Tamils is like comparing apples to oranges.

    • 10
      12

      Whatever the identity is as imagined by you to be based on, there is an identity and there is oppression based on that identity.
      Let not anybody else’s problems stand in the way of addressing real issues.

  • 17
    5

    Mr Farook short and sweet. The Sri Lankan or Eelam Tamils from the north and east are ethnic Tamils who have a very ancient history on the island and have lived in their homeland in the north and east continuously for over 2000 years and this was their land where they had ruled. Until the Europeans arrived and conquered the island. Trying to compare with an immigrant ethnically Tamil Muslim population who arrived from South India only fairly recently, more than half of them in the early 19Th century is ridiculous. Islam is a religion not a race or ethnicity and the Sri Lankan Muslims are of Tamil ethnicity, with a very small percentage having a distant male Arab or other western Asian ancestor or two. This still does not make them Arabs or anything else, they are still Tamils belonging to the Islamic faith. Just like many Tamils belong to the Christian or Jain faith. These people do not identify themselves as Europeans/Jews or North Indians. Even the Muslim Tamils in India and Malaysia identify themselves as Tamils belonging to the Islamic faith. Only in Sri Lanka, a religion and minute amounts of Arab or other ancestry is qualifying as another ethnicity, to use as a tool to divide and rule the Tamils.

    • 18
      4

      Only around 30% approx of the island’s Muslims are in the North and East, of this most in the east, where they only arrived as refugees fleeing primarily the Portuguese and later Sinhalese and were given refuge there as fellow Tamils. As fellow Tamils belonging to the Islamic faith there who were given refuge there by the native Hindu Tamils, they have the right to live in dignity with their rights protected but have no right to claim the historic ancient Hindu Eelam Tamil eastern lands as their over the heads of the native Eelam Tamils, who took pity on them and gave them refuge as Tamils. Unlike the Tamils, you have no ancient history of living ruling and owning lands there. Notice 70% of the island’s Muslims live amongst the Sinhalese, why is there no claim for Islamic homelands in Muslim-majority areas down south but only in Tamil areas, where other than religion, everything else is the same? We know that the Sinhalese state has always used the Muslims as a tool to deny justice and muddy the just and valid claim for a Tamil homeland, especially in the east. They use various Muslim politicians, people and organizations for this. Are you one of them?

      • 18
        3

        A Tamil homeland and federal state is valid historically and geographically but not a homeland for Muslims who are of Tamil ethnicity. A federal Tamil homeland and state will also include the Muslim Tamils of the east, where their rights will be protected. Historically it is the Tamils who have always protected the island’s Muslims as they are Tamils, the Sinhalese only use them as a tool to divide and marginalize all Tamils including the Muslims as you stated.

        Lastly, the current percentages used for Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims in the east and on the whole island, after large scale ethnic cleansing killings, forced migrations of the island’s Tamils and the war crimes committed against them, is like justifying and trying to legalize what happened. The beneficiaries of all that happened, especially in the east are the Sinhalese who were not even 5% in the east and the Muslims who were only around 30% of the population of the east at the time of independence. We do not want war crimes, killings and ethnic cleansing justified and legalized.

        • 12
          2

          The South Indian origin Muslims only arrived in the east a few centuries ago, as refugees, fleeing Portuguese killings and persecution along the then Tamil North West coast, and later Sinhalese killings in the Kandyan areas, where they originally fled to. They were settled in the east by the Tamil eastern Vannmai chief, at the request of King Senarath, as they were ethnic Tamils and were also given Tamil Hindu Mukkuva brides to start a family and lands in specific villages, where they still live. Now in the name of Islam and alien Arab culture and heritage that they hardly have, trying to claim large parts of the Tamil east, where they arrived as refugees centuries ago and were given refuge and Tamil women to marry, solely on the basis that they are fellow Tamils, is a joke. the Muslim percentage is increasing due to their very high birth rate and the large-scale ethnic cleansing of Tamils in the Trincomalee and Amparai areas. The Sinhalese due to large-scale state colonization. It is laughable to say the Sinhalese especially Sirimavo discriminated against the Muslims when in reality they use them as a tool to marginalize the island’s Tamils, especially in the east, just like I believe you are doing now.

          • 10
            2

            As a reward, they gave them lots of important positions and ministries when they were only around 7% of the population, whilst the Tamils who were then around 25% hardly got any positions and one minister in a minor ministry. Remember Badudeen Mohamed who brought in Standardisation during the Srimavo regime to deny Tamils higher education and filled the university with lowly qualified Sinhalese and Muslims or minister Mohamed, whose family originated from Nagoor in Tamil Nadu to organize Muslim thugs and criminals during the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom and later in Kalmunai in the east.
            Hizbullah in the east was openly boasting about how he converted an ancient Hindu temple to a supermarket and beef stall and gave it to Muslims and how he will convert the Tamil east to an Islamic Homeland and was busy building a huge Islamic university with Saudi and Qatari aid in a pure Tamil Hindu areas, where the land was donated to him illegally by the Rajapakses. Remember the satan from Mannar who under the pretext of settling displaced Muslims from the north was settling thousands of out of the area and even foreign Muslims with funds obtained from overseas to create a new Islamic homeland in the north covering the Wilpattu wilderness and large areas of Vanni, areas where there were no Muslims historically.

            • 11
              1

              Remember the Easter bombing in 2019 of largely Tamil Christian churches in Colombo, Negombo and the east and who was behind it. It is only then the Sinhalese largely realized that the Islamic genie and tool that they let out to marginalise and deny Tamils justice, especially in the Tamil east, has now even come to affect them. The Muslims from the time of independence were and still are co-partners of the Sinhalese in their genocidal dance against the Tamils, all in the name of religion and Arabism. They benefited and were rewarded immensely for their junior role in this anti-Tamil dance. Whenever there is a remote chance of anything good or justice being granted to the island’s indigenous Tamils, they immediately jump up and down like party poopers or a setup by others to do this and start screaming what about poor me. I also need justice and lots of Tamil land, to set up an Islamic state. A deliberate ploy to deny Tamils justice and muddy the waters in the east. When will these people realize a powerful Tamil people with federal rights in their ancient lands in the north and east are also a safeguard to the island’s Tamil Muslims and the Sinhalese Christians? If the Tamils are powerful and thriving so will they, however if the Tamils are destroyed it will be their turn next.

  • 8
    2

    Mr Farouk
    There is something seriously lacking in Muslim leadership.
    The Muslim nationality is scattered across the country with some regions of high concentration.
    There is need to address Muslim issues as a whole.
    Why are the Muslim leaders unable to work on that basis to ensure the national rights of Muslims. part of the reason is the conflict of class interest of the Muslim elite and that of the Muslim masses.
    You could spend some time addressing this key issue, far more usefully than appealing to all and sundry.

  • 9
    0

    “President Ranil Wickremesinghe in announcing his intent to resolve the long standing North East Tamil national question has already ignored the NE Muslim factors”

    That is because Muslim leaders don’t fight for the right of Muslims but for personal perks. You guys did not even fight to bury the dead with respect but kissed the slipper and raised the hand for the 20th. amendment.

    I don’t find fault with you because you’r doing

    • 2
      7

      “That is because Muslim leaders don’t fight for the right of Muslims but for personal perks.”
      Are Hill Country Tamil leaders any better?
      Why do you reckon that Tamil leaders are more interested in defending India even at the expense of their own people?
      Some personal perks are home made, others foreign.

  • 13
    3

    What Muslims have done right through, waiting for others to fight their battle and then asking for their share which they have never earned or deserve.

    • 5
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      B
      Please tell me, which of their battles was fought by any other?

    • 8
      1

      Thamizh suffered so much and fought for the North and East, despite so much hardship, torture, humiliation, loss of life limb and property and still, are doing this, as it is their ancient homeland and they have a love for their land, just like a parent will do anything for a child. These South Indian origin Muslims do not as this is not theirs and have no attachment to it as it is not their homeland, no ancient history or ties to it. People with old ties to their land will do anything and fight for it when it is threatened. They do not. Only arrived as refugees a few centuries ago and therefore have no love for the land, language or culture and will connive with anyone and try to steal it and not fight for it. Was conniving with the Chingkallams and still conniving with them to marginalize and dispossess the eastern and even the northern Thamizh if possible and steal their land by asking for large shares they do not deserve.

      • 9
        1

        The current clamour, especially from these southern Muslims is deliberate to spoil everything for the Thamizh, as they do not want federalism and a Thamizh homeland, which will spoil their dream of creating an Islamic homeland from stolen Eezham Thamizh land. Thamizh is fighting for all Thamizh including the Muslim Thamizh but they are not just want everything for Muslims only, other Thamizh can be damned. Strange deny their actual Thamizh ethnicity and go everywhere claiming to be Arab but when to run to the west to claim asylum claim to be ethnic Thamizh fleeing Chingkalla persecution and downplay their Islamic or Muslim identity. Thamizh when it suits them, all other times deny they are Thamizh and try to destroy Thamizh.

  • 1
    7

    there is always an ignored step sister in Sri Lanka.

  • 13
    3

    The Sinhala Govt was never at war with the Muslims. On the contrary the Muslims were part of the Sinhala Govt that was at war with the Tamils.

  • 12
    2

    Latheef Farook, what a joke, from the time of independence, powerful Muslim ministers have been in all Chingkalla-led governments, being co-partners of the Chingkalla racist genocidal war criminal policies against the island’s Thamizh. Muslims benefited immensely and thrived especially post-1983. They used to join the Chingkallams during any anti-Thamizh pogrom to loot, burn, and destroy Thamizh homes and businesses, and rape, maim and kill innocent Thamizh civilians. In the east Islamic Homeguards, heavily armed by the Sri Lankan state in connivance with the STF, were very busy killing, destroying and ethnically cleansing many ancient Thamizh Hindu villages, especially in the Trincomalee and Amparai districts. What an irony, arrived in the Thamizh east and begged for refuge as fellow Thamizh, using their Thamizh identity and were taken pity and given refuge and now in the name of Islam destroying everything Thamizh. Muslims, especially down south always join with the Chingkallams and ridicule the indigenous Thamizh, whenever they demand their just rights, stating what rights, look at us we have all our rights, as we cooperate with the Chingkallams.

    • 10
      2

      However whenever there is a remote chance of Thamizh rights being granted and their homeland recognized, they immediately and deliberately come to the scene and scream and screech, what about us when also need our rights, especially in the east and the east is ours now, as due to ethnic cleansing and the large scale killing Thamizh percentage is reduced.

      Joined the Chingkallams to kill and commit war crimes and genocide on their fellow non-Muslim Thamizh and had a nice time, whilst the indigenous Thamizh fought for their rights from the time of independence, fought a just war and lost so much and then come to get their spoils, thinking that the Thamizh are now weak. You arrived in the east as refugees, a few centuries ago, begging for refuge and a chance to live, not as Muslims but as fellow Thamizh, and were given refuge on that basis and even Hindu Thamizh women to marry, start a family, multiply and thrive. Now in the name of Islam and alien Arabic culture and language, want to destroy the Thamizh who have you refuge initially and admitted you into their lands, the Thamizh language and culture, which is yours too and take over the east.

  • 6
    0

    Indian partition happened because of
    Muslims asking for separate Country.
    This made the two countries India and Pakistan to continue to fight each other since independence.
    Muslims in SL need to identify themselves as Singhalese or Tamils and NOT to bring RELIGION.
    By trying to be distinct group they are causing Great Harm to the country

    • 6
      0

      When they migrated from their original South Indian homeland and until the end of the 1800s or early 1900s they identified themselves as Thamizh. Later their largely southern-based elite and politicians for political power and economic advantage, deliberately distanced themselves from their actual Thamizh ethnicity, made their religion their main identity and also stated they are Thamizh speaking but not Thamizh. To justify this, they claimed a blanket Arab ancestry for the entire community, where more than 95% of them were Thamizh and only 5% had partial distant Arab or another western Asian ancestry. The British to divide and rule recognized them as separate from the Thamizh but to be fair to the British never took the Arab origin seriously and lumped them with the Thamizh for everything. Even most British colonial officers and historians in the 19Th century stated that the so-called Sri Lankan Moors are only Moor by name and this only denotes their religion but in reality, are descended from South Indian immigrant Thamizh Muslim converts and only a very small minority amongst them show some form of partial Arab descent.

      • 6
        0

        Despite this, they were still very Thamizh/Indian in their culture, food habits, and dress forms. Their family names largely reflected their Thamizh Muslim origins. Eg: Marrikar, Lebbai, Rawther, Pitchai, Kayalar, Thambi Etc. This changed in the last three decades, with the spread of extreme Wahhabism and aid from the Gulf Arabs and their influence, they now very aggressively deny their South Indian Thamizh origin. Claim they are Arabs and pathetically try to ape them, dress like them, look like them, take Arabic style names, now cook and claim North African and Western Asian food and claim it as their traditional food. Trying to make Muslim predominating areas in the east look like some carbon copy of the Arabian Gulf, with huge Arabic name boards and many times with the encouragement of the Sri Lankan state, changing ancient Thamizh places names in the east, to Arabic or Islamic names. Like Saddam Hussein Village. People who are pathetically trying to create an artificial identity based on religion and a minute amount of Arab/Western Asian ancestry in them and now pathetically imitating the Arabs to justify this artificial identity but have South Indian Dravidian looks and faces.

        • 5
          0

          The famous politician from eastern Sri Lanka Mudliar Karriaper openly stated the only difference between the Thamizh and Muslim or Sri Lankan Moor on the island is their religion, other than that they are the same people. At the time of independence, there was hardly any difference between the Thamizh and Sri Lankan Moor, compared to the difference between the low country and Kandyan Chingkallams. However, since then every Chingkalla-led Sri Lankan government, with the connivance of the power-hungry opportunistic Muslim elite, deliberately divide and rule the Thamizh and used the Muslim Thamizh as a tool to suppress the Hindu and Christian Thamizh. Encouraged this separate identity and the Arabization and radicalization of the island’s Muslims, especially in the east. They also took further steps to separate other small Thamizh communities, living down south like the Colombo Chetty and Bharatha to distance them from their Thamizh ethnicity and create a separate identity. However, in the case of the Chingkallams, they did the opposite, using their political and economic power to bridge the huge gap between the low country and Kandyan Chingkallams and various Chingkalla castes.

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