Islam in Sri Lanka is practiced by a group of minorities. The Muslim community is divided into three main ethnic groups: the Sri Lankan Moors, the Indian Muslims, and the Malays, each with its own history and traditions. The attitude among the majority of people in Sri Lanka is to use the term '"Muslim" as an ethnic group, specifically when referring to Sri Lankan Moors. History of Islam in Sri Lanka | |||
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During 18th and 19th centuries, Javanese and Malaysian Muslims bought over by the Dutch and British rulers contributed to the growing Muslim population in Sri Lanka. Their descendants, now the Sri Lankan Malays, adapted several Sri Lankan Moor Islamic traditions while also contributing their unique cultural Islamic practices to other Muslim groups on the Island. The arrival of Muslims from India during the 19th and 20th centuries has also contributed to the growth of Islam in Sri Lanka. Most notably, Pakistani and South Indian Muslims have introduced Shia Islam and the Hanafi school of thought into Sri Lanka, however although most Muslims on the island still adhere to the traditional practices of Sunni Islam. In modern times, Muslims in Sri Lanka are handled by the Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Department, which was established in the 1980s to prevent the continual isolation of the Muslim community from the rest of Sri Lanka. Today, about 10% of Sri Lankans adhere to Islam; and there are approximately 5,000 mosques, with every mosque having a committee to look after the community affairs. Muslims of Sri lanka, mostly from the Moor and Malay ethnic communities on the island with smaller numbers of converts from other ethnicities, such as the Sinhalese. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was established in Sri Lanka in 1915. But the other Muslim Communities consider Ahmadiyya as a separate non-Muslim religion. Sri Lankan Moors | |||
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The Sri Lankan Moors lived primarily in coastal trading and agricultural communities, preserving their Islamic cultural heritage while adopting many Southern Asian customs. During the period of Portuguese colonization, the Moors suffered from persecution, and many moved to the Central Highlands, where their descendants remain. Education There are 749 Muslim Schools in Sri Lanka and 205 madras’s which teaching Islamic Education, and there is an Islamic university in Beruwala (Jamiya Naleemiya). In early 20th century there are few Muslim professionals in Accounts, Medical, Engineering, etc. But at present they are exceeding the national average. Due to lack of opportunity in Sri Lanka, many Muslim professionals are migrating to get jobs abroad, such as the Middle East, United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. East Coast Moors On the eastern province of the country Muslims are predominant. East coast, Sri Lankan Moors are primarily farmers, fishermen, and traders. Their family lines are traced through women, as in kinship systems of the southwest Indian state of Kerala, but they govern themselves through Islamic law. West Coast Moors | |||
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Other immigrants were convicts or members of noble houses from Indonesia who were exiled to Sri Lanka and who never left. The main source of a continuing Malay identity is their common Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), which includes numerous words absorbed from Sinhalese and the Moorish variant of the Tamil language. In the 1980s, the Malays made up about 5 % of the Muslim population in Sri Lanka and, like the Moors, predominantly follow the Shafi school of thought within Sunni Islam. Indian Muslims (Memons, Bhoras, Khojas) The Indian Muslims are those who trace their origins to immigrants searching for business opportunities during the colonial period. Some of these people came to the country as far back as Portuguese times; others arrived during the British period from various parts of India. Majority of them came from Tamil Nadu and Kerala states, and unlike the Sri Lankan Moors, are ethnically related to South Indians and number approximately 30,000. The Memons, originally from Sindh (in modern Pakistan), first arrived in 1870; in the 1980s they numbered only about 3,000, they mostly follow the Hanafi Sunni school of Islam. The Dawoodi Bhoras and the Khojas are Shia Muslims came from north-western India (Gujarat state) after 1880; in the 1980s they collectively numbered fewer than 2,000. These groups tended to retain their own places of worship and the languages of their ancestral homelands. http://www.srilankaheritages.com/islam.html |
Showing posts with label The Islam Myth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Islam Myth. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
History of Islam in Sri Lanka
Marakkala: the Sri Lankan Moors
By Dr. S. K. Vadivale
The Arabs who came for trade did not settle down in Ceylon. They were in fact a floating population along the Western and Southern coasts. On seeing the Portuguese they got so scared that they left their lucrative trade, their wives/concubines and children to the mercy of the Portuguese and fled, swearing not to come back. Yes, to this day they have not come back.
From 1311 to 1330, under orders from Ala-u-din, the Sultan of Delhi, Makik Kaffoor, Ghiyathu-d-din Dhamaghani, Khusuru Khan and other generals, demolished and devastated Hindu temples in the South and carried away the loot (gold, silver etc) to Delhi. The Southern region however, did not go under Muslim rule until 1330. In 1380 a powerful Tamil King, Kumara Kampan attacked the Muslim ruler Sikander, killed him in battle and drove the Muslim army out of Tamil country. As in the North, in the South too, Muslim conquerors, at the point of the sword, compelled Hindus, Jains and Buddhists to embrace Islam.
(Ref: History of India by Elliot, History of Tamil Nadu by Pro. N. Subramaniam).
It may be interesting to observe that while Christian missionaries converted non-Christians all over the world by persuasion, Muslim conquerors converted people of other faiths to Islam, at the point of the sword. With the fall of Muslim rule in the South in 1380, there was a renaissance among the Hindus and in the latter part of the 14th century, the converts were prosecuted until they fled the Tamil country in Marak Kalams (Wooden Boats) and landed on the coasts of Ceylon. Because they came in Marak Kalams the Sinhala people called them Marakkala Minissu. Yes, to this day, the Sinhalese call them Marakkala Minissu. Tamils in South India and Sri Lanka call them Sonahars, (Ref: Yarlpana Vaipava Malai 1736 by Mailvaganar Pulavar).
Arabs came to Ceylon in the 15th century not as conquerors or missionaries but as traders. The Arabs, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British did not bring their women folk with them. It is surprising that while the Europeans had taken Sinhala and Tamil women as wives/concubines, the Arabs had taken only Tamil women for their comfort and pleasure. That is, I believe the reason why there are no Sinhala Muslims in Sri Lanka. The reason why the Arabs were not interested in Sinhala women is not far to seek. The Arabs were keen on having as their companions only women who professed Islam.
Arabs would not have come to Ceylon in thousands. A couple of hundreds would have come with each expedition at intervals of say 12 to 24 months or so. The Arab factor would not therefore, have altered the ethnic or demographic pattern of the Tamil Muslims who had come from Tamil Nadu in the 14th century.
The Portuguese came to Ceylon in the 16th century as conquerors. They dubbed the Tamil Muslims `Moors', because as in Morocco, the Muslim of Portugal and Spain were called Moors. (Ref: The Story of Lanka by E. L. Blaze).
(a) Whereas the descendants of the Europeans (the Burghers) resemble their forefathers very closely, the Tamil-speaking Muslims who vociferously claim to be descendants of Arabs, do not have the slightest resemblance to an Arab in stature or complexion.
(b) The mother tongue of the Muslims is Tamil.
(c) The Muslims bear Tamil names e.g. Periya Marikkar, Sinna Lebbe, Pitchai Thamby, Hajira Ammah, Razeena Amma, etc.
(d) Unlike Arab women, local Muslim women bore their noses and put studs, use anklets and gold jewellery.
(e) Adult women wear sarees while teenagers wear Paa Vadai and Thaavani.
(f) Brothers' and sisters' children marry as first choice.
(g) The bride is given dowry which is contrary to Muslim Law. A Pakistani who was in Sri Lanka last year for Thableeq, condemned the dowry system practised by local Muslims.
(h) The bride-groom puts a Thali round the neck of the bride. This custom prevails only among Tamil Muslims and Tamil Christians of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
(i) In local Muslim houses Gingelly oil is included in the diet of girls who have attained maidenhood.
(j) Muslim physicians of Ceylon brought their medical literature from Kayal Pattanam in Tamil Nadu. (Ref: Avicenna 1967. Journal of the Unani Medical Students Union.)
(k) Tamil Nadu-type houses can still be seen in Muslim colonies of Mannar, Puttalam and Jaffna.
Muslims of Northern India belong to the Aryan stock, and are by ethnicity Rajputs, Gujeratis, Maharashtras, Punjabis, Kashmiris etc.. The inhabitants of West Bengal, Bangladesh and Orissa do not claim to be Aryans. They are Mongoloid Dravidians. The indigenous Muslims of Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil-Nadu, Maldives and Sri Lanka are Dravidians to the core. Sir P. Ramanathan, a scholar and statesman of international repute asserted in unequivocal terms that the Muslims of Ceylon were Tamils by ethnicity. Ethnicity does not change with change of faith. Ethnicity cannot be changed by Cabinet decisions or with the stroke of the pen. Can a leopard change its spots?
The name `Yawanas' first used to denote foreigners, was derived from the word Ionians (Greeks), with whom the Hindus first became acquainted. In the ancient Sanskrit and Tamil period, it denoted the Greeks but in subsequent times when the Greeks were succeeded by the Mohamedans, it was the Mohamedans who were denoted by that name. In later Sanskrit of the Vishnu Purana, we are to understand by Yavanas, not the Greeks but the Mohamadans.
The word Sonahars by which the Mohamadans are known in Tamil Nadu is merely a corruption of the Sanskrit word `Yavanas' Ref: Tamil Studies by M. Srinivasa. The words, Mohamedians, Muslims, Moors, Yonahars, (Sonahars) are synonyms for those professing Islam, irrespective of the ethnicity to which they belong. The sonahars of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka Tamils by ethnicity.
In the late 1950s, the late Gate Mudaliyar Kariapper, while addressing voters of the Eastern Province in support of the Federal Party, said ``None can dispute the fact that Tamil speaking Muslims of Ceylon are descendants of Tamil Hindus who embraced Islam in the latter part of the 14th century when South India was under Muslim rule. It is only religion that divides the Tamils and Muslims. By ethnicity Tamils and Muslims are one''.
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http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/marakkala.html
www.tamilnet.com |
From 1311 to 1330, under orders from Ala-u-din, the Sultan of Delhi, Makik Kaffoor, Ghiyathu-d-din Dhamaghani, Khusuru Khan and other generals, demolished and devastated Hindu temples in the South and carried away the loot (gold, silver etc) to Delhi. The Southern region however, did not go under Muslim rule until 1330. In 1380 a powerful Tamil King, Kumara Kampan attacked the Muslim ruler Sikander, killed him in battle and drove the Muslim army out of Tamil country. As in the North, in the South too, Muslim conquerors, at the point of the sword, compelled Hindus, Jains and Buddhists to embrace Islam.
(Ref: History of India by Elliot, History of Tamil Nadu by Pro. N. Subramaniam).
It may be interesting to observe that while Christian missionaries converted non-Christians all over the world by persuasion, Muslim conquerors converted people of other faiths to Islam, at the point of the sword. With the fall of Muslim rule in the South in 1380, there was a renaissance among the Hindus and in the latter part of the 14th century, the converts were prosecuted until they fled the Tamil country in Marak Kalams (Wooden Boats) and landed on the coasts of Ceylon. Because they came in Marak Kalams the Sinhala people called them Marakkala Minissu. Yes, to this day, the Sinhalese call them Marakkala Minissu. Tamils in South India and Sri Lanka call them Sonahars, (Ref: Yarlpana Vaipava Malai 1736 by Mailvaganar Pulavar).
Arabs came to Ceylon in the 15th century not as conquerors or missionaries but as traders. The Arabs, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British did not bring their women folk with them. It is surprising that while the Europeans had taken Sinhala and Tamil women as wives/concubines, the Arabs had taken only Tamil women for their comfort and pleasure. That is, I believe the reason why there are no Sinhala Muslims in Sri Lanka. The reason why the Arabs were not interested in Sinhala women is not far to seek. The Arabs were keen on having as their companions only women who professed Islam.
Arabs would not have come to Ceylon in thousands. A couple of hundreds would have come with each expedition at intervals of say 12 to 24 months or so. The Arab factor would not therefore, have altered the ethnic or demographic pattern of the Tamil Muslims who had come from Tamil Nadu in the 14th century.
The Portuguese came to Ceylon in the 16th century as conquerors. They dubbed the Tamil Muslims `Moors', because as in Morocco, the Muslim of Portugal and Spain were called Moors. (Ref: The Story of Lanka by E. L. Blaze).
(a) Whereas the descendants of the Europeans (the Burghers) resemble their forefathers very closely, the Tamil-speaking Muslims who vociferously claim to be descendants of Arabs, do not have the slightest resemblance to an Arab in stature or complexion.
(b) The mother tongue of the Muslims is Tamil.
(c) The Muslims bear Tamil names e.g. Periya Marikkar, Sinna Lebbe, Pitchai Thamby, Hajira Ammah, Razeena Amma, etc.
(d) Unlike Arab women, local Muslim women bore their noses and put studs, use anklets and gold jewellery.
(e) Adult women wear sarees while teenagers wear Paa Vadai and Thaavani.
(f) Brothers' and sisters' children marry as first choice.
(g) The bride is given dowry which is contrary to Muslim Law. A Pakistani who was in Sri Lanka last year for Thableeq, condemned the dowry system practised by local Muslims.
(h) The bride-groom puts a Thali round the neck of the bride. This custom prevails only among Tamil Muslims and Tamil Christians of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
(i) In local Muslim houses Gingelly oil is included in the diet of girls who have attained maidenhood.
(j) Muslim physicians of Ceylon brought their medical literature from Kayal Pattanam in Tamil Nadu. (Ref: Avicenna 1967. Journal of the Unani Medical Students Union.)
(k) Tamil Nadu-type houses can still be seen in Muslim colonies of Mannar, Puttalam and Jaffna.
Muslims of Northern India belong to the Aryan stock, and are by ethnicity Rajputs, Gujeratis, Maharashtras, Punjabis, Kashmiris etc.. The inhabitants of West Bengal, Bangladesh and Orissa do not claim to be Aryans. They are Mongoloid Dravidians. The indigenous Muslims of Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil-Nadu, Maldives and Sri Lanka are Dravidians to the core. Sir P. Ramanathan, a scholar and statesman of international repute asserted in unequivocal terms that the Muslims of Ceylon were Tamils by ethnicity. Ethnicity does not change with change of faith. Ethnicity cannot be changed by Cabinet decisions or with the stroke of the pen. Can a leopard change its spots?
The name `Yawanas' first used to denote foreigners, was derived from the word Ionians (Greeks), with whom the Hindus first became acquainted. In the ancient Sanskrit and Tamil period, it denoted the Greeks but in subsequent times when the Greeks were succeeded by the Mohamedans, it was the Mohamedans who were denoted by that name. In later Sanskrit of the Vishnu Purana, we are to understand by Yavanas, not the Greeks but the Mohamadans.
The word Sonahars by which the Mohamadans are known in Tamil Nadu is merely a corruption of the Sanskrit word `Yavanas' Ref: Tamil Studies by M. Srinivasa. The words, Mohamedians, Muslims, Moors, Yonahars, (Sonahars) are synonyms for those professing Islam, irrespective of the ethnicity to which they belong. The sonahars of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka Tamils by ethnicity.
In the late 1950s, the late Gate Mudaliyar Kariapper, while addressing voters of the Eastern Province in support of the Federal Party, said ``None can dispute the fact that Tamil speaking Muslims of Ceylon are descendants of Tamil Hindus who embraced Islam in the latter part of the 14th century when South India was under Muslim rule. It is only religion that divides the Tamils and Muslims. By ethnicity Tamils and Muslims are one''.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/marakkala.html
Monday, April 20, 2015
Sri Lankan Muslims Are Low Caste Tamil Hindu Converts Not Arab Descendants
By Rifat Halim -
The recent
execution of Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia has
underlined the bogus claim of Arab ancestry by Sri Lankan Muslims (formerly
known as Ceylon Moors). Ms. Nafeek, a
domestic worker from a poor family in the East of Sri Lanka, spoke no language
but Tamil. She requested a Tamil translator but was provided with a
Malayalam-speaking minor employee whose command of the Tamil language was said
to be insufficient. The Saudi authorities showed no clemency. Also, they
refused to recognize her as a person of Arab descent. Her status was
indistinguishable from that of any foreigner in that country.
Ponnanbalam
Ramanathan in 1906 with his future wife, Ms. Harrison (right)
A fierce controversy has been raging for many
years in the country about the origins of the Tamil-speaking Muslims. In 1885, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan stated in a speech to
the Ceylon Legislative Council that the Tamil-speaking Muslims are low caste Hindus
who converted to Islam. Ramanathan’s
thesis was that the Ceylon Moors, as the Sri Lankan Muslims were then called, were Muslim by religion and
Tamil by ethnicity. Therefore, they did not deserve a separate seat in
the Legislative Council.
In
a paper presented to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1888, Ramanathan said the Tamil-speaking Muslims share more
than just a language with the Tamils. He provided clinching evidence of
the Tamil cultural features of the Tamil-speaking Muslims in the island.
He pointed to Tamil customs such as tying the Tali , the eating of
Patchoru, and the use of Alatti, that were prevalent among the Tamil-speaking
Muslims. Many Sri Lankan
Muslim names such as Periya Marikkar and Sinna Lebbe are clearly Tamil. Also, he said that the Tamil Hindus
and the Tamil-speaking Muslims were physically indistinguishable.
Ramanathan
later became the first elected leader of the country. He defeated Sir Marcus
Fernando in the famous battle for the Educated Ceylonese Seat in 1911.
Over
128 years after Ramanathan’s speech, his thesis is intensely relevant. In every part of the Indian
subcontinent, the Muslims claim South Asian descent except for the
Tamil-speaking Muslims of Sri Lanka. The Tamil-speaking Muslims in India identify themselves as
Tamils. The former President of India Abdul Kalam, a nuclear scientist,
unequivocally calls himself a Tamil. AR Rahman, the Grammy award-winning musician
states considers himself a Tamil.
Other
leaders of Indian subcontinent have similarly embraced their South Asian
ancestry. In India, many Muslims identify themselves as Kannadigas, Gujaratis,
Kashmiris, Tamils and Malayalees. MA Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, said he
was a Gujarati. ZA Bhutto always said that he was a Sindi. Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman stated that he was a Bengali. The vast majority of Bangladeshi say they
are Bengalis. The largest ethnic group in Pakistan are the Punjabis. There is
even a small Tamil Muslim community in Karachi.
Tamil is the mother tongue of over 99% of
the Sri Lankan Muslims. The Islamic
sermons are overwhelmingly delivered in Tamil even in the Sinhalese majority
districts of Kandy, Matara and Galle. Gujarati Muslims in Sri Lanka like myself
cannot follow the Islamic sermons in that inpenetrable Dravidian language.
The Sri Lankan Muslim claim of Arab
ancestry is not corroborated by the Arabs themselves. They treat the Sri Lankan Muslims as lowly
converts speaking a strange tongue. Many Tamil-speaking Muslims from Sri Lanka
have gone to the Middle-East looking for a homecoming. But, the homecoming was
not forthcoming, as the cruelty inflicted on Rizana Nafeek shows.
There
can be no greater endorsement of Ramanathan’s view than the hysterical response
of the Sri Lankan Muslims. Massive tomes consisting of fake
geneology and spurious theories have published to support the Arab
origins. Ramanathan has been angrily vilified well into the 21st century.
Anger often follows an uncomfortable truth.
The
angry authors include ILM Abdul Azeez, the President of the Moors Union, who
claimed in the Muslim Guardian in 1907 that “Most of the ancestors of the
Ceylon Moors were, according to tradition, members of the family of Hashim.” He did not explain how the vast
majority of the Ceylon Moors do not speak a single word of Arabic, but
overwhelming speak Tamil. Other specious claims have been made by irate
academics such as Qadri Ismail and Mirak Raheem. These include the curious
claim that the Arab traders spoke Tamil because they married Tamil women.
The anti-Halal campaign of the Bodhu Bala Sena has put the Muslims of Sri
Lanka back in the spotlight. Former Ambassador Izeth Hussain has written in the
Island recently that the Sri Lankan Muslims are the most servile minority in
the country.
Izeth
Hussain is correct. Sri Lankan Muslims have prostrated themselves in
front of the communal Sinhalese politicians. Sir Razik Fareed voted for Sinhala to be made the sole
official language in 1944 and 1956. In 1948-9, Dr. MCM Kaleel and Dr. TB
Jayah, who were both in the Cabinet, supported the disenfranchisement of the
Indian community. In August
1983, Dr Kaleel, then President of All Ceylon Muslim League, justified the
massacre as a legitimate response to the Tamil demand for separate state.
He objected to the walkout in the Indian Parliament by the Indian Muslim
League, who were protesting against the anti-Tamil pogrom. Dr. Kaleel was blind to the fact
that many Muslims were killed in the 1983 as they were mistaken for Tamils.
The Sri Lankan Muslim are neither fish nor
fowl. The Arabs have rejected them. The Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus are
aghast at their specious claims.
Hence, it is high time that the Sri
Lankan Muslims embrace their Tamil ethnicity. Tamil is the oldest spoken
language in the Indian subcontinent.
Islamic Tamil literature has a thousand year heritage. Tamil is the most
secular language in this region. There is a vast body of Tamil literature that
embraces Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Jainism and Islam. Ramanathan
was an apostle of peace and unity. Following him will bring unity to this
island and end the misgivings of this complexed minority.
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https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankan-muslims-are-low-caste-tamil-hindu-converts-not-arab-descendants/
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May 6, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion,Popular | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH
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