Lankan Muslims in London and

Political Myopia
by Raashid Riza
- on 05/06/2014
There was a protest that took place yesterday by a group of
Sri Lankan Muslims in Britain outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London
mostly regarding the spate of anti Muslim activities that have been occurring in Sri
Lanka. But in this instance what the group responsible for yesterdays protest sought
to achieve is unclear, what is pointedly obvious is the blatant incongruence between
what they did and what they thought its influence would be. The very premise of
having any such protest is not just questionable, but can create a cycle of many
political unknowns. There are significant issues that the Muslim community in Sri
Lanka currently faces, their plight is most depressing and worrying, as I have
highlighted here. But knee jerk reactions to or exploitation of a genuine plight to gain
isolated political mileage is not the prudent way to operate.
As any other Lankan Muslim Londoner, I am as familiar with the Sri Lankan Muslim
Diaspora, the numerical minority and the politically weakest of the three Sri Lankan
ethnic Diaspora groups in London. And it beggars belief as to what would have led to
the said group deciding to protest outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London.
I argued here a few years back that there is a significant structural disconnect between
some parts of the strategies of the British Tamil Diaspora and the genuine needs of the
Sri Lankan Tamil people whose plight we must all sympathise with. If this trend isnt
stymied and nipped in the bud, there is a very fair chance that the Lankan Muslim
Diaspora in Britain would suffer the same fate and alienation that sections of the Tamil
Diaspora have suffered. This would not just result in loss of authority and negotiating
power (which for the Muslims in London is currently hardly existent anyway) but would
indeed cause damage to the Lankan Muslims in Sri Lanka, the very Muslims that they
claim to represent.
Protest is certainly a beacon of democracy that needs to be put into good use, I am
not doctrinally against the principle of protesting outside embassies, indeed I was
amongst those who marched to the Israeli embassy in London off Kensington High
Street on a cold spring morning in 2010 when the Marvi Marmara and the Gaza flotilla
were attacked.
The role of the Diaspora is extremely important, the monetary and intellectual power
they hold, not to mention the electoral influence they have upon their elected
representatives in British electorates can be used to good effect. But the fundamental
matter that has to be understood, which sections of the global Tamil Diaspora failed
miserably in understanding, is that the whims, strategies and the dictates of the
Diaspora must never supersede the needs and political intonations of the local
peoples they claim to represent, in this instance the Sri Lankan Muslim community
living in Sri Lanka, which to the overwhelming vast majority is still very much the
parent community. If there was a coordinated effort by the Sri Lankan Muslims on the
ground and the Lankan British Muslim Diaspora and the protest was a reconciled act
by both parties, then that could have been lauded. But on this occasion, such is not
the case and this was indeed repudiated very wisely by the National Shura Council,
the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka in this statement and thisvideo statement by NM
Ameen.
In the case of the Tamils there were flagrant issues of racism and ethnic violence with
the connivance of the then Sri Lankan Government that resulted in the deaths,
humiliation and damages to property in the riots of 1983, not to mention the serious
known and unknown figures of Tamil civilian casualties towards the end of the war in
2009. But Muslims in Sri Lanka have not faced such a situation and such a situation
can be avoided only by political and social prudency. Of course it is without a shadow
of doubt that the Bodu Bala Sena and Buddhist extremists in general running amok
against Muslims and other minority groups, in their coordinated attacks, have powerful
figures sympathetic to their actions, this is evident in how law enforcement authorities
watch impotently as the monks behave in such brazen vulgarity, but unlike in 1983
where large swathes of Sinhalese got involved in the violence, the actions of the BBS
are not widely appreciated by the Sinhalese community at large and it must be stated
that the actions are indeed carried out by a group of rebel monks and not necessarily
Sinhalese lay embittered by the Muslims they around them. It also needs to be
mentioned that the reactions of the Sinhalese towards other minorities, particularly the
Tamils was in the context of an ongoing ethnic conflict. Not that the former is
excusable, but the actions of the BBS and others of similar ilk are executed when the
country is not in a state of emergency, at least based on ground realities. Again, it
must be stressed that this is not a condemnation of protest, nor am I a flag bearer for
this government that has allowed lawlessness to reach such giddy heights, but it is the
timing and astuteness of this exercise that has to be reflected upon.
Strategically it laughable to expect that this is going to make the Sri Lankan
Government look towards the local Muslims with renewed respect and concern,
indeed the danger is that the opposite of that could be true. What is also amusing is to
look in bewilderment as to the extent of the power parts of the Sri Lankan British
Muslim community perceives it wields. Furthermore, with due appreciation of the fact
that Lankan Muslims settling in London took place in smaller numbers and very much
after Tamils and Sinhalese established themselves there, the Lankan Muslim Diaspora
in Britain is quite backward compared to the other two groups in many social standard
indices. Not to in any way sound elitist, but a look at our educational standards, the
percentage of us who are above the British average household income, and the
percentage of us whose social movements arent influenced by the insularity of our
own community in reference to the Sinhalese and Tamils are indices that should be
taken seriously if an honest discussion and measure on political influence and power
is to be gauged. It must be noted that, to borrow a computing phrase, this is a zoomed
out view of the three communities, when you zoom in there are indeed Lankan British
Muslim families and thereby pockets of social circles who can and should exert
influence on the political centre in Colombo.
Politically, the problem with trying to fly so high too young is that you expose yourself
to predators who can significantly curtail your growth and development. If the actions
of the Diaspora results in further damage to the political standing of Muslims in Sri
Lanka, not only should they shoulder the blame but as we Muslims say in private
amongst ourselves, they are answerable to Allah if in case their motives werent
purified.
It is not my place to question the integrity or sincerity of the intentions of those behind
this exercise and I certainly will not, on the contrary I am sure they acted in the way
they best saw fit. But as someone who relates to the British Lankan Muslim community
as much as one who does to the Sri Lankan Muslim community in Sri Lanka, and with
the conscious understanding that the social threats to Muslims in Sri Lankan far
outweigh those of the former, the political maturity of this act has to be interrogated.
Rather, the Lankan British Muslim community should have built coalitions with their
Sinhalese and Tamil counterparts, and acted towards a holistic national cause
questioning the damages caused by lawlessness, the cancer that is corruption,
nepotism, cronyism and political suppression of minorities in general. This may come
across as political first principles, but for a Diaspora community only just establishing
itself politically, these matters need to be borne in mind. Working with Sinhalese and
Tamil Diaspora groups in London, I can say with a certain degree of authority that
Muslim representation in the upper echelons of collective Lankan British Diaspora has
room for improvement, of course this is from the interactions I have had and another
may have a different tale. I am conscious that there are frictions in building coalitions
and that this is easier said than done. But in the same way that the local Muslims will
best further their political agenda when they work in tandem with the Sinhalese and
Tamil communities, to bring to account probably what is the most corrupt and
unpatriotic government in post Independence history, the Lankan British Muslims will
best achieve even a scintilla of success only when they work together with the others.
They risk being politically burned out far too early if they do not, and that will be to the
detriment of the collective Muslim political cause as a whole, Lankan Muslim Diaspora
groups have a lot of potential to power Muslims in Colombo and that potential has to
be used with responsibility, or as elders in the Muslim community would say, consider
it an amaanah.
The localised context has to be understood first before ramifications of protests are to
be made in London. The connection between the parent community and the diaspora
has to give birth to an understanding as to how this matter should have been
approached. The actions of the Tamil Diaspora vis a vis local Tamils would prove to be
a good case study, the mileage they gained, the sound calls they made and the errors
they committed. Having already had a precedent of another Diaspora of an oppressed
community and how they negotiated political upheavals makes it easier for the Muslim
community in that they can avoid much of the trial and error that the Tamils inevitably
had to engage in, and therefore mistakes once done by another community can be
averted. There is a risk that actions of the Muslim Diaspora can adversely impact the
local Muslims and that must absolutely be understood.
This is a significant error of judgement on the part of sections of the Lankan British
Muslim community in London and I am both thankful and relieved by the political
astuteness of the Sri Lankan Muslim civil society groups based in Sri Lanka who have
swiftly distanced themselves from this sad manifestation of political myopia.
Raashid Riza is the Politics & Society Editor of The Platform. He blogs here and
tweets on @aufidius.