The resurrection and the life

Illustration courtesy Aysha Maryam Cassim

It’s been just a year since the Easter Sunday attacks shocked the nation and took the lives of over 300 Sri Lankans. It was a rude awakening for a nation that truly believed that terrorism was a thing of the past. It reminded everyone that the demise of one kind of terrorism does not mean the end of all terrorisms.

So we got to know about the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) which literally means ‘National Monotheism Organization.’ The name itself indicates intent and obviously absolute intolerance of religious others.

The dominant narratives are also informative. There are those who quickly jumped on post-attack attacks on Muslims and their properties. Nothing as violent and destructive as the Easter Sunday attacks of course (which seriously impacted tourism and therefore the national economy), but we had people talking about these incidents almost to the exclusion of the ‘antics’ of the NTJ. We were told ‘all Muslims are not terrorists.’ Absolutely. Does not mean that the terrorists weren’t Muslims. Indeed we saw a quick slip from ‘attacks orchestrated by terrorists adhering to the Islamist faith’ to ‘Easter Sunday attacks.’ That’s neat sidestepping. That’s sweeping things under the carpet. That’s dangerous.

The very same boys and girls padding the above narrative also interjected a subplot of victimhood. Muslims were a besieged community, we were asked to believe. In other words, if the  extremism of the NTJ had ‘roots’ they were to be found in other communities, religious or otherwise. Some pundits even urged people to ‘look for the funders,’ either directly or indirectly suggesting ‘Western Conspiracy.’

We do know the the West, the USA in particular, play the game of founding/funding terrorist organizations, creating and sustaining wars for political and business reasons. That said, it is laughable to think that the NTJ members who carried out the attacks were ‘in the know’ about such things, if indeed they were true. It is laughable to think that they blew themselves up by way of saying ‘thanks’ to the funders or were simply ‘doing the bidding of the master(s)’. No, it is abundantly clear that they were affirming their faith (the way they understood it). It was an act of faith, nothing more and nothing less. 

The above preamble is necessary because it is missing in the dominant narrative. So, let’s say ‘done!’ For now. Done with the preamble or, if you prefer, a framing of the issue that takes into consideration important elements of the story. 

Now we can and must talk of things within our control. For example, prevention. The then government failed miserably in this regard. Key individuals knew. They did nothing. The former Chief of National Intelligence, Sisira Mendis has revealed that the National Security Council hadn’t met for weeks despite early warnings about such an attack. This he mentioned to Parliamentary Selection Committee on the subject the first time they met. He was removed from his post a few days later. We saw the callousness of senior ministers who had the gumption to laugh about the attacks. 

There are lessons here. First, we can never let our guard down: national security is a priority. Secondly, it is better to be prepared because preparation helps prevention. The then government in word, policy and action not just let the national guard down, they essentially issued invitations to one and all terrorists. ‘Come attack….the paths have been cleared,’ is essentially the message that was given. And the ‘guests’ duly arrived.

My friend, Dr Udaya Liyanage, a surgeon now domiciled in the USA, made an interesting observation in a different context.

‘I, in my simple mind, have made a list of “bottom feeders” of the world. One simple criterion qualify admittance to the list. Does the person or organization monetize misery? If so, then you are a bottom feeder. BBC. Red Cross, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, most NGOs, most religious organizations qualify easily to the bottom feeder list.’

That’s the third element. The bottom feeders moved in after the attacks. Well, it’s not that the misery was ‘monetized,’ but capital (political and otherwise) was made of the misery unleashed by the attacks.

So did Sri Lanka roll over and die? We got hit, that’s obvious. It was not the first hit we’ve suffered and it won’t be the last. We stood up. In this, we need to salute a few people.

First of all the Catholic Church and several organization of other christian denomination. They showed tremendous patience and restraint in the main, apart from a few incidents in Catholic-majority areas which, thankfully, did not spread. The Catholic Church has officially forgiven the perpetrators. The other cheek has been offered. And the distance for slapping, as the Very Reverend Fr James Amerasekara observed when he was Chaplain at St Thomas’ College, is also the distance that enables embrace.

Secondly, the Muslim community in general has demonstrated overwhelming remorse on behalf of those who perpetrated these horrific acts of terrorism in the name of the faith they share or, to be more precise, who worship the same god (but affirm faith in very different ways, obviously). It must be noted that the first victims of NTJ violence were Muslims of a different denomination, the Sufis. They were the first to suffer. They were the first to alert relevant authorities including politicians. They were the first, tragically, to be ignored.

I firmly believe that the Muslim community has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they do not subscribe to the extremist interpretations dished out by the NTJ, even though they show a marked reluctance to voice objection to the brands of Wahhabism which affirm and spread the doctrine of intolerance embedded in the notion of monotheism, perhaps for defensible reasons. They are peace-loving, I have no doubt, even though I have reservations about the demands that some of them make for a secular state given the thumb-twiddling approach to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). It is archaic and violates the principle of equality on multiple counts. That’s another story, however. Clinging to such things is not the preserve of the Muslim community.

It is patently unfair to blame an entire community for the violence unleashed by a few in that community. The NTJ’s terrorism made the entire Muslim community vulnerable. They are obviously uneasy. They’ve done everything possible to distance themselves from the NTJ. Alleviating their fears is something all other communities must do. Actively. The Catholic Church has led the way in this regard. Various Buddhist prelates have articulated the same sentiments. A lot more needs to be done, obviously.

In other words, we have a considerable reservoir of elements that make for reconciliation, moving forward. It takes just a few extremists to ruin things of course, but then again, all that is required to combat extremism is a few, determined men and women who will see beyond identity. We have such people in abundance. In all communities and as far as this issue is concerned, among Christians and Muslims. This is very important. It’s a fertile ground. A solid foundation. Call it whatever you will, we are blessed. Resurrection is not ‘out of the question.’

There are reservations of course. There is uncertainty. There is fear. All these are natural after-effects. Memories don’t die easily. We forgive and that’s a good thing. We should not forget for that could lead to us having to pay even stiffer prices if things go wrong. And they can.  There’s no substitute for caution. Alertness at all levels helps and unfortunately is a non-negotiable given contexts.  

In the end people, of all communities, have a role to play. They make resurrection possible. They must embody ‘the life.’



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Today the talk is not about the Easter Sunday attacks but ‘the politics of distraction’.  The word has been used by the US Ambassador, Alaina B Teplitz (‘The focus should be on the victims and their loved ones,’ she said and not conspiracies about her country striking while the iron is hot, so to speak). Shaahima Raashid, writing in the website Groundviewsalso uses the word (‘The niqab ban and the politics of distraction’). She points out correctly that none of the terrorist suspects were wearing ‘niqab/burqa/chador’ and claims that the focus on attire is a distraction. More on that later.

We’ve had not just distraction but outright idiocy from many quarters. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe virtually handed out an open invitation to international terror groups by saying Sri Lanka lacks the laws to deal with citizens who are members of such groups. He was demonstrating incompetence, ignorance and sloth. As usual. We had the BBC in the immediate aftermath of the attacks casting aspersions on the Sinhala Buddhists. The BBC, let us remember, made much noice when the Mannar mass graves were discovered but went silent when the results of the carbon dating tests came out.  

Then we have ‘the focus’ of the New York Times: ‘Sri Lanka’s Muslims face an angry backlash after Easter Sunday Attacks.’ The article was interestingly co-written by Dharisha Bastian, an editor at Lake House, the government’s print organ. Political loyalties need not be elaborated. As one would expect, the extrapolation follows a single incident where a mob attacked a house where a family of Pakistani refugees were resident. Typically, again, following tokenist allusion to the attacks, we find broad brushstrokes vilifying Sinhala Buddhists. 

Nothing of the in-your-face assertion of religious identity by significant sections of the Muslim community [in terms of attire, both men and women], a significant section of them inspired by Wahhabism causing existentialist anxieties among people who are well informed about how predominantly Buddhist nations were turned into Islamic States and/or those Buddhist communities destroyed [the Nalanda educational complex was torched along with the monks, in Bangladesh Buddhists were driven to the hills and are still being persecuted]. Forget all that; the NYT is yet to give us a comprehensive feature about the rise of extremism in Sri Lanka where followers borrowed extensively (and of course selectively) from the Quran. Patali Champika Ranawaka, a senior minister of this government, revealed that there were some 800 ‘Islamic’ clerics illegally teaching in schools run by fundamentalists. Apparently they are here on tourist visas!     

Who is against the niqab and why, though? If you want a one-story example to extrapolate NYT style, there are tons to pick from in social media, even during the ban imposed on Facebook and WhatsApp (courtesy VPN). Dozens of Muslims decried both the terrorists and the outward trappings of fundamentalism, including the niqab. Yet their efforts were not reported in the NYT. The objection to the objection, in fact, is the distraction here.  It’s a simple matter of identification. We are suspicious of unattended parcels, bags, vehicles and such. We are suspicious of those who cannot be identified, the faceless to be precise. And rightly so. It is an existentialist issue. Our alternative becomes: either allow the use of what can be turned into a disguise (evidence of such usage exists even in the US), or militarize our streets, our public and civic spaces, our schools, our very country. No thank you. Been there, done that. 

Another distraction: religious freedom. Sure thing. Shihara Farook’s Facebook post on April 24, 2019 talks about it not in the preferred black-white terms used by ‘liberals’ but in ways that address the complexities. She speaks of the kind of tolerance and celebration of other faiths evident in Sri Lanka that the terrorists just do not profess or practice. She does not deny inter-religious tensions nor intolerance, but does not indulge in the kind of extremist vilification as do the BBC, NYT, many ‘liberals’ and supposedly dispassionate commentators.

The truth is that privileges accorded to religious minorities in this country far exceed those extended to counterparts in ‘Islamic States,’ and indeed in most other countries, including the United States. Racial profiling, mass incarcerations of innocents, these are activities preferred and practiced there. Indeed freedoms denied their own in countries run by fundamentalist Islamists are enjoyed in full by Muslims in Sri Lanka. That’s another article and this is not the moment for it. Needs to be flagged though. 

We hear more, however, of the rise of Wahhabism as being a response to ‘Sinhala Buddhist extremism’.  Ven Gangodawila Soma Thero’s expositions in the early days of this century and of course the antics of Rev Galabodaaththe Gnanasara Thero of the Bodu Bala Sena are mentioned frequently. It’s as though the ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ have been making inroads in Europe and even in Syria. It’s as if they had such a reach that they spurred Muslims in the UK and Australia to study the Quran (as per Wahhabist dictates). No. That’s simplistic and a distraction. Ranga Jayasuriya’s piece last Wednesday (How Wahhabism was fostered until it’s too late) paints a more realistic, sober and therefore frightening picture. Speaking of religious freedom in this context, it would not be out of place to mention that perpetrators were exercising precisely that. That ‘affirmation of faith’ apparently also lead to stockpiling swords and other weapons, bombs and ammunition. Apparently, these terrorists were praying and preying on those who were praying to a different god, as per their faith. 

The time for pussyfooting around it is long past. The time to be dismissive or ostrich-like is long gone. A lot of veils have come off. The liberal and even leftist veil has come off the anti-Sinhala, anti-Buddhist veil hordes. Some of them are showing that their Islamophobia is more pronounced than their so-far-privileged religious and ethnic antipathies. Similarly, Sinhala Buddhist extremists have removed their ‘moderate’ niqab in ways that cannot be justified by the real and obvious existentialist threat. 

Several Muslim political parties and even ‘mainstream’ Muslim organizations have been exposed, including those with parliamentary representation and the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama . They’ve said that they had informed authorities about the rise of extremist groups. The question is, why did they then, at the same time, go out of the way to pooh-pooh concerns raised by other religious communities and indeed vilify them as religious intolerants? The question is, how come close associates of RIshard Bathiudeen (Minister of Industry and Commerce and leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress) and so many second-rung politicians in Muslim parties as well as Muslim representatives in other parties were arrested following discovery of weapons and/or revelation of close relationships/friendships with the terrorists? The question is, why didn’t they come out and make public statements? That would have clearly pushed those who see the Muslim community as a monolith to question those unfair assumptions. It may even have lead to the saving of hundreds of lives. Were those lives unimportant because they weren’t the lives of Muslims? 

I was in Kandy on Easter Sunday and travelled back and forth twice in the same week. I saw white flags in mosques and predominantly Muslim areas in Kandy, Mawanella and Kegalle. I saw banners decrying the violence. The white flags, I understand. Mourning. Solidarity with the victims and their families. As for the banners, I did not see one banner or poster naming the perpetrators. Genuine grief, insurance or just more tokenism?  I suspect that the anxiety over the rise of Wahhabism as far as these groups are concerned was itself an existentialist issue: loss of flock and money. I will give the benefit of the doubt, but I would not drop by guard.

The liberals. The peace-lovers. The Yahapalanists. The advocates of co-existence and tolerance. Let’s talk about them again. Why aren’t they (for example Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council) not urging the government to ‘redress grievances,’ enter into negotiations with the terrorists to obtain a dignified ‘solution’? Why aren’t they, in light of these developments, revisiting the much-trumpeted ‘worth’ of devolution and the abolition of the executive presidency? As for the nondescript good dudes and dudettes (candlelight ladies, born-again democrats and such), when Hafeel Farisz first broke the story in the Daily Mirror hours after the attacks they ranted and raved, demanding proof. Looks like they’ve been soundly asleep for years and have crawled into their shells again!  Some veils have been lifted here too, one feels.  

There is a call from all quarters (including people with dubious agendas and suspect political practices) for the affirmation of humanity. It must be heeded. There’s a call for the exercise of compassion. We have to be compassionate. We have been asked not to be emotional. We should dial down emotion, most certainly. In some cases, however, these recommendations have the following subtext: suspend reason. This we cannot afford to do.

There’s a terrorist at large. Sorry, there’s a terrorist organization at large. It is abusing the noble notion of religious freedom. It is preying on tolerance. It has caused a serious existentialist threat to the entire nation and people of all communities in Sri Lanka as well as the world. Quite apart from a serious re-haul of the security apparatus, we need to know more about the dimensions of the problem. The veil must come off the (mis)educational institutions which are clearly being used as breeding grounds for the terrorists. Who set them up? Who teaches in them? Who funds them? Are ‘customary laws’ being abused? Is religious freedom being abused? Is the penal code adequate? Answers and action are required. Swiftly. We could also take a cue from Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim country, where over 30,000 Madrasas are to be taken over by the Government and modern education introduced while banning hate-speech. 

Distraction never helps. Denial does not either. The niqab, metaphorically speaking, is coming off the political face of our nation. It is a good thing. 

malindasenevi@gmail.com

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