2016 May 2
by Wimarshaná
MOST SINHA LE STICKERS appear on the back of trishaws and a few on older and cheaper vehicles. This is less telling than it first seems. Facebook liberals will never admit it, but an overwhelming majority of Sinhalese believe, amongst other things, the following about Muslims and Islam:
- Islam is dangerous and backward. Islam inspired international terrorism is cited as proof that it is dangerous, and the covering-up of women and fasting proof that it is backward.
- Muslims are dirty.
- Muslims only patronize their own businesses.
- Muslims breed faster than Sinhalese and Tamils. This in combination with the above belief means that Muslims will soon unseat Sinhalese from their dominance of Sri-Lanka.
Hopefully, these beliefs make you squirm with revulsion. In which case, you are probably of a sufficient intellectual standing to understand the rest of this piece.
No matter how revolting and despicable a belief sounds, an intellectual cannot dismiss its veracity on these grounds alone—he must unbiasedly and scientifically allow the facts to lead him to whatever conclusions they may. This is just the task I undertook in my book Colombo: A Critical Introspection in the essay Islam, Muslims and Society’s Misgivings . Here, I am not going to restate all these conclusions. It is enough to say that some were found to contain some truth while others were just the typical idiocies of the low intellectual climate that prevails in Sri-Lanka.
But yes—Islam is backward; but no more backward than any other religion including Buddhism. It’s just that a greater percentage of Muslims across the world actually follow, to the letter, a greater percentage of the Quran’s nonsense than believers of other religions do their own brands of nonsense. In other words, more Muslims are more pious. And if it is nonsense people are following, the worst outcomes will result from the groups who follow it most fanatically. Just like if everyone were a drug addict, nevertheless, the worst consequences will be for and from those who abuse drugs the most.
Before any serious analysis of the situation of Sri-Lankan Muslims is undertaken, a misconception of the Facebook intelligentsia has to be corrected. Whatever is true of Muslims in Sri-Lanka and around the world, judging them by these beliefs is not a form of racism. Why? Well, because Muslims are not a race. Therefore none of the religious and cultural attributes of Muslims is encoded in their DNA. If your so-called ‘Sinhalese’ child was switched at birth with a so-called ‘Muslim’ child, your child will display ‘Muslim’ attributes and the ‘Muslim’ child will display ‘Sinhala’ attributes . Also, it is best that we dispel the myth of race altogether. Most scientists now regard race primarily as a social construct. Which means your DNA is likely to be more similar to someone in say Africa or Brazil than a fellow unrelated Sinhalese person.
Here’s perhaps the only point where the Facebook intelligentsia will agree with me—even if they just accept it blindly to redress the balance against Muslims. Countering whatever aspects of backwardness Muslims may have on account of piously following Islam are many desirable group attributes. Attributes which are indeed sorely lacking in the Sinhalese. Muslims actually have something approaching a work ethic whereas the Sinhalese mostly do not, and Muslims are generally much more honest than the lying, duplicitous, cunning typical Sinhalaya. Now this has nothing to do with Islam. For Muslims in other countries do not necessarily share these positive attributes. It does however have everything to do with being a minority alloyed with their particular history in Sri Lanka (their roots as Moorish traders).
And now for the point about Sinha Le that the Facebook intelligentsia will never concede: Sinha Le is not merely a few bad apples. And neither was the BBS. Both accurately reflect the prevailing, dominant view of Muslims held by Sinhalese of all classes. Here is where the fact that the hideous Sinha Le stickers appear mostly on trishaws can be misleading. Despite all its commendable progress, racist beliefs still persist across most of white America from the high to the low. But the high hide it, whilst the low have no reason or incentive to. The high across the world consider themselves educated and refined, and have a lot more to lose from others finding out otherwise. And, indeed, they tend to in fact be more educated. So there is always a countervailing force of reason and science suppressing, though not extinguishing, these racist beliefs. What of the poor? Not only for them is the exact opposite true on all these counts but, crucially, they are also angry. And this is precisely the same case in sunny Sri-Lanka (except that the educational standing of the high is nowhere near on par with the educational standing of the high in the developed world). So while these negative beliefs about Muslims are rife from the very top to the very bottom of Sinhalese society, it is only the trishaw driver, living on the edge, scratching and clawing for every rupee against his Muslim rival who is angry enough, who has nothing left to lose—who is going to act on them.
I can hear you now: you are stereotyping a lot, you say. For laymen, the accusation that one is stereotyping has become about the most popular counter to a range of uncomfortable arguments. If groups have attributes, then they have attributes. Accepting that a group has the attributes it has is not stereotyping. Thus none of the harm of stereotyping will occur. You are stereotyping (in the negative sense) when you assign a certain set of attributes to a group, and then do not provide an opportunity for an individual belonging to that group to prove themselves on their own merit. For instance, I believe that most Sri-Lankans are idiots. I meet Shehan Perera. If I don’t adjudge Shehan individually, if my eyes are closed to Shehan, if I don’t give him a chance to prove himself, if all I see in front of me is a placeholder with a sign saying ‘I am Sri-Lankan therefore I am an idiot.’, if I insist he is an idiot no matter everything to the contrary—then, and only then, am I stereotyping. Despite believing every word that I have written here and in Colombo, I do not stereotype.
Sri-Lankans are naturally racist. Racism is not what is going on here. It is ethnocentrism. Sri-Lankans are naturally ethnocentric. Sri-Lankans are both more racist and ethnocentric than certain other countries because Sri-Lankans are a pre-modern people. Islam is backward. So is Buddhism. So are all other religions. Muslims worldwide cause more global harm because they are the most faithful to their religion. Sri-Lankan Muslims have not caused any such harm. Sri-Lankan Muslims are more entrepreneurial, hardworking and honest than the Sinhalese. Without them an already tottering economy would collapse. It is a terrible feeling to be judged by negative group attributes. The consequences can be violent and disastrous. You know them well. If each person is judged only by their own merits, they, you and society will benefit. Sinha Le is not those bloody trishaw karayas alone, it is you as well. All these things are true—whether you like it or not. Now I am going to Pilawoos.
THE CGTW IS ENTIRELY
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