{"id":87584,"date":"2019-04-24T15:12:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87584"},"modified":"2019-04-24T15:12:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:12:36","slug":"establishment-of-muslims-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/24\/establishment-of-muslims-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"ESTABLISHMENT OF MUSLIMS IN SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The\nMuslims of Sri Lanka should be aware of some important historic facts about Sri\nLanka, if they are serious on becoming a legitimate part of this great nation.\nFirst, they should realize that, they are a small settler community in this\ncountry amounting to about 9% of its total population. Prior to the 15<sup>th<\/sup>\ncentury, the sole interest of the few male Arab merchants who visited the country\nwas trade and they were basically visitors to the country. Gradually with\npassage of time, they married local woman and began settling down in some\ncoastal regions. It was only by the 15<sup>th<\/sup> century that the Muslims\nbecame an established small minority community of the country. Therefore, it is\nincorrect to claim that Muslims have been an established community in Sri Lanka\nfor over 1000 years. There is reference to Muslims and their settlements in Sri\nLanka only during the period immediately prior to the arrival of the Portuguese\nin 1505 or the early 16<sup>th<\/sup> century.&nbsp; For all purposes, <strong>the history of Muslims in Sri Lanka as an established\ncommunity extends to about 600 years and definitely not 1000 years as claimed. <\/strong>The\non and off, arrival and departure of sea-faring male Arab merchants exclusively\nfor trade purposes in earlier centuries cannot be regarded as the beginnings of\nthe establishment of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ncountry was referred to early times as Heladiva or Helabima which means the\nland or island of the Hela or Sinhala people. It was also referred to as\nThunsinhalay (Ruhunu-Pihiti-Maya) or Sinhalay as it was called during the\nEuropean colonial times (The Udarata Giwisuma or the Kandyan Convention of 1815\nrefers to the island as Sinhalay). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Muslims\nshould be aware of the fact that this country has an unbroken written or\nrecorded history that extends to a period exceeding 2500 years. According to\nthis history, this country has been a Sinhala Buddhist nation since the\nintroduction of Buddhism in the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> century BCE, in an unbroken\nmanner for over 2200 years. The cultural norms and way of life of this country\nare an outcome of or are based on Buddhist principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nMuslims of Sri Lanka should be aware of the historic fact that Buddhism was\nbrought to Sri Lanka about 1000 years before the origin of Islam, in the year\n247 BCE.&nbsp; That is about three hundred years before the origin of\nChristianity.&nbsp; It is noteworthy that at the time of origin of the Islam\nreligion in the early 7<sup>th<\/sup> century (622 CE?). the Sinhala were a\nhighly advanced community. Up to the 7<sup>th<\/sup> century, our country has\nhad 97 Sinhela Buddhist kings ruling the island.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\n1600 year long period from 3<sup>rd<\/sup> century BCE to the 13<sup>th<\/sup>\ncentury CE, is referred to as the Golden era of our motherland, because of the\nvast overall development seen in the country, economically, socially and\nspiritually. Evidence of this prosperity is seen even today in the spectacular\nnetwork of irrigation tanks and canals considered in modern times as\nengineering marvels, extensive farmland, and numerous Buddhist historic sites\nsome of which have been designated by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. All\nthese developments were the work of Sinhala Buddhists and took place in this\ncountry, way before Islam was ever known to the world. Besides, this\ndevelopment and prosperity was not attained through plunder, ruthless invasions\nand atrocities like in the case of communities that professed theistic\nreligions such as Islam and Christianity. It is also noteworthy that this\ncountry had some of the greatest of literary works, paintings, sculpture and\narchitecture, and historical chronicles written way before the Quoran and the Bible.\nThe world renowned historic chronicle, laying out the written history fo this\nnation and of Buddhism in this country &#8211; the Mahawamsa was a product of this\nperiod. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All\nthese developments occurred way before the origin or Islam and some of it before\nthe origin of Christianity. Our country was built on the Buddhist foundation\nfor over two thousand years and the national character and identity of our\nmotherland is Sinhela Buddhist. We were hospitable to permit non-indigenous\nsettlers such as Tamils, Muslims and Moors in our motherland, with the\nexpectation that they will integrate with our nation. They have no right\nwhatsoever to seek autonomy or to claim territorial rights. They have no right\nto impose their religious or cultural norms and laws in our country which has\nits own characteristic national cultural norms and a well established rule of\nlaw. Muslims who live in Sri Lanka have no right to claim religious enclaves or\nregional autonomy in Sri Lanka. It is highly treacherous and ungrateful of settler\ncommunities to undermine the national culture, especially to destroy Sinhala\nBuddhist cultural sites, monuments and other historic and archeological\ntreasures, and to impose Islamic norms such as the halal-halal stuff on the\nnon-Muslims of Sri Lanka, and to propagate visible Islamic cultural norms in\nthe open, that are damaging to the established visible cultural norms that\ncharacterize the of the vast mass of people of this country.\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Daya Hewapathirane The Muslims of Sri Lanka should be aware of some important historic facts about Sri Lanka, if they are serious on becoming a legitimate part of this great nation. First, they should realize that, they are a small settler community in this country amounting to about 9% of its total population. Prior [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}