Sri Lankan Moors on Defenseless Land Hitherto.
– JUNE 30, 2014POSTED IN: SRI LANKA
Sri Lankan Moors on Defenseless Land Hitherto.
Sri Lankan Moors (commonly referred to as Muslims) are the third largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.23% of the country’s total population. They are predominantly followers of Islam. While some sources describe them as a subset of the Tamil people who had adopted Islam as their religion and spoke Tamil as their mother tongue, which they continue to do so, other sources trace their ancestry to Arab traders (Moors) who settled in Sri Lanka sometime between the 8th and 15th centuries. The Arabic language brought by the early merchants is no longer spoken, though many Arabic words and phrases are still commonly used. Until the recent past, the Moors employed Arwi as their native language, though this is also extinct as a spoken language.
Their view holds that the Sri Lankan Moors were simply Tamil converts to Islam. The claim that the Moors were the progeny of the original Arab settlers might hold well for a few families but not for the entire bulk of the community. This is evidenced by the fact that, the Moors’s Islamic Cultural Home, Colombo were unsuccessful in digging up the genealogical history of Muslim families with Arab descent, In pre-colonial times Muslim people in Srilanka introduced Srilankan spices, diamonds and gems to Arab world and they acted as mediators between local people of Srilanka and Arab traders of Middle East.
Beruwala, is a town in Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council. The name Beruwala is derived from the Sinhalese word for the place where the sail is lowered. It marks the spot for the first Muslim settlement on the island, established by Arab traders around the 8th century AD. A large population of Sri Lankan Moors, many of them are gem merchants, still live in the town– particularly in the “China Fort”. Msjid-ul-Abrar, a landmark of Beruwala and Sri Lanka’s oldest mosque, was built by Arab traders on a rocky peninsula overlooking the town. Beruwala is the starting point of the 130 kilometres (81 miles) long stretch of beach. In the past few years great strides have been made in the field of resort development in this area. The bay around remains ideal for bathing almost for the whole year.
Sri Lankan Moors (commonly referred to as Muslims) are the third largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.23% of the country’s total population. They are predominantly followers of Islam. While some sources describe them as a subset of the Tamil people who had adopted Islam as their religion and spoke Tamil as their mother tongue, which they continue to do so, other sources trace their ancestry to Arab traders (Moors) who settled in Sri Lanka sometime between the 8th and 15th centuries. The Arabic language brought by the early merchants is no longer spoken, though many Arabic words and phrases are still commonly used. Until the recent past, the Moors employed Arwi as their native language, though this is also extinct as a spoken language.
Their view holds that the Sri Lankan Moors were simply Tamil converts to Islam. The claim that the Moors were the progeny of the original Arab settlers might hold well for a few families but not for the entire bulk of the community. This is evidenced by the fact that, the Moors’s Islamic Cultural Home, Colombo were unsuccessful in digging up the genealogical history of Muslim families with Arab descent, In pre-colonial times Muslim people in Srilanka introduced Srilankan spices, diamonds and gems to Arab world and they acted as mediators between local people of Srilanka and Arab traders of Middle East.
Beruwala, is a town in Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council. The name Beruwala is derived from the Sinhalese word for the place where the sail is lowered. It marks the spot for the first Muslim settlement on the island, established by Arab traders around the 8th century AD. A large population of Sri Lankan Moors, many of them are gem merchants, still live in the town– particularly in the “China Fort”. Msjid-ul-Abrar, a landmark of Beruwala and Sri Lanka’s oldest mosque, was built by Arab traders on a rocky peninsula overlooking the town. Beruwala is the starting point of the 130 kilometres (81 miles) long stretch of beach. In the past few years great strides have been made in the field of resort development in this area. The bay around remains ideal for bathing almost for the whole year.
Being geographically isolated from the main centers of Islamic culture and civilization the Muslims of Sri Lanka were forced to interact closely with their neighbours, the Muslims of South India, in order to preserve their identity. Had they been denied this slender link, it is possible that, they may have lost their distinct Islamic character completely. However, it must be observed that this link has also caused many Indian (Hindu) traditions and rituals to creep into their culture and life style, some of which, even though vehemently anti-Islamic, are still practised to date. Lack of a correct understanding of the teachings of Islam has been the main cause of this sad situation.
While most of the traders were only visitors to the island, who made their fortunes and left, it was the Arabs who settled down, making Ceylon their home. Furthermore as the Muslims of Sri lanka claim their desecndancy from the Arabs it is important to look at the information available on the advent of the Arabs to the island.
Since the Arabs trading the moors grew up in educationally and economically certainly many shopping malls are belongs to Muslim such NO LIMIT,FASHION BUG,HAMEEDIA etc also There are 749 Muslim Schools in Sri Lanka, and 205 madrasas (Arabic Colleges) which teaching Islamic Education, and there is an Islamic university in Beruwala (Jamiya Naleemiya). Al Iman Schools in Colombo is the first of its kind Islamic school, teaching an integrated Islamic curriculum since 2008. 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 on this track Muslims are cultivate up little by little.
According to the latest census of Srilankan population Muslim population has slightly increased and Singhalese population too has increased a bit. Rather than analyzing some socio-religious and economic factors behind this population increase no point in accusing Muslim community for population increase: Not only in Srilanka globally Muslim population increases dramatically,Islam as a principle does not permit extreme birth control OR abortion for no reason. This is faith issue and that may be one of the reason that global Muslim population dramatically increases. Srilanka Muslims are not exceptional for this rule.
Due to mounting up of the muslims education, economy and Islampobia some of so calls Buddhist monk annoying to destroy our history but most of educated Buddhist are not following of so-calls monks as well as, The 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka were religious and ethnic riots in June 2014 in south-western Sri Lanka. Muslims and their property were attacked by Sinhalese Buddhists in the towns of Aluthgama, Beruwala and Dharga Town in Kalutara District,unquestionably this is just joules on Muslims. At least four people were killed and 80 injured. Hundreds were made homeless following attacks on homes, shops, factories, mosques and a nursery. 10,000 people (8,000 Muslims and 2,000 Sinhalese) were displaced by the riots. The riots followed rallies by Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a hard line Buddhist group. The BBS was widely blamed for inciting the riots but it has denied responsibility. The mainstream media in Sri Lanka censored news about the riots following orders from the Sri Lankan government.
“During the violence, there was radio silence across all mainstream media, with some reports suggesting communications (telephone) services were also disrupted or cut off to the affected areas” read an entry on Groundviews, an award winning alternative citizens journalism site based in Colombo. Image from al-Jazeera Twitter account The site carried screenshots of Sri Lanka’s major mainstream publications during the height of the violence, proving that they showed little to no mention of the unfolding violence, a pattern also conspicuous in the newspaper headlines on Monday morning.
Whatever the reason it suggests media is under a regime of censorship through fear, and journalists who have shared with me updates they haven’t made public are also self censoring themselves for fear of being identified later on as those who stoked violence by giving accurate and real time situation reports but we had not a single media for us.
We yet fighting for a quiet and peaceful life in this little island as well as we already misplaced our north province during on 30 years war this is why we never been attached into the LTTE group because we loved peaceful & fruitful life all the way, even though we used to hands and voice up where the Palesten,Iraq,Egypt,Syria and where ever muslim lives attacked but there is no one country for us to voice up at least we still failure and unprotected as a minority moors in fact our Muslim leaders or society did not build a international relationship ofcouse we still seeking a leadership to protect our property and history.
with best regards,
Zuhair Ali -(Ghafoori,EDM,Reading PGD)
http://thasbeeh.com/english/sri-lankan-moors-on-defenseless-land-hitherto/
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