I am writing this in response to the various articles / comments promoting intolerance, people basing their arguments on stereotypes, and just things that i have experienced in the recent past. You may not agree with all I have to say but I really needed to say this out loud
My name is Anisha, I am a liberal Muslim woman and more than anything a proud Sri Lankan. I support the Sri Lankan cricket team…always have and always will. I like Pakistan, I have an amazing friend that lives there although I have never been BUT I was born here, lived here my whole life and that makes me Sri Lankan to the core. So the idea that someone assumes that because of my religion I will support a country other than my own is laughable.
I studied under the Sinhalese stream so my mother tongue is Sinhalese. I have friends from all ethnicities because I went to a mixed school, which is a blessing because I get to experience a wide range of culture and food! I work hard to earn my own money because I believe in being independent and my parents are great believers that when you reach adulthood, you need to grow up and look after your own needs 🙂 I have dedicated all of my free time to volunteering as it benefits my community as a whole and also because I believe that social change starts from the grassroots. I am educated, I rescue stray dogs from the streets…in fact all of my pets were rescued strays by my mom, my dad or me. I have great respect for Buddhism – in fact I visit temples when I can and wear blessed thread. I do not believe in the slaughter of animals. I don’t like how certain fundamentalists use Islam or any other religion for that matter as an excuse to commit acts of violence. No religion advocates the killing of human beings for the benefit of oneself or one’s beliefs. Of course that hasn’t stopped people from doing exactly that but it still doesn’t mean I am okay with it.
My dad is from the Eastern Province so you would, if you followed a stereotype think that he would be spending his retirement locking me up in my room till he found enough cows to barter me off to some unfortunate man so that we can have a million children… but being the great dad he is, he along with my amazing mom, brought me up to make my own decisions in life and that as a woman in this great country we live in, that I have more choices than most of my Muslim counterparts have in other conservative parts of the Muslim world. That is a gift that I am grateful for every day of my life.
It really is unfair to generalize anyone under a label because more often than not, that label does not fit. There are extremists representing all religions that are out there to propagate their beliefs…and if you are foolish enough to fall for that, then good luck to you. But be open minded, go out there and meet people from all religions that live here before you judge them and put them in a box. Not all Muslims are bad, but not all Muslims are good either…that rule is applicable to all religions. Not all Muslims cover their heads and grow beards, the one’s that do are not stupid…in fact some of the wisest women I know have found the perfect balance, some of us love dogs, some of us wouldn’t touch beef if it were the last thing on earth…my point is all of us are different individually!
My late grandfather was a politician representing and winning election after election for over two decades in an electorate that is majority Sinhalese. This was when politics was a different caliber than it is now, where being a leader did not mean that you must only represent those that share your own religion. In fact I have never understood why that happens here. I strongly believe that politics should be blind to religion because it’s not who you represent that counts but the quality of work you do – we all need hospitals, schools, roads to get from point A to point B fast…we all want equal opportunities to grow up, get a good education, a decent job so we have enough money to get married, have children of our own and continue the cycle of life. That is not dependant on a religion but being a human being. That was the greatest lesson my grand dad taught me – to believe that we are Sri Lankan first and everything else later. In fact, if we all focused on what we have in common as opposed to spending so much time fighting over what makes us different, we would as a country be a lot better off.
When I was volunteering in Anuradhapura for a few weeks, I saw a poster of a politician pasted on a Bo tree. I may not be Buddhist but what I saw disgusted me because it is so clearly wrong and disrespectful. When we were visiting the historical site of Isurumuniya, the monk at the counter did not let a few of our Maldivian friends through because their head’s were covered and that if they were to come inside his temple then they must listen to his rules. He had a lot of other ‘pleasant’ things to say, which I am not going to repeat but you get my point. Apart from that being great public relations for our tourism industry, it was also a very good indication of how some people in this country think. Was I angry at all Buddhists? Did I stereotype all Buddhist monks as being close minded, intolerant and disrespectful? No, because I know what it feels like to be put in a box. I also know that you get those types in all religions, including my own. In fact, we clearly have more than our fair share.
How good or bad we are should not be defined on what we believe in or how a few of us act…it’s just a character trait and it doesn’t mean that one shallow person is the poster boy for everyone that shares his beliefs. It also does not mean that we must hate a particular religion because of that poster boy nor should we be blindly led by him, because in the end he is only propagating his own ignorance. His beliefs have no power till the day we pull wool over our eyes and believe that because of his standing in society, that he will always be right. In this day and age, when access to knowledge is so easily available, only the foolish are robots.
In a post war Sri Lanka, do we really need to focus so much on the past? Who was wronged 30 years ago? How we should get back at those who made those mistakes? I understand that mistakes happened, a lot of our leaders said and did things that formed the roots to a 30 year old war. The end result is that we all suffered as Sri Lankans, not because we were different religions. Right now, I feel that as the war is over, we have this need to find something else to fight about and the way we are going, it looks like it is intolerance towards religions.
We have 4 of the major religions living under one island and I get that my cultural practice may go against another’s cultural practice, etc,. I am sure that we can all sit together and figure it out without throwing labels at each other. In the end, like it or not, we are still an island and we have to learn to live together. We can either divide ourselves based on the little we quite frankly have as differences and build massive walls – this part of Sri Lanka for religion A, this part for religion B and so forth. OR we can hold hands, stop all this name calling and this “my religion is the greatest, my culture is the most superior” nonsense, collectively forgive all of our past mistakes (because as Sri Lankans, every single one of us are responsible for everything that went wrong) and move on. We need to focus on how we should find balance between our diverse cultures and respect what makes us different and have a strong common identity that binds us all together.
I have seen this happen. I have seen what happens when you put young people who have suffered at the hands of the LTTE and the army in a room together. When you start communicating, that is when you realize that you have more in common that you ever thought you did…regardless of who made you suffer, empathy is in the pain that we all share and therein lies forgiveness, that in this beautiful country we live in, our future lies in the hands of not as Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher separately but as Sri Lankans as a whole. I am not asking any of you to agree with me but just think about that!
Yudhanjaya 
Dear Anisha Niyas (please make sure you forward this to her Alchemist)
Just like you said that some muslims are bad and some are good there are a some Buddhists that are good and some bad. But it is not for us to judge them because we live in a three dimensional world as opposed to the two dimensional one we were all led to believe.
Firstly I’d like to correct a few of your mistakes; Buddhism is NOT a religion but merely a philosophy half of what you see is what happens when a legitimate philosophy gets convereted to a religion (only in Sri Lanka right?). You were born into a religion therefore you are the kind of person who can tell between the two.
Remember the saying when you assume something you make an ass out of me and you. My writings are based on the fact that this monk asked your Maldivian friends to take of their headwear and not the “pleasant things” he said (that you have failed to mention).
1. This monk is plainly a bigot. That is if we are jumping to conclusions based on him asking them to remove their headwear.
2. As far as I know (unless they changed this rule recently) people aren’t allowed to go into a Temple (Shrine etc.) while wearing headwear (caps, hates, helmets, bandanas etc.). It is the same age old custom of taking off your cap/hat in the presenece of an elder or lady. Maybe the monk was merely pointing this out.
3. Maybe it means that men and women are equal inside a temple and both should dress accordingly and therefore it is prohibited to wear headwear of any type (man or woman).
4. Or it can be a RULE of all Temples; in the same way a NON-muslim woman must cover her head upon entering a Mosque in a Temple you are not allowed to cover your head. So if dressing up is considered respectful in one religion, dressing down can be considered respectful in another.
Always remember that the cup can be half full and half empty both at the same time. This is why no religion on this planet can co-exists peacefully. Belief in God is one thing but subscribing to a particular religion is another.
What one religion considers liberal another considers extreme and vice versa. Sadly this is what happens in every religion. Unfortunately Buddhism is a religion now (a polytheist one) you are now a witness to how a religion is formed (guessing that you weren’t alive when Islam/Catholicsm/Christianity/Judasim was formed).
If you think this a HUGE deal then the whole no-pork policy in SL fast food (as a result of the Halal certification) can also be considered a HUGE deal. Since there is no certification banning Beef in SL (like they do in parts of India) and also some people do eat Pork and Beef. Others who do no like it (like vegetarians) simply avoid it and order something different like Fries and Sauce.
In conclusion if Buddhism was considered a philosophy in SL like they do in western countries these problems wouldn’t arise. Meaning, men and women can walk into a temple fully clad or totally naked without being harassed. Why? A philosophy has a world view and does not deal in petty factors such as race, religion, skin color, GENDER or even sexuality. All that is considered superficial in philosophical Buddhism that is why you find Catholic Buddhists, Christian Buddhists etc. I have a couple of text books to prove it and also Google for George Lucas. 😉
Alas in SL, Buddhism is a religion so we have to live with it as we live with the bigotry of other religions (Yes, every religion is bigoted even if you look at them in an independent perspective). I’m one of those very few people who are desperately trying to study and practice it as an philosophy instead of a religion even though it is really really hard and confusing as opposed to the religious version of Buddhism that claims it is okay to devour the entire animal kingdom as long as it isn’t Beef.
You seemed to be a intelligent girl so I hope you understood what I said. There are three dimensions (even a fourth undiscovered one) to every view. When you jump to a conclusion out of anger or any other emotion you tend to cause unseen problems that may have an adverse effect on the country in its entirety. Shades of grey are harder to interpret even for the most intelligent of people.
Peace
PS: It’s nice to see a intelligent girl and a family who puts their nationality before their religion. You don’t see that much unless you live in the developed West. Still, you too have some growing up to do just as I do. Change is what matters. If you can get married to a non-muslim (avoid conversion or converting) and bring up your kids in a unbranded/labeless manner you would have done you duty as a Human Being.
Thank you for your thoughts. Sorry this is late because I only came across it today. I was not writing that out of anger or any emotion apart from the fact that what happened there made me sad. I have always been brought up to respect religious leaders and quite frankly what came out of his mouth was shocking to say the least. Naiively I guess, that was the first time that I have had to face any form of racism. I would also like to point out that it was my Sinhalese friends that were more upset and apologetic. I do agree with a lot of what you have to say…apologies for the wrong phrasing on religion, when it should have been philosophy. I do know the difference 🙂 I am not going to write too much because a lot has happened since then. What I would like to say is this: Just how a race doesn’t define who you are as a person..religion or philosophy does not define your character. Its what is inside your heart that shows who you truly are. Change is what matters and although i am just one person…i have dedicated my life to volunteering and helping others the best way i can. I think that is the best way that I can bring about some form of ripple effect. On the last thing you have said…although my family is Muslim…i do have cousins who are half Sinhalese, half Tamil, half Caucasian and we all get along just fine. Co-existence is a beautiful thing. If i do get married to a non Muslim like a few of my aunts and cousins or have,or not… i would teach them the basics of all religions of this country. That way they grow up learning to respect and co-exist.