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Since the terrible suicide bombings of 21 April 2019 perpetrated by jihadists in Sri Lanka, the Muslim population of the island lives in fear of reprisals. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks targeting the Christian minority and tourists, but suicide bombers who blew themselves up in churches and hotels all came from the local Muslim community. Return in five questions on the history of the Muslim community of Sri Lanka, its evolution through the centuries, and the radicalization that touches a part of its youth sensitive, it seems, to the jihadist transnational theses.
1 - When and how did Islam take root in Sri Lanka?
The earliest historical record of Islam in Sri Lanka goes back more than a thousand years. This religion was introduced to the island by sedentary Arab merchants who, from the 8th century, established counters on the west coast, from Galle to Jaffna. Their descendants exercised for several centuries undivided control over the island's maritime trade. Under the pressure of the Portuguese, then the Dutch, who settled from the sixteenth century on the coastal plains and acquired a monopoly on the trade of spices, Muslims were forced to abandon the reins of trade and their institutions coastal. Forced to migrate to the mountainous area of the Kandy region (center), they became farmers, ranchers and manufacturers of various crafts. Also designated by the nickname "Moors" because of their Middle Eastern ancestry, today they represent 95% of the Muslim minority of Sri Lanka.
The rest is made up of Indians from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Sind (now Pakistan) and descendants of Malay settlers from Southeast Asia at the time. of Dutch colonization, on the other hand. The Malays, who had joined the Sri Lankan Muslim community, were originally either soldiers sent by the Dutch colonial administration or members of noble families sent into exile in Sri Lanka between the 17th and 18th centuries.
2 - Proportionately, what do Muslims represent in relation to the entire Sri Lankan population ? Where do they live ? What professions do they perform ?
There are nearly 2 million Muslims in Sri Lanka today, or 9.5% of a population of 22 million (2012 census), compared to 7.3% of Christians and 69.3% of Buddhists. . They are located throughout the country, especially in Colombo (capital), Puttlam, Galle, the East Coast and the Kandy region.
Speakers of a Tamil dialect mixed with Arabic expressions, Muslims perform various professions, ranging from trade in fabrics and precious stones to liberal professions, through education, catering, hardware and agriculture. Finally, there is a well-to-do middle class, including Muslims living in Colombo, but also in the eastern part of the island and in the mainly Sinhalese and Buddhist south.
3 - How have relations between Muslims and the Buddhist majority evolved since the departure of the British in 1948 ?
The immediate postcolonial period was marked in Sri Lanka by rising sectarian tensions, pitting the Buddhist majority against ethnic and religious minorities. The imposition of the Sinhalese language as the official language of the island (1956) by the Buddhist nationalists in power and the obligation of the state to protect and encourage Buddhism (1972) while the country wants to be secular , are not foreign to the tension of political and social life. These identity affirmation policies sow the seeds of the destabilization that the country will experience with the civil war on the Tamil issue from the 1980s.
Despite these populist and identity abuses, Muslim political leaders support the governments under Sinhala domination that have succeeded in Colombo since independence. In return, the government generously gave Muslims political and economic advantages to ensure that the latter did not allow themselves to be influenced by the federalist project of the Tamil minority. Throughout the civil war that lasted almost three decades (1983-2009) and opposed the Sinhalese who dominate since independence the political life to the independentist organization of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Muslim population has been caught between two fires. It has been the target of violent attacks by both Tamil rebels and government forces. Muslims were particularly victims of ethnic cleansing, massacres and forced displacement by insurgents who blamed them for not supporting their claims for independent Tamil territory.
The breakup of Muslims from the Sinhalese majority dates from the period following the end of the civil war in 2009, with the defeat of the Tamil rebellion. Become the " new enemy " of Sinhalese Buddhists, Muslims are accused by the latter of wanting to encourage jihadism and to make too many children for the secret purpose of transforming Sri Lanka into an Islamist state within two generations . Mosques and Muslim-owned shops became the main targets of attacks by activists of fundamentalist Buddhist organizations, such as the infamous Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), created in 2012. Under the influence of hate speech by BBS leaders, anti-Muslim attacks regularly degenerate into bloody riots, even pogroms, as happened in February 2018, in Kandy district, forcing the Colombo government to declare a state of emergency.
► See also: Sri Lanka pays tribute to the hundreds of victims of the attacks of Easter
4 - Can these persecutions be attributed to the radicalization of young Muslims involved in the attacks of 21 April 2019 ?
As Sri Lankan historian Nira Wickramasinghe (1) explains, like other religious and ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, Muslims are not a monolithic community. For this specialist in the contemporary history of the island, the testimonies of Sri Lankan Muslims since the attacks that they do not recognize themselves in the senseless acts perpetrated by their fellow believers, " provide evidence that not all Sri Lankan Muslims are on the same wavelength ". " Especially since , as recalls the French specialist in Sri Lanka, Eric-Paul Meyer (2), these jihadist violence against Christians are not part of the history of the island, as it does not There has never been tension in this country between Christians and Muslims. On the contrary, they have always lived in good harmony in Colombo as in the cities of the East where the Easter Sunday attacks took place .
These experts agree, however, that the Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been shaken by a vigorous internal debate within the community between conservative and modernist Muslims since the 1990s. This is the result, according to observers, of " frequent displacements of Sri Lankan Muslims seeking jobs in the Arab States of the Gulf, where they have been influenced by an Islam that is not very tolerant of difference. religious ". " This new radicalism was , recalls Eric-Paul Meyer, the origin of the settling of accounts that was observed in 2006 between Salafists and Sufi believers ." These debates were also not foreign to the emergence in the public square of black veils and burqas which are draped more and more by the Muslim women of Sri Lanka, who " abandoned the colorful saris they once wore, he twenty years ago, "regrets the historian Nira Wickramasinghe.
► See also: ISIS Group claims attacks in Sri Lanka
5 - What do we know about the local Islamist group, the National Thoweeth Jamaath, from which the suicide bombers of 21 April would have come?
If the attacks of 21 April 2019 in Sri Lanka were claimed by the Islamic State, the suicide bombers who caused the carnage were Sri Lankans, all affiliated with the local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). The Sri Lankan government attributed the attacks of 21 April 2019 to this little-known group of the general public, while indicating that it was difficult to see how a small local organization could carry out an operation of this magnitude without help. external logistics. It should be remembered that the operation was scrupulously planned with the suicide bombers blowing themselves up almost simultaneously on eight different sites, located in Colombo and two other cities.
The NTJ became known a few months ago by vandalizing Buddhist statues. Sri Lankan police have identified the alleged leader of the Zahran Hashim group who reportedly died in one of the suicide bombings on 21 April. Other identified suicide bombers include two Islamist brothers of wealthy social origin and sons of a wealthy Colombo spice shopkeeper.
According to the Hindu daily newspaper, NTJ was born in 2014 in Kattankudy, a predominantly Muslim city in the eastern part of Sri Lanka. The group claims the Wahhabi orthodoxy professed by Saudi Arabia. It evolves on the sidelines of the Muslim community whose leaders had reported to the authorities a few years ago their concerns about the intolerant behavior of its activists. The group's secretary, Abdul Rajik, was arrested several times for inciting religious hatred. However, no one could imagine this small group capable of carrying out attacks of the magnitude of those that occurred in Sri Lanka last Sunday.
The Colombo government hopes that the ongoing investigation will measure the importance of NTJ in the jihadist galaxy and determine its exact links with international terrorist organizations.
► See also: Sri Lanka: couriers and social networks blocked after the attacks
(1) Sri Lanka in the modern age. A History , by Nira Wickramasinghe. London, Hurst, 2014
(2) " Relligions and Politics in Sri Lanka in the Post-Colonial Era ", Politics and Religions in South Asia, Paris, EHESS, Purusartha Collection, No. 30, 2012. p. 137-160.