A most atrocious form of brutality was committed in the house of the Most Merciful and most sufficient; White robed Muslim men in their hundreds with their unsheathed swords and machetes surrounded the youth who were occupying the Thow Mosque at Mahagoda, Beruwala and began hacking and butchering fellow Muslims in the most barbaric manner.
Once again, the religion that equated the slaying of a single human soul to slaying the mankind as a whole was used as the pretext to butcher fellow Muslims in the most barbaric manner, throwing aside the sanctity of the House of Allah. The Qur’an says:
“……. he who slays a soul unless it be (in punishment) for murder or for spreading mischief on earth shall be as if he had slain all mankind; and he who saves a life shall be as if he had given life to all mankind……”(Al Maida: 32)
But basically due to their archaic approach to Islam. From a system of worship you can not expect commonsense to prevail. Please note that I am not trying to paint all whatever they are doing as bad. It’s my strong belief that they are Muslims as any of us; they do pray five times and observe other fundamental rituals of Islam. I should also bring to light the fact that one of its past Sheihu Nayaham or an Elder by the name Mubarak Moulana (If my memory is correct) had the credit of translating the Qur’an into Arabu Tamil, which was something unique in Sri Lanka. His is an ardent seeker of knowledge. I have seen him frequenting the Islamic Book House at Dematagoda Road, Colombo.
My intension here is to help you figure out what could have made these youth to commit that heinous crime on that fateful Friday night. Unfortunately, Islam was thrust upon Muslims in Beruwala and reacted upon violently.
Pause for a moment and look at our past adventurism. Our callers were skillful and exceptionally brave in making the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka passing a law banning Azan by loudspeakers. You can bring forward many arguments about its success and failure or the merits and demerits. Whatever the reasons it’s our own handy work that led the Supreme Court to pass that particular judgment, not the Sinhala racism that we are quick at branding.
There are so many such stories that confused the police even judges of the courts and the non-Muslims of Sri Lanka. This is the beauty of the calling we conduct.
In the Beruwala incident too we saw how frantic were the party of the victims in running behind the police seeking justice, to resolve a religious issue which is absolutely outside the realm of a non-Muslim police force. They might have gone to pressurise the police to bring the criminals to justice, then what about all those previous incidents that end up in the non-Muslim police stations?
Our brothers placed great emphasis on the correct Aqidah (Commitment to the fundamental faith of Islam) among Muslims, which is essential and good. However, due to their own rigid and provocative approach they surprisingly go against the same Aqidah that they intend promoting and that too not as the final resort.
One would not object to the fact that the major part of Aqidah is the deepful acceptance of Allah as ilah (One worthy of worship) and Rab (Cherisher, sustainer and law-giver). In our excitement of thrusting our brand of Islam upon others we dare to transgress the principles that we promote day in and day out. In most of the cases that end up in police stations we find the issues of contention are ordinary in nature, such as Takbeer, shaking fingers in Tashahud, wearing a cap etc., not fundamental religious issues which can be threaten a person’s basic belief. Even in such cases too, this kind of rigid approach can not be justified in the light of the (Sharia) beloved Prophet (PBUH).
I do not be argued that everything is perfect in the Sri Lankan Muslim community. The question here is about the method of approach and not about the content of the package. In Sri Lanka we are not in a state of compulsion where you are ordered to follow the government voluntarily or involuntarily. It’s a country with a long tradition of religious freedom, unless we force the law enforcement authorities to change the status quo.
While searching into the root causes of such problems, we equally have to put the calling methodology into serious review. There is no proper consultation on calling methodology; Pulpits and Minbars are used to curse fellow Muslims in overt and covert manners and coughing retribution at them often through furious and hateful sermons. The calling methodology used is one of adding fuel to fire, not extinguishing it. It’s certain that the future will breed a violent generation of Muslims who will be in the forefront to drive people away from the way of Allah. We accuse Bollywood movie makers for promoting and fomenting violence in the society through their movies, but we pay scant attention to what is happening within our midst.
Is this what Islam demands from us? Is this the legacy our beloved Prophet (PBUH) left for us? If its so, then there is no point promoting Islam as the religion of peace, because peace can not be brought through urging violence.
Hence our approach should be lenient and soft, fitting to the context. Leniency and tenderness are the cornerstones of the Prophetic method of approach. Islam was spread through exceptional personal character, not through harsh words, rigid approach or mocking at other Muslims practices. It was excellent Moral character of the callers that brought people into the fold of Islam.
If we ask what went wrong in the Thow Mosque, Mahagoda, Beruwala, the answer is that it was the method of delivery adopted by both parties. Provocation and harshness should be removed from preach.
Our beloved Prophet (PBUH) said:
قال صلى الله عليه وسلم : ( يسروا ولا تعسروا وبشروا ولا تنفروا ) رواه البخاري ومسلم
………Make it (Islam) easy, do not make it hard: give glad tiding, do not drive people away… (Reported by Bukhari and Muslim)
Oh my God! Accept the good deeds of those killed in the brutal massacre and grant them Jannatul Firdous; Give quick recovery to those injured so that they shall return to their families peacefully.
My thanks to Azim and Zain, for valuable informations they gave.