By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bangalore: Kattankudi.info is not only one of the most popular websites reporting on Muslims in Sri Lanka, but also one of the top ten visited sites hosted on Wordpress.com, a blogging platform which hosts over 60 million sites through its free service. Reporting news in Tamil, the site has managed to pull over 12 million visitors since it was started in 2009 by two expat engineer friends working in UAE.
In this Interview to TCN’S Shaik Zakeer Hussain, founders Marzook Cassim and Uwais Mohideen talk about their popular website, Muslims in Sri Lanka and more.
Excerpts from the interview:
Why do you guys write in Tamil?
Because that’s the language of our people.
When you say ‘our people’, are you referring to Muslims in Sri Lanka as a whole or just Kattankudi?
Most of the Muslims in Sri Lanka speak Tamil and in Kattankudi it is 100 percent.
So most Muslims in Sri Lanka are originally from India then?
Well, there are different opinions. Arabs migrated here for business purposes from Yemen and other parts of the Middle East and later some of them married to local people here, who were of Indian origin.
Non-Muslim Indians?
Yes!
Tell me about your website Kattankudi.info, what exactly is it about?
We had initiated a Yahoo group (Kattankudi) to discuss matters about our hometown and Muslims in Sri Lanka some years ago and in October 2009 we started Kattankudi.info as a website for reporting news on Muslims in the Kattankudi region. Later we expanded to the Eastern Province and National Muslim news due to high demand, now we publish news about Muslims in other parts of the world as well.
And how big is your site now?
When we started it was a small set up, but the expansion was beyond our expectation, we have 10 people in the team, including our editors Atheek Samsudeen and Risath Athamlebbe.
We have a hit count of 20,000 to 25,000 per day. Initially, very few people were browsing the site, but as time went by, we started working with several social oriented journalists with us. This led to wider news coverage and more viewers got lured to the site. As there was a gap in Media reporting Muslim issues, people referred our site to friends and relatives.
Our target is to expand coverage nationally and internationally
Are these journalists working in other organisations?
Yes! They are professional journalists working for national level media; they joined hands with us because of the social concern. We are a non-profit entity, journalists support us without financial benefits and we manage running expenses from ads we post for marginal rates.
Great! How is the general situation of Muslims in Sri Lanka? Could you talk about that?
Muslims in Sri Lanka are approximately 10% of the total population, we are the second minority. In the Eastern Province, where our town (Kattankudi) is situated, we have 3 districts, during the time of war between LTTE and Government; LTTE suppressed and attacked Muslims of the east. They organised ethnic cleansing and massacre of Muslims.
In our town, in August 3rd, 1990 they attacked two Masjids while people were offering Isha prayer, 103 people were killed and several others wounded. This is just one example, there were hundreds of such incidents. Tigers supported Tamil civilians occupying our paddy lands; we still have land issues in Muslim areas. Northern Muslims were forcibly evicted from their homelands by LTTE.
But what was the reason for LTTE's animosity towards Muslims, as Muslims in Sri Lanka are Tamils too?
That’s a misconception. Muslims of Sri Lanka speak Tamil but they follow Islam. Tamils of Sri Lanka are primarily Hindus; we don’t call ourselves Tamils.
LTTE saw our existence as a threat to them, as our community is dominating the business and agriculture sectors. LTTE was targeting our financial and land resources, almost all attacks on Muslims were concealed by pro LTTE media, voices of Muslims were suppressed in those days.
And how did the government respond to this, as LTTE was fighting the government primarily.
Government forces rescued and supported Muslims during the time, but as the war intensified, they could not do this in all occasions as considerable land area was in the control of LTTE. Still, after four years from the end of the war, Muslims of Sri Lanka are facing land and resettlement issues by Tamil political parties and high ranking Tamil Government officers.
How does the majority Sinhalese population view and treat Muslims? Recently we saw the group Bodu Bala Sena calling for a ban on halal food system, women wearing Niqab and also stoned a Muslim owned store.
This is a good question. At present this extremist movement is creating issues for Muslims, though Majority of Sinhalese are not supporting this, however, they are gathering support by spreading racist thoughts using false data.
Like?
They put forward baseless allegations like Muslims are trying to capture the country and make it an Islamic country; they say that our religious supreme body - Jammiyathul Ulma in the name of collecting funds for Halal certification funds Jihad. They want a Government ban on slaughtering cattle for meat too.
And how are Muslims responding to this?
Jammiyathul Ulama and Muslim Council initiated talks at different levels, they even managed to discuss this with the President, but Muslim politicians supporting the Government kept their mouths shut, only a few opposition Muslim politicians spoke up in public. As a whole, Muslim Community is tolerating these racist attacks and is patient. They still believe that the Government will control this, though there is a strong belief that some powerful people within the Government are supporting these attacks.
We see extremist movements in Sri Lanka and places like Myanmar led by Buddhist monks attacking Muslims, do you see any correlation?
We do not see any correlation or tangible evidence for such connection. But, we do see that their actions are similar to Shiv Sena of India.
Right. How well is the Muslim community integrated in the Sri Lankan society? Do they feel alienated or do they see themselves as part of the country?
Our community is well integrated throughout the country, except in the Eastern Province. Our community lives with both Sinhala and Tamil communities, but mostly with Sinhalese. We have business establishments all over the country and those are targeted by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) now.
We see this very often, most nations and people want an enemy to fight, with Sri Lanka it were the Tamils first and now it is Muslims. Would you agree?
Well, it can be or may be. The Tamil separatist war is almost over and people believe that current attacks on Muslims are politically motivated.
Right, the politicians want an issue to gain votes, so they polarize on Muslim issue.
Possibly!
Usually we see religious and ethnic minorities getting a biased portrayal in the media, is that the same case in Sri Lanka? And how is the Muslim presence in the media there?
To a considerable extent news is biased. Muslims are in the media, however, they cannot make much impact in decision making.
Muslims are chronically discriminated in the Media as well as in all other sectors. It is very difficult to get higher positions. We do not have a daily newspaper / radio / TV Channel for Muslims.
That is surprising, given that Muslims are 10% of the population. I mean no newspaper?
Yes. There’s a weekly newspaper, but that’s about it.
Could you shed some light on Muslim organisations or movements in the country, and are Muslims active and influential politically?
All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU) and Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, but these are religious and social bodies, they get less political support. There are numerous regional organisations, but these two are working at national level.
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and few other Muslim parties are part of the Government, but in the recent events, we do not see any of their influence working for the Community. Most Muslims vote for them, they give lot of election promises but forget them after assuming duties.
How do Muslim youths view the current situation in Sri Lanka and how are they responding to it? Is there a general thinking among the youths?
They are worried about the situation, as these attacks are happening daily, but they listen to the religious and social organisations and obey their decisions.