The recent past has been worrisome for the Muslims since those with vested interest especially some of those wearing the sacred robe are aiming the crosshair at the Muslims.
by Mass L. Usuf
To comprehend the context of this column, it is necessary to understand what is meant to be conveyed by the word, ‘sheepish’. Several dictionaries provide the standard explanations and definitions. For example, sheepish means:
Resembling a sheep, affected by or showing embarrassment caused by consciousness of a fault, embarrassed, stupid, meek. Collins dictionary had the precise meaning that was meant to be communicated. It said: Timid, resembling a sheep in timidity or lack of initiative.
Timid people are those considered to be shy and have no courage or confidence in themselves. Collins explaining timid states as follows, ‘If you describe someone's attitudes or actions as timid, you are criticizing them for being too cautious or slow to act, because they are nervous about the possible consequences of their actions’ (emphasis mine).
If the character of the Muslim community is to be described in one or two words, the choices would be ‘sheepish’ and/or ‘timid’. This does not imply that they are not courageous or deficient in self-confidence but, typically, they are not prone towards the characteristics of aggression, domineering, defiance etc. They have proven themselves to be more circumspect and as peace loving citizens throughout the centuries excepting a few incidents far in between.
Dosa Kade
It was the same with the Tamil community prior to the creation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Tamil community was meek and timid. They were a people who minded their own business and were trying to eke out a living as any other. Toiling to educate their children and struggling to establish themselves in life. They would rarely pick a fight. Even if one erupts due to the intransigence of the other, they would try to walk away without complicating the situation. In many instances, the disdainful manner in which the humble waiter in a ‘Dosa Kade’ was treated those days comes to mind.
Every community has the Il buono, ilbrutto, ilcattivo, (the good, the bad and the ugly). This was a 1966, Italian Western movie starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as "the Ugly". The Tamil community too had its share of the trio like the Sinhala and Muslim communities. However, the majority of them were not inclined towards violence, vengeance, hatred or hostility. Since casteism was prevalent in the communities of the Sinhala and Tamil people internal prejudices were socially and culturally acceptable to those belonging to the respective groups. Fortunately, in Islam there is no caste system, therefore, the Muslims were free from this type of social stratification.
Radicalisation Process
No people can continuously be dominated or discriminated upon and consequently be oppressed. The meek and mild who are marginalised, alienated and racial profiled will gradually gravitate towards radicalisation and violence. “We understand that oppression occurs when individuals are systematically subjected to political, economic, cultural, or social degradation because they belong to a certain social group—this result from structures of domination and subordination and, correspondingly, ideologies of superiority and inferiority”. (Introduction to Community Psychology).
Researchers on radicalisation have identified various avenues that lead even the normal civic minded citizen to the perceptibly inevitable option of violence. The loss of one’s significance as a person/community or the ominously diminishing identity of a person/community within the greater social spectrum are considered to play a vital role in this regard.
According to Kruglanski et al. (2009a, 2014) there are three events that can trigger the quest for significance: (1) the loss of significance (e.g., humiliation, social alienation); (2) the perception of threat to the significance (e.g., the possibility of being rejected); and (3) the opportunity to gain considerable significance (e.g., becoming a hero, a martyr). This perspective suggests that the quest for personal significance may encourage radicalization under certain conditions. For the radicalization process to take place, three elements are necessary (Kruglanski et al., 2014): (1) the quest for significance to be activated; (2) violence to be identified as a means to achieve significance; and (3) the commitment to use violence to achieve significance and become dominant and incompatible with other possible sources of significance.
Creating Extremism
Little wonder that the LTTE emerged as a militant force and was augmented further by the indiscriminate carnage of the Tamil people in 1983. This triggered to turn upside down and destroy the sensitive equilibrium of sanity, civility, and morality that held the Sinhalese and the Tamils together. Presently, the war worn Tamils are no more meek, timid, shy and would not walk away without responding to any event that challenges their existence.
The recent past has been worrisome for the Muslims since those with vested interest especially some of those wearing the sacred robe are aiming the crosshair at the Muslims. This is a dangerous game that is being played by these elements. They are engaged in this exercise either intentionally to destabilise the country by fuelling extremism or dictated by overwhelming selfishness to achieve personal glory. Whatever is their agenda, they are certainly not the good Samaritans of this country. On the contrary, they are the enemies working to create chaos and anarchy and by this contributing to weaken and compromise national security. Past experience has shown that there are lessons to be learnt from the one time meek, timid and submissive Tamil people. Anyone who is marginalised, targeted, alienated, racially profiled, discriminated and oppressed will fight back to regain his losing identity and his significance as a person/community. Studies on radicalisation have concluded as such. The psychological outcome will be the same for any human - be it Muslim, Tamil, Sinhala, Arab, Persian, White or Black. This is the reality and any act even remotely leading to such aggravation need to be stemmed at the very beginning itself.
Venerable Senior Monks
The consistent disinhibited behaviour of some monks in the recent past is very disturbing. Shrouding themselves pretentiously with the noble robe, they conduct themselves and speak in a manner totally unbecoming of a monk. According to Wikipedia, disinhibited behaviours are actions which seem tactless, rude or even offensive. They occur when people don't follow the usual social rules about what or where to say or do something.
These were monks who were insignificant some years ago. They were not even known to anyone and without question were obscured from limelight. Such unknown persons of yesterday have been given the opportunity to become television heroes overnight. These masquerade as the saviours of the nation. They effectively use a concoction of truth, lies, misinterpretation, deception and, trick the public by the perceptive reverence of the saffron robe.
Fortunately, the venerable elders among the monks who are decent, worthy of respect and reverence have voiced their opinions as to the misdemeanour of these deviant monks. They have even gone to the extent of counselling mainstream political parties not to facilitate bhikkhus to contest the upcoming general elections. Very wisely, the venerable senior monks have also called upon the people not to even cast their votes in the event a monk desires to contest as an independent candidate.
Ironically, it is not any other who will destroy the great universal philosophy of Dhamma but these rogue monks who pretend to be the protectors of the Dhamma. It becomes the duty of all those who love the dhamma to ensure that these types of monks are not encouraged and applauded. This duty should weigh heavily on the shoulders of those who devoutly follow Buddha’s dhamma. The media which provides airtime to sensationalise and make them celebrities should also be more introspective if they call themselves as truly Buddhists.
The end.
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