Muslime zwischen den Fronten
Despite the fact that the Muslims constitute the third biggest community in Sri Lanka after the Sinhalese and the Tamils, they remained politically inactive for decades after the island gained its independence from the British in 1948. It was only after the rebel Tamil forces of the LTTE turned against them in the North East in 1990 that they became conscious of their rights as a separate community. Around 100,000 Muslims were evicted from their shops, homes and farms in a savage act of ethnic cleansing that sent thousands of families into refugee camps, where many of them live to this day.The tension arose because Prabhakaran, the ruthless leader of the Tamil Tigers, judged that the Muslims living in the area he controlled did not sufficiently support the cause of Tamil separatism. The Muslims understandably wished to continue living under a secular central government where they had equal rights. As a result, they were forced out of the area in which their forefathers had lived peacefully for centuries.
Irfan Husain in “Dawn” über die Usprünge der muslimischen Minderheit in Sri Lanka, ihr Schicksal im Bürgerkrieg und ihre Zukunftsaussichten.
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