Moors

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Proportion of the population of moors in Sri Lanka according to the 2012 census

The Moors [ ˈmuːrs ] or Sri Lankan Moors are a population group in Sri Lanka . They are Sunni Muslims from the Shafiʿite school of law and speak Tamil as their mother tongue. The 1.9 million moors make up 9.2 percent of Sri Lanka's population (as of 2012). This makes them the third largest ethnic group on the island after the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Tamils . Unlike the Tamil-speaking Muslims in India ( Tamil Nadu ), the Sri Lankan moors do not identify as Tamils , but rather as a separate ethnic group (see ethnic Muslims ).

designation

The name Moors ("Moors") comes from the Portuguese , who called all Muslims in the areas they ruled as " Moors " ( mouros ) during the colonial period . In Tamil , the moors are traditionally referred to by the name Sonagar ( சோனகர் Cōṉakar ), which is derived from the term " Ionian " and was generally used for people from West Asia. Today the moors usually simply refer to themselves as "Muslims". Although Tamil-speaking Muslims make up the vast majority (over 90 percent) of all Muslims in Sri Lanka, there are also other Muslim groups (of Indian and Malay origin ). The term Moors is therefore particularly suitable to designate the Tamil-speaking Muslims of Sri Lanka.

Demographics

According to the 2012 census, there are almost 1.9 million peatlands in Sri Lanka, which corresponds to 9.2 percent of the total population. The highest proportion of the population is 37 percent in the Eastern Province . Due to the small-scale segregated settlement structure on the east coast, they dominate demographically in many places. Other areas with a strong presence of moors can be found on the west coast ( Puttalam and Mannar districts ; Beruwala , Galle ). There are also many moors in the cities of Colombo and Kandy . Smaller groups of moors are scattered across the island.

sociology

In contrast to the Muslims in some other parts of South Asia, the moors do not have a distinct caste system . There are individual endogamous groups such as the elite group of the descendants of the prophets ( called Maulana in Sri Lanka ) or the hereditary professional group of barbers who also work as circumcisers ( Osta, from Arabic Ustād ), but these represent special cases within Muslim society In general, the social order of the Moors is therefore more egalitarian than that of the Sinhalese and Tamils.

The moors on the east coast (in a strip that begins south of Trincomalee and extends to Pottuvil in the south), like the Tamils ​​living here, have a special matrilineal kinship system. This makes the East Coast Moors one of the few Muslim ethnic groups in the world who define their descent via the female line. Similar kinship systems can, however, be found among the Mappila Muslims in the Indian state of Kerala and among the Muslim Minangkabau in Sumatra .

Ethnic conflict

House burned down in 2014 during the anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama

During the civil war in Sri Lanka (1983-2009), the moors came between the fronts between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil separatists. They particularly suffered from persecution by the Tamil rebel organization LTTE . In July / August 1990, LTTE fighters carried out several massacres of Muslim civilians in the Eastern Province, in which up to 1,000 people were killed. In October 1990 practically all Muslims were expelled from the Northern Province of Sri Lanka by the LTTE . Since the end of the civil war, radical Buddhist organizations such as Bodu Bala Sena have begun to spread anti-Muslim sentiment. In 2014 there were violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in the southwest of the island, as well as in Kandy in 2018 . At the same time, some of the Sri Lankan Muslims became increasingly radical. On Easter Sunday 2019, local Islamists carried out devastating bomb attacks on several churches and luxury hotels. As a result, tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims increased further.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dennis B. McGilvray: Crucible of Conflict. Tamil and Muslim Society on the East Coast of Sri Lanka, Durham / London: Duke University Press, 2008, pp. 44–45.
  2. ↑ Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka: Population by ethnic group according to districts, 2012 .
  3. ↑ McGilvray 2008, pp. 292-310.
  4. ↑ McGilvray 2008, pp. 266-291.
  5. ↑ International Crisis Group: Sri Lanka's Muslims: Caught in the Crossfire, Asia Report N ° 134, May 29, 2007.
  6. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung: In Sri Lanka there is emergency law for ten days, March 6, 2018.
  7. ↑ The New York Times: Radicalization Among Sri Lanka's Muslims Was Slow and Steady, April 24, 2019.
  8. ↑ tagesschau.de: Attacks in Sri Lanka The anger against Muslims is growing, April 25, 2019.

literature

  • Dennis B. McGilvray, “Arabs, Moors, and Muslims: Sri Lankan Muslim Ethnicity in Regional Perspective”. In: Contributions to Indian Sociology 32.2 (1998), pp. 433-483.
  • Dennis B. McGilvray: Crucible of Conflict. Tamil and Muslim Society on the East Coast of Sri Lanka. Durham / London: Duke University Press, 2008.
  • Christian Wagner: The Muslims of Sri Lanka: An ethnic group in the field of tension of the ethnic conflict between Sinhalese and Tamils. Freiburg im Breisgau: Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, 1990.