COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Muslim intelligentsia urged the authorities on Sunday to bring to book extremists who have been harassing and intimidating Sharmila Seyyid for her writings and remarks against the Talibanisation of Sri Lankan Muslim society.

Seeking a “thorough and fair” investigation into the complaints made on behalf of Sharmila, the 57 signatories to the appeal have urged the authorities to hold those responsible accountable.

They also requested the community’s religious leaders, like the Jamaithul Ulema, to take steps to “halt the targeting of fellow Muslims based on spurious religious justifications”.

The signatories said there was a “critical need with the Muslim community and also in the country at large, for developing processes to respond to critical issues, not through vilification, harassment or violence, but through a process of dialogue that is in keeping with the law and norms of democratic society.”

A single mother, young Sharmila from Eravur in the Eastern Province, is a poet, novelist, journalist and social worker. She has been writing against the subjugation of women in Sri Lankan Islamic society.

Through her Organisation of Social Development, she had taken up the cause of Muslim women in an increasingly restrictive Sri Lankan Muslim society.

She had won accolades for her writings in Sri Lanka and also in India.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2015

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