BATTICALOA: Batticaloa district, which has become a killing field defying the ceasefire agreement, has one more intrigue added to its list of deathly confusions. The emergence of what is seen by some quarters as ‘Islamic extremism’. Last Friday there was news that Muslim factions, mainstream groups and extremists, were on the verge of a clash, following a complaint to the police by mainstream Muslims that they were being threatened by extremists. The clash was averted with the intervention of the Batticaloa police. But, as the Batticaloa SSP says, the milieu concerning Muslim religious fervour in the area is becoming inflammable.

“There is now an assortment of Muslim factions. More than 90 per cent of them belong to the mainstream. Last Friday we called a meeting with several groups and gave them a warning that they should respect the others’ right of belief. It was requested of them to lower the volume of their loudspeakers,” SSP Nandana Munasinghe said.

In Batticaloa’s streets, especially in the densely Muslim-populated Kathankudy, one sees women completely covered, even their eyes sealed off with thick net in the manner found in Afghanistan.

“I do not think it is a healthy sign if Muslims here practice their religion as extremists do,” said the district SLMM chief, Steen Joergensen, in an interview with —Dawn. His comment comes in the wake of the killing of a policeman a fortnight ago being traced to an emerging Muslim extremists group.

In his capacity as the district’s ceasefire monitoring head, Mr Joergensen pointed out, however, that there was no “exact proof” to assert that the killing was carried out by a Muslim faction, in the same manner there was no “exact proof” to link the recent continuous killings with either the LTTE or ex-LTTE militant Karuna.

“There are indications that Muslims in the region are incited with extremists views. I have seen a clear increase in the number of completely covered women. A large number of people are sent to Saudi Arabia to study the Quran in the orthodox way,” Mr Joergenson said.

S. M. Izzadeen, a government representative of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Batticaloa, said that the Muslims found themselves caught between the LTTE and the Karuna faction.

“At present, there is much unrest and fear among them. They feel they must prepare to defend themselves. The situation here is complicated,” he said. He referred to the clashes last year in Kathankudy between mainstream Muslims and a new faction.

Muslim sources in the area said the cultural identity that eastern Sri Lankan Muslims had retained over the years had become fused with influences from other countries.

“It is only recently that the people in the east adopted strict codes which are not common in Sri Lanka. Here the Muslims have a history of practicing their religion in a pious but moderate manner that did not alienate them from the Tamils or the Sinhalese, in the multi ethnic east.

Now there is a lot of influence from the Middle East with Maulavis given scholarships for those countries. Their influence, when they come back here, carries a lot of weight,” a Muslim scholar in the area said. “The Muslims in the east have suffered extensively due to the twenty year old war and they feel that they do not have a proper voice. In this context, resorting to extremism could be seen as a shield,” he said, adding that the clashes last year had set a dangerous trend.

“We cannot speak openly. We may even have to face death threats,” the moderate scholar said on condition of anonymity.

Shamsudeen, a member of the Fishermen’s Association of the area, has just moved into a temporary shelter constructed by an LTTE-affiliated NGO in Ollikulam, his birth place in Batticaloa.

He is one of the Muslim families driven out in 1990 from his village. “We fled from the LTTE without anything but clothes on our bodies. We came back here the same way after the tsunami, with only our clothes. The Muslims feel neglected by the government and their representatives,” he said. “But,” he added, “many support extremists in the belief they will offer them humanitarian help.”

He declined to comment on fundamentalism saying he had more immediate worries. His chief concern, he said, was survival as only five per cent of the fishing industry was restored and he was jobless.

Muslim farmers said they had got no assurance from the LTTE of getting their lands back, and sources said their agitation to get back their rightful property might be supported by various Muslim factions.

Mr Solheim has visited the Puttalam area where thousands of Muslims have been languishing in camps since the LTTE carried out ethnic cleansing in 1990. He said he was “keen to find out about the problems faced by the Muslim people.”