Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T13:56:14.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Environments of Law: Islam, Buddhism, and the State in Contemporary Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2016

Benjamin Schonthal
Get access

Abstract

This article uses an important Sri Lankan Supreme Court case concerning religious sound as a starting point for thinking about the intersections of Islam, law, politics, and Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It argues that Sri Lankan Muslims find themselves in three interlacing legal “environments” at the present moment: in an environment of general laws governing religion, in an environment of special laws and administrative bodies for Muslims, and in a broader constitutional environment that grants special recognition to Buddhism. These environments offer differing opportunities and imperatives for expressing Muslim identity, religious equality, diversity, rights, and freedoms in contemporary Sri Lanka. Through a consideration of these legal environments and the way they affected the case, this article illuminates ongoing questions about the legal and political status of Muslims on the island and provides a snapshot of the legal debates and discourses that have flowed into and fortified recent anti-Muslim sentiments on the island.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 137 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Ali, Ameer. 1986. “Politics of Survival: Past Strategies and Present Predicament of the Muslim Community in Sri Lanka.” Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs Journal 7(1):147–70.Google Scholar
Ali, Ameer. 2009. “Kattankudy in Eastern Sri Lanka: A Mullah-Merchant Urban Complex Caught between Islamist Factionalism and Ethno-Nationalisms.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 29(2):183–94.Google Scholar
Ameen, A. H. G. 2000. The Quazi Court Procedure and Practice. Colombo: Al-Ameen Law Centre.Google Scholar
Balasingham, Skanthakumar. 2003. “‘The Duty to Protect’: Muslim Family Law in Sri Lanka.” Yearbook in Islamic & Middle Eastern Law 10:125–57.Google Scholar
Cahaptiīn, E. 2007. “Ōliperukki kaṭṭuppāṭum muslimkaḷin urimaikaḷum” [Restricting loudspeakers and the rights of Muslims]. Vīrakēcari, November 18.Google Scholar
Cuṭar oḷi. 2007. “Uyar nītimanrat tīrppāl muslimkaḷukkup pātippu” [Muslims affected by High Court judgment]. December 16.Google Scholar
Daily Mirror (Colombo). 2013. “Muslims Urged to Avoid Animal Sacrifices on Poya Day.” October 16.Google Scholar
De Munck, Victor C. 1998. “Sufi and Reformist Designs: Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka.” In Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka, eds. Bartholomeusz, Tessa J. and de Silva, Chandra Richard, 110–32. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
De Silva, Mangalika. 2014. “Bunkers of Sovereignty and Sound: Logos, Void and the Untranslatability of Buddhist Precession in Colonial Sri Lanka.” Cultural Studies 28(3):463–93.Google Scholar
De Silva (Scharenguival), Sharya. 1988. “Some Aspects of the Muslim Law of Marriage and Divorce in Sri Lanka: A Comparison with the General Law.” University of Colombo Review 8:19–32.Google Scholar
Environmental Foundation Limited. 2008. Monitoring of Noise Pollution and Complaints Received by the Environmental Foundation, Ltd (Report Submitted to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka). Colombo: Environmental Foundation Limited.Google Scholar
Fazlulhaq, Nadia. 2008. “JHU Sounds Out New Act to Beat Loudspeaker Rule.” Sunday Times (Colombo), September 9.Google Scholar
Goonesekere, Savitri. 2000. Muslim Personal Law in Sri Lanka: Some Aspects of the Law on Family Relations. Colombo: Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum.Google Scholar
Haniffa, Farzana. 2007. “In Search of an Ethical Self in a Beleaguered Context: Middle Class Muslims in Contemporary Sri Lanka.” PhD diss., Columbia University.Google Scholar
Haniffa, Farzana. 2008. “Piety as Politics amongst Muslim Women in Contemporary Sri Lanka.” Modern Asian Studies 42(2/3):347–75.Google Scholar
Haniffa, Farzana. 2012. “Conflicted Solidarities? Muslims and the Constitution-Making Process of 1970–72.” In The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory, and Practice, ed. Welikala, Asanga, 1:220–52. 2 vol. Colombo: Centre for Policy Alternatives.Google Scholar
Haniffa, Farzana. Forthcoming. “The Economy of Profit and the Economy of Merit: Halal Troubles in Post-War Sri Lanka.” In Religion and the Morality of Markets, eds. Rudnyckyj, Daromir and Osella, Filippo. Under consideration with Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hasbullah, Shahul, and Korf, Benedikt. 2009. “Muslim Geographies and the Politics of Purification in Sri Lanka After the 2004 Tsunami.” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30(2):248–64.Google Scholar
Imtiyaz, A. R. M. 2009. “The Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: Special Problems and Solutions.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 44(4):407–27.Google Scholar
Island. 2008. “For Forthcoming Vas Pinkam Season: Bhikkhu Front Seeks Permission to Use Loudspeakers.” September 6.Google Scholar
Ismail, Qadri. 1995. “Unmooring Identity: The Antimonies of Muslim Elite Self-Formation in Sri Lanka.” In Unmaking the Nation: The Politics of Identity and History in Modern Sri Lanka, ed. Jeganathan, Pradeep, 55–105. Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association.Google Scholar
Jaldeen, M. S. 2004. The Muslim Law of Marriage, Divorce, and Maintenance in Sri Lanka. Colombo: Haji Omar Foundation for Peace, Education and Research.Google Scholar
Klem, Bart. 2011. “Islam, Politics and Violence in Eastern Sri Lanka.” Journal of Asian Studies 70(3):730–53.Google Scholar
Kodikara, Chulani. 1999. Muslim Family Law in Sri Lanka: Theory, Practice, and Issues of Concern to Women. Colombo: Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum.Google Scholar
Kodikara, Chulani. 2003. “Engaging with Muslim Personal Law in Sri Lanka: The Experience of MWRAF.” Lines. http://www.lines-magazine.org/Art_Aug03/Chulani.htm#_ednref9 (accessed October 31, 2013; URL now defunct).Google Scholar
Mahroof, M. M. M. 1987. “The Enactment of Muslim Marriage and Divorce Legislation in Sri Lanka: The Law in Context.” Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs Journal 8(1):161–75.Google Scholar
Kodikara, Chulani. 1995. “The ‘Ulama’ in Sri Lanka 1800–1990: Form and Function.” Journal of Islamic Studies 6(1):25–50.Google Scholar
Marsoof, Saleem. 2001. The Quazi Court System in Sri Lanka and Its Impact on Muslim Women. Colombo: Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum.Google Scholar
McGilvray, Dennis B. 1998. “Arabs, Moors and Muslims: Sri Lankan Muslim Ethnicity in Regional Perspective.” Contributions to Indian Sociology 32(2):433–83.Google Scholar
Mcgilvray, Dennis B. 2004. “Jalani: A Sufi Shrine in Sri Lanka.” In Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation, and Conflict, eds. Ahmad, Imtiaz and Reifeld, Helmut, 273–90. New Delhi: Social Science Press.Google Scholar
Mcgilvray, Dennis B. 2008. Crucible of Conflict: Tamil and Muslim Society on the East Coast of Sri Lanka. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Mcgilvray, Dennis B. 2011. “Sri Lankan Muslims: Between Ethno-Nationalism and the Global Ummah.” Nations and Nationalism 17(1):45–64.Google Scholar
Roberts, Michael. 1993. Noise as Cultural Struggle: Tom-Tom Beating, the British and Communal Disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s – 1930s. Colombo: Studies in Society and Culture.Google Scholar
Rogers, John D. 2004. “Early British Rule and Social Classification in Lanka.” Modern Asian Studies 38(3):625–47.Google Scholar
Schonthal, Benjamin. Forthcoming. “Securing the Sasana through Law: Buddhist Constitutionalism and Buddhist-Interest Litigation in Sri Lanka.” Modern Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. 2003. “Special Determination in SC(SD) 19/2003 Re: Sisters of Menzingen of Sri Lanka (Incorporation) Bill.”Google Scholar
Supreme Court Of Sri Lanka. 2007. “Decision in SC(FR) 38/2005 Ashik v Bandula and Others.” November 9.Google Scholar
Sykes, Jim. Forthcoming. “Sound as Promise and Threat: Drumming, Collective Violence and Colonial Law in British Ceylon.” In Noise, Audition, Aurality: Histories of the Sonic Worlds of Europe, 1500–1918, eds. Biddle, Ian and Gibson, Kirsten. New York: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Weiner, Isaac. 2013. Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space, and American Pluralism. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar