Muslims are an asset to the Rajapaksas

When Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005 won the presidency through a wafer thin margin, the Muslims played a crucial role in his triumph. This minority community was being grateful to Mahinda for being a Muslim friendly politician. Muslims supported Mahinda up until the Aluthgama-beruwala riots in 2014. When the Imf/world Bank refused to help Sri Lanka during the crucial stages of the war, Islamic countries including Libya and Iran helped the Rajapaksa administration giving billions of dollars and the Muslims tacitly supported this move.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is not a racist and he does not lose anything by granting the Muslims the right to exist and exercising their basic rights as Sri Lankans. If a minority section of Muslims has some extremist tendencies, he can take appropriate measures to curb the extremism among Muslims, Sinhalese or Tamils. By retaining the support of the Muslims, like in the past, before 2010, Mahinda will have a broader support base. Muslim leaders should at this juncture be aware of the support Mahinda enjoys especially among Sinhala Buddhists and take their decisions accordingly in keeping with the larger interests of the community. Meanwhile inexperienced politicians such as Mujibur Rahman should keep quiet for sometime and let senior Muslim politicians speak on behalf of the community. I’m not involved in politics or with any political party.