Opinion

Muslims’ contribution to Sri Lanka and the world: Some little known facts

Published

3 years ago

2022/08/18

by Ifham Nizam

The Island spoke to Asiff Hussein, Vice-President, Outreach of the Centre for Islamic Studies (CIS) about cultural contribution of Muslims and misconceptions about the Islamic faith.

You have lectured extensively on Muslim Cultural Contribution. So, how would you describe such contribution both locally and internationally?

Islam has throughout history been a very dynamic force, extensively borrowing from cultures and contributing to them. In the early years of Islam, the influence of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Rome of the East was considerable. Thence came the domes of our mosques and the crescent symbol which was originally the symbol of Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium. When the Ottoman Turks took it in 1453, it became the symbol of Islam. The Muslims in turn improved on the architecture and so we have the onion domes of the Kremlin and the pointed towers of Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria resembling Islamic minarets as you see in the great mosque in Medina and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

In medicine, the early Muslims borrowed from Greece and the medical tradition known as Unani (literally Greek) was born. The Muslims in turn improved on it and passed it on to Europe, so much so that Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna’s) Qanoon Fit Tibb or Canon of Medicine was a standard textbook in European universities until as recently as the eighteenth century.

Even in Sri Lanka, we find Muslims have made a very meaningful contribution in terms of food, dress and pastimes. Sinhala sweetmeats such as aluva, dodol and bibikkan, accharu pickles, savoury sambols, articles of dress like sarong and karabu and pastimes such as the rabana and kite flying all owe their origins to the country’s Moor and Malay communities. Nose ornaments widely worn by Tamil women were also introduced by the Muslims. Arab and Muslim women widely wore such ornaments in the good old days.

Has Islamic fundamentalism taken hold of the local Muslim community and if so what can be done about it?

Fundamentalism might be the wrong word to use in this context since a Fundamentalist is literally one who sticks to the fundamentals of the faith. The proper word to use might be extremist rather than fundamentalist. There have been some extremist interpretations of Islam by Saudi-inspired Salafi scholars locally, especially where matters such as niqab (face covering) are concerned. However even in Saudi Arabia, these extremist attitudes are no longer being tolerated and that’s a good thing. In Islam what is required is to dress modestly and cover all except the face and hands. To say that the faith requires covering more than that is going beyond Islamic teachings and no doubt an expression of extremism. Nevertheless I still believe it should be a choice for the woman herself if she opts for niqab. Individual freedoms are also important, so long as it is not forced or coerced using religion among other things.

However, this extremist thinking has not made much headway in Sri Lankan society and is rejected by the vast majority of Muslims. In fact, the Easter Sunday bombings of churches and hotels shook and shocked the community as we never imagined even in our worst nightmares that such a thing could ever happen. As things are turning out now, there were other sinister interests behind these terrorist attacks. What these terrorists did went against every teaching of Islam including striking religious places of worship and killing innocents among other things.

You focus a lot on the Past as an Inspiration for Co-existence between Muslims and people of other faiths. Why do you do that?

Muslims have co-existed with the other communities of this island for well over a thousand years. They never arrived here as invaders but as peaceful merchants who made an immense contribution to our country by way of supplying essentials to isolated communities such as the Veddas and the landlocked Kandyan kingdom for centuries at a time when it was surrounded and at times blockaded by the colonial powers. They also intermarried with both Sinhalese and to a lesser extent Tamils. This is probably why you find Kandyan Muslims still bearing Sinhala ge-names. It has also been established by genetic studies that Sri Lankan Muslims are the least exclusive of all of the island’s races.

This means they have been the most inclusive and have DNA that closely resembles the Sinhalese. This is mostly true of maternal lineages which proves that the early Moors settled here intermarried with local women. However there are Sinhalese paternal linages of Moors as well which shows how close these two communities were in the past. So how do we create awareness of this fact? Simple, by publicizing it in every possible way, that we are one with the rest of the communities that have made this beautiful island our home.

There is a misconception that in Islam women are not treated as equals. How far is this true?

This is a common misconception, mainly because of the way Islam is interpreted in certain countries like Saudi Arabia. In Islam, women are free to own and manage property and transact business in their own right; they are free to marry partners whom they choose and may do so even sans the consent of male guardians such as father or brother. Unfortunately many of these rights given in both the Qur’an and in the ahadith or traditions of our Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) are trampled in countries like Saudi Arabia which are more concerned about maintaining their tribal traditions than the true laws of Islam.

In some cases, the West deliberately complicates the picture, especially when it comes to matters like Female Genital Mutilation. True, Islam has nothing to do with FGM, but we do have something called female circumcision, which like male circumcision involves the removal of a little bit of skin, the prepuce covering the clitoris and ensures a lifetime of genital hygiene and enhanced sexual pleasure. But the West perpetuates this myth equating it to FGM as happens in certain African countries. Fortunately Islamic organisations and publications have now begun addressing these topics. A case in point is the leading international Islamic magazine Al Jumuah carrying its cover story on Islamic Female Circumcision, making a very good case why it ought to be obligatory and outlining its many health and sexual benefits. Thus, it is not only the manner in which Islam is interpreted in certain societies that is the problem, but also how the West portrays it to be.

Sharia Law is commonly thought to be a very harsh set of laws and unsuited for the modern world. What is your take on this?

Shariah Law is not at all what it is commonly understood to be. You wouldn’t believe me if I were to tell you that it was until recently, one of the most, perhaps the most lenient of legal systems the world had known. But that’s the fact. Take amputation of the hand for theft. Do you know that to cut off a thief’s hand that at least thirteen conditions should be met and that if any one of these conditions are not met, the penalty cannot be applied. In fact, in Ottoman Turkey where the Shariah was applied for well over three centuries, there were only a handful of cases where thieves had their hands cut off.

Why, because the legal conditions that required the penalty to be carried out were so difficult to establish. The stolen item should have had a certain value, something like forty dollars or more in the present context, it should have been kept in a place of safekeeping like a safe, it should have not been in a public place or in the sight of the public, etc., and when all these conditions have expired, it is still possible to save the thief from the penalty if the victim comes forward to gift it to him or her. In contrast until as recently as the early 1800s thieves in Britain could be sent to the gallows without any of the attenuating conditions that Islamdom imposed.

Then take adultery. True, stoning to death may well be the punishment, but the fact remains that to prove adultery as many as four witnesses are necessary, and these four should have seen penetration taking place by the offending couple. The purpose of Shariah is not to humiliate or mutilate, but to impress on potential offenders the seriousness of their offence and to prevent the evil from being broadcast in public so that it becomes the order of the day.

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Opinion

Buddhist insights into the extended mind thesis – Some observations

Published

22 hours ago

2026/01/14

Sahan Weerasooriya

It is both an honour and a pleasure to address you on this occasion as we gather to celebrate International Philosophy Day. Established by UNESCO and supported by the United Nations, this day serves as a global reminder that philosophy is not merely an academic discipline confined to universities or scholarly journals. It is, rather, a critical human practice—one that enables societies to reflect upon themselves, to question inherited assumptions, and to navigate periods of intellectual, technological, and moral transformation.

In moments of rapid change, philosophy performs a particularly vital role. It slows us down. It invites us to ask not only how things work, but what they mean, why they matter, and how we ought to live. I therefore wish to begin by expressing my appreciation to UNESCO, the United Nations, and the organisers of this year’s programme for sustaining this tradition and for selecting a theme that invites sustained reflection on mind, consciousness, and human agency.

We inhabit a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive science, and digital technologies. These developments are not neutral. They reshape how we think, how we communicate, how we remember, and even how we imagine ourselves. As machines simulate cognitive functions once thought uniquely human, we are compelled to ask foundational philosophical questions anew:

What is the mind? Where does thinking occur? Is cognition something enclosed within the brain, or does it arise through our bodily engagement with the world? And what does it mean to be an ethical and responsible agent in a technologically extended environment?

Sri Lanka’s Philosophical Inheritance

On a day such as this, it is especially appropriate to recall that Sri Lanka possesses a long and distinguished tradition of philosophical reflection. From early Buddhist scholasticism to modern comparative philosophy, Sri Lankan thinkers have consistently engaged questions concerning knowledge, consciousness, suffering, agency, and liberation.

Within this modern intellectual history, the University of Peradeniya occupies a unique place. It has served as a centre where Buddhist philosophy, Western thought, psychology, and logic have met in creative dialogue. Scholars such as T. R. V. Murti, K. N. Jayatilleke, Padmasiri de Silva, R. D. Gunaratne, and Sarathchandra did not merely interpret Buddhist texts; they brought them into conversation with global philosophy, thereby enriching both traditions.

It is within this intellectual lineage—and with deep respect for it—that I offer the reflections that follow.

Setting the Philosophical Problem

My topic today is “Embodied Cognition and Viññāṇasota: Buddhist Insights on the Extended Mind Thesis – Some Observations.” This is not a purely historical inquiry. It is an attempt to bring Buddhist philosophy into dialogue with some of the most pressing debates in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science.

At the centre of these debates lies a deceptively simple question: Where is the mind?

For much of modern philosophy, the dominant answer was clear: the mind resides inside the head. Thinking was understood as an internal process, private and hidden, occurring within the boundaries of the skull. The body was often treated as a mere vessel, and the world as an external stage upon which cognition operated.

However, this picture has increasingly come under pressure.

The Extended Mind Thesis and the 4E Turn

One of the most influential challenges to this internalist model is the Extended Mind Thesis, proposed by Andy Clark and David Chalmers. Their argument is provocative but deceptively simple: if an external tool performs the same functional role as a cognitive process inside the brain, then it should be considered part of the mind itself.

From this insight emerges the now well-known 4E framework, according to which cognition is:

 Embodied – shaped by the structure and capacities of the body

 Embedded – situated within physical, social, and cultural environments

 Enactive – constituted through action and interaction

 Extended – distributed across tools, artefacts, and practices

This framework invites us to rethink the mind not as a thing, but as an activity—something we do, rather than something we have.

Earlier Western Challenges to Internalism

It is important to note that this critique of the “mind in the head” model did not begin with cognitive science. It has deep philosophical roots.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

famously warned philosophers against imagining thought as something occurring in a hidden inner space. Such metaphors, he suggested, mystify rather than clarify our understanding of mind.

Similarly, Franz Brentano’s notion of intentionality—his claim that all mental states are about something—shifted attention away from inner substances toward relational processes. This insight shaped Husserl’s phenomenology, where consciousness is always world-directed, and Freud’s psychoanalysis, where mental life is dynamic, conflicted, and socially embedded.

Together, these thinkers prepared the conceptual ground for a more process-oriented, relational understanding of mind.

Varela and the Enactive Turn

A decisive moment in this shift came with Francisco J. Varela, whose work on enactivism challenged computational models of mind. For Varela, cognition is not the passive representation of a pre-given world, but the active bringing forth of meaning through embodied engagement.

Cognition, on this view, arises from the dynamic coupling of organism and environment. Importantly, Varela explicitly acknowledged his intellectual debt to Buddhist philosophy, particularly its insights into impermanence, non-self, and dependent origination.

Buddhist Philosophy and the Minding Process

Buddhist thought offers a remarkably sophisticated account of mind—one that is non-substantialist, relational, and processual. Across its diverse traditions, we find a consistent emphasis on mind as dependently arisen, embodied through the six sense bases, and shaped by intention and contact.

Crucially, Buddhism does not speak of a static “mind-entity”. Instead, it employs metaphors of streams, flows, and continuities, suggesting a dynamic process unfolding in relation to conditions.

Key Buddhist Concepts for Contemporary Dialogue

Let me now highlight several Buddhist concepts that are particularly relevant to contemporary discussions of embodied and extended cognition.

The notion of prapañca, as elaborated by Bhikkhu Ñāṇananda, captures the mind’s tendency toward conceptual proliferation. Through naming, interpretation, and narrative construction, the mind extends itself, creating entire experiential worlds. This is not merely a linguistic process; it is an existential one.

The Abhidhamma concept of viññāṇasota, the stream of consciousness, rejects the idea of an inner mental core. Consciousness arises and ceases moment by moment, dependent on conditions—much like a river that has no fixed identity apart from its flow.

The Yogācāra doctrine of ālayaviññāṇa adds a further dimension, recognising deep-seated dispositions, habits, and affective tendencies accumulated through experience. This anticipates modern discussions of implicit cognition, embodied memory, and learned behaviour.

Finally, the Buddhist distinction between mindful and unmindful cognition reveals a layered model of mental life—one that resonates strongly with contemporary dual-process theories.

A Buddhist Cognitive Ecology

Taken together, these insights point toward a Buddhist cognitive ecology in which mind is not an inner object but a relational activity unfolding across body, world, history, and practice.

As the Buddha famously observed, “In this fathom-long body, with its perceptions and thoughts, I declare there is the world.” This is perhaps one of the earliest and most profound articulations of an embodied, enacted, and extended conception of mind.

Conclusion

The Extended Mind Thesis challenges the idea that the mind is confined within the skull. Buddhist philosophy goes further. It invites us to reconsider whether the mind was ever “inside” to begin with.

In an age shaped by artificial intelligence, cognitive technologies, and digital environments, this question is not merely theoretical. It is ethically urgent. How we understand mind shapes how we design technologies, structure societies, and conceive human responsibility.

Buddhist philosophy offers not only conceptual clarity but also ethical guidance—reminding us that cognition is inseparable from suffering, intention, and liberation.

Dr. Charitha Herath is a former Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka (2020–2024) and an academic philosopher. Prior to entering Parliament, he served as Professor (Chair) of Philosophy at the University of Peradeniya. He was Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) from 2020 to 2022, playing a key role in parliamentary oversight of public finance and state institutions. Dr. Herath previously served as Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media and Information (2013–2015) and is the Founder and Chair of Nexus Research Group, a platform for interdisciplinary research, policy dialogue, and public intellectual engagement.

He holds a BA from the University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka), MA degrees from Sichuan University (China) and Ohio University (USA), and a PhD from the University of Kelaniya (Sri Lanka).

(This article has been adapted from the keynote address delivered
by Dr. Charitha Herath
at the International Philosophy Day Conference at the University of Peradeniya.)

Opinion

We do not want to be press-ganged

Published

2 days ago

2026/01/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

Reference ,the Indian High Commissioner’s recent comments ( The Island, 9th Jan. ) on strong India-Sri Lanka relationship and the assistance granted on recovering from the financial collapse of Sri Lanka and yet again for cyclone recovery., Sri Lankans should express their thanks to India for standing up as a friendly neighbour.

On the Defence Cooperation agreement, the Indian High Commissioner’s assertion was that there was nothing beyond that which had been included in the text. But, dear High Commissioner, we Sri Lankans have burnt our fingers when we signed agreements with the European nations who invaded our country; they took our leaders around the Mulberry bush and made our nation pay a very high price by controlling our destiny for hundreds of years. When the Opposition parties in the Parliament requested the Sri Lankan government to reveal the contents of the Defence agreements signed with India as per the prevalent common practice, the government’s strange response was that India did not want them disclosed.

Even the terms of the one-sided infamous Indo-Sri Lanka agreement, signed in 1987, were disclosed to the public.

Mr. High Commissioner, we are not satisfied with your reply as we are weak, economically, and unable to clearly understand your “India’s Neighbourhood First and Mahasagar policies” . We need the details of the defence agreements signed with our government, early.

RANJITH SOYSA

Opinion

When will we learn?

Published

2 days ago

2026/01/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

At every election—general or presidential—we do not truly vote, we simply outvote. We push out the incumbent and bring in another, whether recycled from the past or presented as “fresh.” The last time, we chose a newcomer who had spent years criticising others, conveniently ignoring the centuries of damage they inflicted during successive governments. Only now do we realise that governing is far more difficult than criticising.

There is a saying: “Even with elephants, you cannot bring back the wisdom that has passed.” But are we learning? Among our legislators, there have been individuals accused of murder, fraud, and countless illegal acts. True, the courts did not punish them—but are we so blind as to remain naive in the face of such allegations? These fraudsters and criminals, and any sane citizen living in this decade, cannot deny those realities.

Meanwhile, many of our compatriots abroad, living comfortably with their families, ignore these past crimes with blind devotion and campaign for different parties. For most of us, the wish during an election is not the welfare of the country, but simply to send our personal favourite to the council. The clearest example was the election of a teledrama actress—someone who did not even understand the Constitution—over experienced and honest politicians.

It is time to stop this bogus hero worship. Vote not for personalities, but for the country. Vote for integrity, for competence, and for the future we deserve.

Deshapriya Rajapaksha