Tamil–Muslim Relations
During the Sri Lankan Conflict

Historical Context · State Manipulation · Future Coexistence

The relationship between Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka is deeply shaped by war, displacement, political manipulation, and survival. This document aims to preserve historical truth while encouraging accountability, understanding, and future coexistence.

Aarambam EraTLTE ArchiveUK · Civil Society

01 · Shared History 02 · Divide & Control 03 · Why Some Aligned 04 · LTTE Response 05 · Historical Accuracy 06 · TLTE Position 07 · The Future 08 · VinMin Vision 09 · Final Statement

Section 01

Shared History Before the Conflict

For generations, Tamil-speaking Muslims and Tamils lived side by side across the North and East of Sri Lanka. Communities traded together, attended schools together, and coexisted culturally despite religious differences.

Many Muslims in the North and East spoke Tamil as their primary language and shared regional, agrarian and social ties with Tamil communities. Mosques, temples, markets and harbours sat within the same streetscape — an everyday pluralism that long pre-dated the war.

Section 02

The Sri Lankan State and Divide-and-Control Tactics

As the Tamil armed struggle intensified during the 1980s, the Sri Lankan government increasingly used divide-and-rule strategies to weaken Tamil resistance. This included:

Arming local Home Guard units
Intelligence gathering through local informant networks
Engineering mistrust between Tamil and Muslim communities
Supporting anti-Tamil paramilitary structures in the East

Historical reports show that some armed groups cooperated with the Sri Lankan military and were involved in violence against Tamil civilians in certain regions. Documenting these structures is not an attack on a community — it is a record of a state policy that placed ordinary people on opposite sides of a war they did not design.

Section 03

Why Some Muslims Aligned With the State

The reasons were rarely ideological. They were structural, situational, and human.

Fear & Survival

In a militarised landscape, alignment with the dominant armed force often felt like the only path to physical safety for families and villages.

LTTE–Muslim Tensions

Localised disputes, taxation, and incidents of violence eroded trust, pushing some communities toward state protection rather than the movement.

Government Militarisation

Home Guard schemes, weapons, salaries and impunity were offered as instruments of state policy — not as voluntary community choices.

Local Political Dynamics

Patronage networks, land disputes, and elite politics shaped which leaders aligned with the state, and on what terms ordinary civilians followed.

Section 04

The LTTE Response and Historical Consequences

LTTE leadership was aware that sections of Muslim Home Guard groups and informant networks were cooperating with the Sri Lankan military. Over time, however, the distinction between armed collaborators and ordinary Muslim civilians became dangerously blurred.

This contributed to major historical tragedies, including:

Attacks on Muslim civilians in mosques and villages
Forced displacement across the East
The 1990 expulsion of Northern Muslims

These events left deep and lasting wounds between communities. A movement that cannot acknowledge harm done in its name cannot ask others to acknowledge harm done to it.

Section 05