The focus of this article however is the Muslim community which like all other communities steeped in the events of the changing scenario is taking a breath, to look at itself and analyse the changes and rise to the challenges presented. 

A significant feature that dominates the social arena is the emerging ethnic consciousness, 'Unity in Diversity' or pluralism in unity have become very popular themes specially in the public fora. However, there is a parallel move to sharpen ethnic identity which if not balanced may descend to a jealous communalism which as the Donoughmore Commission defined as a canker on the body politic eating deeper and deeper into the vital energies of governance on the one hand and civil society on the other. 

The Muslim community were as Dr. Nuhuman very simply says a merely silent cultural community until the beginning of the modern era. Economic integration, political accommodation, religious and cultural autonomy was their policy. He goes on to say that ethnic consciousness seeks a separate ethnic identity for a community based on its cultural ideology and traditional mythology - The Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Musllims did just this. The late 19th century saw amongst these communities a movement for cultural revivalism and the Sri Lankan Muslim became and ethnically conscious and a politically motivated community during the late 19th century. 

In Sri Lanka, Muslim revivalism was mainly linked with the desire to revitalise education because of the realization of the community's backwardness in education. The reason for this being solely the fear of proselytization to Christianity as the school system was dominated by missionaries. In the late 18th century there was a significant movement lead by Siddi Lebbe and Wappichi Marikkar, two local community reformers inspired by Orabi Pasha an exile from Egypt. 

This was the beginning of a Muslim nationalistic movement and its pivot was to regenerate education and culture and had no political overtures till the birth of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress in the 1980's. Following the lead of the Buddhist and Hindu revivalist movements the Muslims too concentrated not on the formal educational system but on the non formal channel. Literary and friendship societies mushroomed and more importantly news papers and journals began to appear. The Muslim 'Nessan' - the first newspaper published in Tamil by Siddi Lebbe was the first print medium to cater specifically to the Muslim community. The 'Ceylon Muhammedan' was the first English newspaper. 

Through all these activities came a conscious effort to develop identification of themselves as Arabs and the movement could be interpreted as a process of Islamization. Efforts were made to effect many reforms in the personal law and there were heroic attempts to eradicate foreign customs such as dowry. 

The revivalists felt that one of the reasons for the backwardness of the community lay in the fact the Mullahs, the teachers of religion regarded themselves as the custodians and sole repositors of Islam and therefore it was only through an educational reform by enlightened men (women?) that their influence could be challenged. However there was community resistance to this challenge. 

The whole movement of revivalism and the struggle to establish identity grew in momentum in the 1970's. One of the consequences was greater visibility of the Muslim community. Now arose a struggle for leadership and power and influence and what started off as educational reform culminated in communal politics. 

When one goes back to evaluate the reform movement there is no doubt that the forging of identity was an important reason although at the start it was dormant. The Muslims are widely dispersed throughout the island and only in the Amparai district do they have a significant 33%. In most districts it is a very small proportion, very often less than the national one which is 8%. Unlike the other two communities the Sinhalese and the Tamils the identification of the Muslims was by religion and culture and not language. 

The identity struggle has resulted as mentioned before not only in visibility but also a wide recognition of its status in the nation. The safeguarding of the Muslim ethnic identity has been through the "consolidation and recognition of the personal laws of the Muslims and secondly in Education." (- K.M. De Silva - 'The Muslim Minority in a democratic polity'). Education is the most important sector. When one looks at the nature, scope and purpose of education in one simple phrase, it is learning to live as the problems of education are problems of human life. The scope of education is wide and if it is to exert any influence over an individual's life, not only should problems be recognised at the level of intellectual apprehensions, but also at the level of attitudes and actions. 

Hence the impact of education at all levels - formal, non formal and informal to contribute substantially to the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the community. Formal education is just one of the many potent educational influences as the person educated, in every moment of his/her life, where he/she grows in responses to the many experiences in school and out of school. 

The importance of informal and non-formal education cannot be underestimated. Formal Education cannot on its own change fundamentally a free society. There are too many other strong influences such as the media, the home, the neighbourhood etc. Those agents who aim to change a community include among the formal avenues of education, the informal and non - formal. Education obviously is the most important means for developing a community and naturally will be at the centre of revivalist movements as the primary purpose is to maintain the uniqueness of its identity. 

In short, Education in the view of the reformers is the keeper of the community's identity. When one looks at the educational changes in the 1950's and again in 1960's the move towards a separate identity is clear. One of the changes was the demand for special Government Training Colleges for Muslims. The force of language and the fact that Arabic is of special importance is evident when Arabic was introduced as an official language to Muslim pupils. Further, religion which was taught by the teachers in school was now taught by moulavis and moulaviyas (specially trained in religion) appointed by the Ministry of Education. Till 1974 the Muslims had the right to be educated in one of the three media - English, Sinhala and Tamil - again drawing attention to their separate needs. 

The emergence of new Muslim schools was another feature where holidays and school sessions were determined by the special requirements of the Muslim population. Further in order to emphasise the separate identity there was a lobby for more Muslim schools as opposed to categorisation as Tamil school and also a substantial increase of Muslim teachers. Even the changes in University admission policy have been partly as a result of the Muslim lobby. 

It is clear that in Sri Lanka communal identity preservation was an important issue. There is evident in public a superficial declaration of a common Sri Lankan identity - an integration of the communities to a common heritage and loyalty to the Nation while jealously guarding their separate individual identity in private. There is also evident a general dissatisfaction with the religious education and current attitude to morals and norms. 

The ferment in the Education scene is no doubt a response to the rapid changes that have taken place in the world, including of course Sri Lanka. That society has probably changed drastically in the past five decades than in did in the past three centuries, and it is indeed a disturbing factor to cope with the results of the change. 

The seeking of identity was an important phenomenon and occurs in varied contexts. The heightening of the armed conflict made the assumption of identities sharper in the 1980's. The physical insecurity coupled with the fears that beset minorities have intensified this process in Sri Lanka. In identity seeking where efforts are concentrated to homogenise a community women play a crucial role as they are generally the potent but passive symbols of culture and tradition and their feminine identity of modesty, purity etc. enhances the masculine identity. 

The signs of change were many and underlined the fact that it was more outward - more in form than in content. In Sri Lanka the Islamic dress of the women in the Muslim Community ranges from just a loose covering of the head with the saree fall or a shawl to loosely cover the head mainly black and brown and sometimes coloured garments with a tight head cover, which sometimes includes a face veil. One of the significant features of the heighted Islamic consciousness or resurgence is the 'hijab' which proclaims a return to the fundamentals of Islam. 

The perceptions about the Islamic dress of the women is contradictory. On the surface of it, the observers see it as something inhibiting and affecting adversely the progress of women. However most of the women who actually wear it often express a sense of freedom and as something that enables them move with greater ease in 'male' public spaces and suffer less harassment in public. Before the 1980s though women did veil their heads, the attitude was casual but today both in the rural and urban areas among the rich and poor, old and young, educated and illiterate the whole action is done deliberately and purposefully. 

For the impact of revivalism the social milieu in Sri Lanka was and is fortuitous. The legacy of modern governmental organisation and a forward looking educational system and the tolerance of the Buddhist majority afforded a free and liberal atmosphere. Factors such as the non-inference of the state in the practice of Islam, the upholding of the personal laws of the community with the added implicit attitude that reform of such laws was the sole prerogative of the community. Furthermore an added advantage was the dependence of any government on minority support. Hence the social, political milieu was such that it was conducive to rise of new movements and organisation especially in the field of religion. 

Revivalism working towards the preservation of the purity of Islamic teachings has within it the vital elements for growth and development but when it becomes obsessed with externals and singleness of exclusive identity it descends to fanaticism rejecting all except its existence. 

In the specific field of education the movements in the late 20th century have made their mark. Education, it was realised by these members, plays an important role in a community as it's the one way to socialisation and organisation of the members of a community and it is the channel for the dissemination of information. 

Alternative schools and media are indispensable tools in a process of Islamization, Nursery schools, full blown secondary schools, some even aspiring to the level of tertiary institutes have emerged in Sri Lanka and though small in number dominate the landscape of Muslim schools. In an urban site such as in Colombo the natural or rather the obvious expectation would be that the best Muslim schools in the state sector would be in Colombo. The reality is contrary to such expectation. 

The standards of education are wanting in these schools and moreover due to criteria of admission other state schools do not admit Muslim students. Further in the private schools there is a subtle wave of opinion that obstructs Muslim students from being admitted. The reasons are not given and if it is ventured to identify them it would be on the basis of surmise. However the solid truth of non-availability of seats in these schools cannot be denied. One or two of these schools have English as their medium of instruction and the appeal is not only the Islamic atmosphere, the international input and also the good quality education that is proffered in these schools. 

The direct impact on the process of education if qualitatively assessed especially in the area of progress in education and the numbers going in for higher education reveal both in the science and humanistic sector an increase in the numbers. The causes are many but one was the encouragement given by these movements to further education. Ragging in the Universities militated against entry of Muslim girls and parents did not encourage girls to go into the tertiary institutes. 

However whatever the opinion may be on the wearing of hijab, this dress minimised the incidence of ragging and parents not in favour previously now made no protest to the girls entering the universities. As far as career were concerned though Muslim girls have found niches in diversified areas it was generally the traditional professions such as medicine, accounting, teaching, law that found favour. 

A simple definition of education is the total development of the individual which includes the physical, mental, spiritual and aesthetic. However the strong waves of criticism against athletics, aesthetic activities such as drama and art shackled the girl child's interest and recreational pursuits. Religion which in the earlier years was by recitation and memorisation of the Quranic verses now became education in the broad connotation of the word. The 'reformist' groups with a missionary zeal for motivating study of religion encouraged persons at all levels. 

However what was missing and significantly so was the fact that explanations and interpretations were made more often than not with a male bias, with no regard or sensitivity for gender. This type of explanations completely destroyed the spirit of social justice and equity that radiated from the Quran. Moreover the aggressive upholding of the external symbols sometimes weakened the impact on internal spirituality, religion was reduced to rites, rituals and externals and its essence of spiritual uplift and conscience purification was lost in this process. 

In a nation such as Sri Lanka where multi ethnic, multi religious communities live, emphasis should be in the communities for example the absolute values that all religions uphold. However in classroom the study of comparative religious descends to a debate on the superiority of each one's religion. There should be a careful evaluation of use of languages and anything whether it be a story, phrase or even words that deride other religions should be annihilated. The role of language in the education of the Muslim child warrants comment. 

One finds among the worthy preachers, some who totally condemn the use of the English language as a culturally alienating one, forgetting the value of it as a cognitive subject as well as a skill in the employment sector. This creates a dilemma where a simple solution is possible. A community such as the Muslims who are numerically of a small proportion need to learn all three languages to work efficiently and live effectively. 

In conclusion when one surveys the impact of these movements it is clear that the influence has been strong since the potency of education especially in the non-formal arena has been identified and recognised operationally. However like all resurgent movements the groups that favour revivalism will not be able to leave any lasting impressions unless the whole area of Islamic principles, especially social justice and equity in the modern context is translated into action benefiting all the members of the community regardless of their gender, level of education, financial capacity. It is only through such a movement that genuine liberation and emancipation can be achieved, and living in a multi-communal, multi lingual and multi-religious state such as Sri Lanka can be meaningful. 

(Excerpts from an essay on 'Impact of Religious Revivalism on formal and non-formal education among the Muslim community' by Jezima Ismail from Alternative Perspectives, a publication of the Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum 1997).