Samudera Darussalam wrote:Dowaesk wrote:Image from Pew Research Forum. Found it just a minute ago.
In the case of Sri Lanka, I would like to include that Sri Lanka is a very racist country towards Non-Buddhists. Pew Research would have been off fine with writing Muslims, since they make up 15% of the population. I been to Sri Lanka (I went once during the civil war and once after) and although I was too small to understand back then, 10 years later, I look back (to the time we went after the civil war) and understand why they stopped my mother on the streets and ravaged through our stuff. (They took away my mother's deodorant spray). The only reason they went easy on us was because we are Maldivians. I saw it in their faces. When they saw my mother as a Muslim, they were like ready to pound on her, but when my mother told them that she was Maldivian. Their whole behaviour and expressions changed. Suddenly they were friendly, acted as if nothing happened and that it was all good. And they knew they'd get in trouble if they hurt or offended a Maldivian. If it had been anyone else, I cant say what would have taken place.
Sri Lanka's the only country I had a personal encounter like that. Although, that happened. Sri Lanka was very nice and had good time. Except for the fact that I was very sick.
I personally cant say for any other countries, since I've never been there (exception to India). All I know is what I get from the internet and foreign frnds.
Sorry to hear you and your mother have to go through that.
Though why with Maldivian? No offense, but I'm curious.
Probably, because Maldives is a country that will not ignore these kinds of stuff. Not to mention, it'll further ruin the already bad name that Sri Lanka has gotten among us. But Sri Lanka does a lot of kissing up and is still a very close friend of ours. And I almost forgot to mention. Colour has stuff do with this as well. People in South Asia, excluding Maldives, generally sees lighter skin tones as more attractive. And darker skin toned people can be subjected to racism and even violence. And this kind of stuff is abnormally high in Sri Lanka. With the Tamil (mostly Hindus) genocide and killing of Sri Lankan Moors (mostly Muslims). In the case of Maldives, well let me be honest. Although we are nice people. We are very self centered. We are quite selfish as well. Take a look at history. The Maldivian ethnicity. Next to our Indian roots (which gave us our colour), our most dominant roots come from Europe and the Caucasus region. And we were always seen as different from the mainland. Because, while Indians were taken as slaves by the Europeans they instead gave us gifts. The gift of having their babies born to the superior race that was white people. And the people really went along with it. And also there was the fact that Maldives, even back then was quite rich compared to the size. No surprise Maldives was called "Mahiladiva" (Island of Women) in Sanskrit.
Getting down from Maldives, I dont think we are the only people. The Police must have thought we were either Sri Lankan or from the Northern region of Sri Lanka (you might think its the same thing, but Sri Lankan racism begs to differ. See "Tamil Eelam" on Google). They became nice to us when they found out we were Maldivians. Like the story Insaanistan shared above me. They are nice to anyone that they think has the potential to stand up to discrimination. And dark skinned people from Africa, most of the time, does not have the government standing up for them. So God knows how they are treated.
