-By Islamic Affairs Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -12.June.2025, 11.10 PM) In an unassuming corner of northwest London, nestled within the Sri Lankan Muslim Cultural Centre in Harrow, a diverse crowd is expected to gather on 29th Sunday- June, for the UK launch of Muslim In the Dock, the latest title from British-Sri Lankan author, academic, and human rights advocate Lukman Harees.
Scheduled for June 29th in Harrow and July 20th in Colombo’s prestigious Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, this twin-city launch bridges the diasporic divide and underscores a literary career as diasporic as the questions his new book raises.
It is not merely a book. It is a mirror — held unflinchingly to a world that would rather avert its gaze.
Born in the southern city of Galle, Sri Lanka’s bastion of colonial charm and maritime history, Harees’ own journey has spanned not only geographies but disciplines. A former Head of Human Resources Development at the Commercial Bank of Ceylon, he left the island in 2004, following a career distinguished by both academic and professional achievements. Now based in the United Kingdom, his voice has grown louder, sharper, and more relevant and Lukman also received the BRISLA Top Literary Award In London in 2023.
A law graduate (LLB) and holder of an MBA from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, he is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration, with a focus on Access to Justice and the Right to Health in Sri Lanka, adopting a phenomenological methodology rooted in human rights praxis.
If that sounds dense, fear not. His prose is anything but.
The provocatively titled Muslim In the Dock is subtitled: A Bystander’s Perspective on How Multi-Pronged Islamophobia Related Challenges, Coupled With a Defeatist Mentality, Are Sadly Pinning Down Post-9/11 Muslims.
It is an unambiguous thesis.
Harees wades boldly into the fraught waters of global Islamophobia — a term so frequently invoked it has almost been bleached of meaning, except here. Here, Harees reinfuses it with urgency. Through personal observation, sociopolitical analysis, and cultural critique, the book argues that Muslims worldwide — and particularly in diasporic settings like the UK and post-war zones like Sri Lanka — are enduring not only external scrutiny but internal stagnation.
The “dock” is both courtroom and metaphor: where Muslims find themselves as suspects in the court of global public opinion.
This is not Harees’ first literary foray. In fact, Muslim In the Dock joins a growing body of work by a writer unafraid of intellectual provocation. His earlier books include:
‘Mirage of Dignity in the Highways of Human Progress’ (2012): A biting critique of the yawning gulf between the utopian ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their messy, uneven implementation.
‘Clouding the Crescent’ (2015): A piercing look at post-war Sri Lanka and the systemic targeting of Muslims.
‘In Search of Our Roots’ (2021): A cultural guidebook for second-generation British-Sri Lankan Muslims, aiming to restore a sense of identity.
‘Dying While Muslim’ (2021): Chronicling the absurdities and heartbreak of Sri Lanka’s notorious Covid-era forced cremation policy — a policy Harees actively campaigned against, as a member of the Muslim Council of Britain’s international task force.
‘Wisdom at Our Doorstep’ (2019): A charming detour into folklore and ethical storytelling, blending traditions to promote harmony.
And two Sinhala poetical volumes: ‘The-watha’ and ‘Dhurastha Dhaknaya’, which explore sociological themes with lyrical precision — rare feats for a bilingual author writing across cultural worlds.
Harees is not merely a writer. He is a presence.
He has contributed incisive essays to platforms such as Colombo Telegraph, Groundviews, and internationally with Islam 21C, TRT World, and Middle East Monitor. He has graced radio and television, from BBC Berkshire to community panels, and remains a regular invitee to UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office meetings with Sri Lankan diaspora leaders.
His role as Trustee and Director at ACRE (Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality) and as a current director in another UK-based human rights advocacy organisation gives him both grassroots credibility and policy reach.
His past as a visiting lecturer at Sri Lanka’s Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), and published MBA research on job stress in Sri Lanka’s banking sector, suggest a scholar equally at ease in the world of statistics and sociological suffering.
“Islamophobia,” Harees writes, “is no longer an isolated act of hate. It is policy. It is pedagogy. It is media narrative. And yet, tragically, it is often met with resignation by the very communities it targets.”
Muslim In the Dock is thus as much a call to action as it is a literary exposition. In the author’s own words, it is “a bystander’s perspective,” but one laced with urgency — the bystander, after all, cannot stand forever. At some point, he must speak. And Harees does.
In many ways, the book mirrors his experience during the Covid cremation crisis, where he helped spearhead international awareness campaigns, drawing sharp rebukes from officials back home. But Harees remains undeterred. He insists that “writing is resistance.”
This weekend’s book launch at the Sri Lankan Muslim Cultural Centre in Harrow is expected to draw an eclectic crowd — from students to activists, former banking colleagues to curious readers — all united by a shared concern for a community often misrepresented or misunderstood.
Meanwhile, the Colombo launch at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute will mark a rare moment of diasporic literary repatriation. It is symbolic — a son of Galle, now based in the UK, returning not just with a book, but with a body of thought.
In an age where books too often read like placid observations or careful hedges, Muslim In the Dock is a refreshing — if uncomfortable — intervention. Harees does not promise resolution. What he offers is perspective. With the analytical precision of a human rights researcher, the heart of a community activist, and the discipline of an academic, his work belongs on the shelf of anyone serious about understanding the pluralistic — and perilous — world we inhabit.
Indeed, as Britain grapples with its own questions on identity, multiculturalism, and the politics of memory, Harees’s work gains new relevance. For while the dock may be filled with Muslims in his title, the real defendant, one suspects, is the conscience of modern society.
UK launch event is organised by COSMOS, umbrella body of the Sri Lankan Muslim Organisations in the UK
Chief guest
DR Wajid Akhter, Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain
Special Guests
Dr Anas Takkriti, Founder of the UK Muslim think tank, Cordoba Foundation
Dr Rayes Musthafa, chairman of Leicester based Markfield Islamic Institute
Book review to be done by UK based Sri Lankan born award winning journalist Sr Tasnim Nazeer
Sri Lankan launch
20th July from 4.30 pm.
Chief Guest
Hon Hanif Yusuf, Governor Western province
Special guest
Justice Dr Saleem Marsoof, former judge, supreme Court of Sri Lanka
Book review
Ameen Izzadeen, international editor of Sunday Times Sri Lanka.
UK Launch:
Sri Lankan Muslim Cultural Centre, Harrow
Sunday, 29th June 2025
5.30 PM onwards
Sri Lanka Launch:
Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, Colombo
Sunday, 20th July 2025
4.30 PM
Quote of the Day:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
– Desmond Tutu — prominently cited by Harees in Chapter 4.
-By Islamic Affairs Correspondent
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by (2025-06-12 22:00:24)
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