There are Malay Muslims in Sri Lanka. Exiled there by the Dutch and British due to politics. When it became known to them some actually returned, they were exiled even further. To South Africa.
the Muslims refered in Sri Lanka are not Malay Muslims...they are a very peaceful lot who generally lives in a vicinity called slave colony ,that explains their origin
here are some facts known to me during my earlier travels much before Sri Lanka than known as Ceylon got into ethnic conflict between the Tamils and Sinhalese
The Malays were brought to work by the British from Java ...but there is a dispute between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils who arrived first into Sri Lanka ...remember ,my earlier postings where I mentioned Sinhalese were actually from ancient Kalinga kingdom whose royal princes fled to form the kingdoms in Sri Lanka ,Kedah and Sumatra ..the Native Sinhalese acknowledges this ...that their origin is from Kalinga ...but the Tamils there claims earlier settlements ...there seems to be a wide gap between the Tamils of India and Tamils of Sri Lanka..just as Hinduism practised in Bali Indonesia and Hinduism in India itself
there are these Tamils among us too...they are called the Ceylonese and we do have a Ceylon road in Katong ...our notable current leader is Tharman .who is a ceylonese Tamil and not from India...practically, all the railway station masters during the British belongs to this typos ,Rajaretnam is one
now ,to the Muslims of Sri Lanka ...they called themselves Moors but speak Tamil ...and they are just like the Chinese of the Nanthah so as to speak...almost everyone engaged in some form of business ,..and these Muslims do not see eye to eye with Indian Muslims...the gem trade or the rubies which Sri Lanka is famous for even in the tales of Sinbad the Jewish sailor ,is monopolized by these Muslims...and I had occasion to meet them in Bangkok in Silom area as well
my guesstimate is ,that they are the descendents of ancient Arab traders from Yemen