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Muslim Percecution in China
9-05-2018
When we talk about state-led repression and persecutions of Muslims around the globe, the usual places like Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Syria and the culprits states like Israel, Indian Army, Russians, and Assad make up the top of the list.
The total number of people affected in these four conflicts alone roughly amount to approximately 30 million. However, no one ever mentions where an entire population of approximately 15 Million Chinese Uyghur Muslims who are under siege by the heavy-handed Chinese dictatorship, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), facing cultural genocide.
Yet, there is an eerie silence – not a word – by the public, by champions of human rights in western democracies, and not even Muslim leaders. Not a single Resolution by the United Nations (UN) or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is as if the Chinese Uyghurs do not exist. The entire world has simply turned a blind eye to this colossal human rights abuse and don’t even want to know anything about it. Their lives don’t matter. Their sufferings, tolerable. Their struggles to safeguard their faith, meaningless. WHY?
If there is any Muslim community in the world whose persecutions should be highlighted the most. It is the Chinese Uyghur Muslims, because in all other persecutions the Muslims are being persecuted physically, robbed of land, and worldly possessions and no attempt is made by the aggressor forcing them to denounce their very basic fundamental human right – to believe in one God and ability to worship, pray, fast in Ramadan, etc.
However, the Uyghur Muslims are being forced to denounce their faith or face the worst – death.
According to Uyghur American Association, “East Turkistan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, lies in the heart of Asia. The current territorial size of East Turkistan is 1,626,000 square kilometers (635,000 square miles), which is 4 times the size of California.”
“East Turkistan is the homeland of the Turkic speaking Uyghurs and other central Asian peoples such as Kazaks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Uzbeks, and Tajiks. Uyghurs embraced Islam in A.D. 934 during the Karahanid Kingdom. Kashgar, the capital of the Kingdom, quickly became one of the major learning centers of Islam. Art, the sciences, music and literature flourished as Islamic religious institutions nurtured the pursuit of an advanced culture. In this period, hundreds of world-renowned Uyghur scholars emerged. Thousands of valuable books were written. Among these works, the Uyghur scholar Yusuf Has Hajip's book, Kutatku Bilig (The Knowledge for Happiness, 1069-1070) and Mahmud Kashgari's Divan-i Lugat-it Turk (a dictionary of Turk languages) are most influential.”
“On November 18, 1884, the Manchu Empire formally annexed East Turkistan into its territories and renamed it "Xinjiang" (meaning "New Territory" or "New Frontier"). Uyghur power, stature and culture went into a steep decline after the Manchu invasion.”
In recent years, Chinese government fearing Uyghur separatist groups seeking independence from China have declared its own “War on Terror” against the entire Uyghur population, where no one, small child to and elderly is spared.
It has imposed strict unimaginable restrictions on Uyghur Muslims on practicing their faith, such as praying five times a day to fasting in Ramadan.
According to AlJazeera on Chinese campaign of “Cultural Genocide” it writes, “China tested 45 nuclear devices, both under and above ground, between 1964 and 1996 in East Turkestan, polluting air, water, land, and slowly killing both people and livestock due to the effects of radiation. Uighur resentment toward Chinese rule was further reinforced by China's current policies of cultural "genocide" on Uighur identity, culture, religious beliefs and practices, in addition to Chinese soldiers' extrajudicial and indiscriminate killings of Uighur men, women and children. The Uighurs feel powerless to defend their historic homeland, their way of life, identity, culture, language and religion from Beijing's ever-intensifying onslaught and Chinese settlers appropriating everything that once belonged rightfully to them.”
According to Associated Press (AP) Chinese government have rounded up nearly one million Muslims and detained them internment camps, without judicial process, calling it re-education or indoctrination camps, “
Yet the Silence remains. It is time for Muslims countries that are eager to do business with China to stop and reflect upon their interests and the interest of Muslims Persecuted in China. In the least Speak and condemn Chinese human rights Violations.
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