The Uighurs and Oppressor China

7 decades after a holocaust by nazi Germany, the whole world come forward to stay united against any Human right violation, anywhere in the world, but, there is still a large scale crime against humanity to which United Nations described as the worst human rights violation since world war- 2, but the world fails to stop this.

The world stands silent against a country with expansionist policy, who is responsible for Wuhan virus pandemic, traps poor countries with its dept trap policy, helps Pakistani terrorist in United Nation Security Council and other international forums, interferes in internal matters of other countries and tries to destabilize peace and stability in South Asia region.

Yes, I am talking about China and its torture against Uighur Muslims and the silence of the international community over the human rights violation of Uighurs and their cultural genocide. Especially, those nations who call themselves as the collective voice of Muslims of the world and flag bearer of Muslim rights.

The Uighurs are mostly Muslims of Turkish ethnicity who regard themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. The majority lives in Xinjiang( The largest province of China), where they are about 11M and almost 2m are in jail. Those who are not in jail are covered with a network of surveillance including police, checkpoints and cameras that scan everything from number plates to individual faces. The Uighur community also found in Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and Kazakhstana and in Australia. The Uighurs have their own language and culture but China imposing the Chinese language and Chinese cultural on them.

A demonstrator wearing a mask painted with the colours of the flag of East Turkestan and a hand bearing the colours of the Chinese flag attends a protest to denounce China’s treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims. | Ozan Kose/AFP

People demonstrate against China in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 6, 2018. (Reuters Archive)

The Xinjiang was declared itself independent in the 20th century but Communist party of China annexed Xinjiang and brought it under the control of China in 1949. In 1949, there were 76% of Uighurs in Xinjiang and Han Chinese were 6% but in 2020 the Xinjiang consists of 40% of Han Chinese and 42% of Uighurs. The Uighurs are the victims of forced assimilation. As per the communist party of China, the Xinjiang is an autonomous part of China but in reality, the province has little autonomy from China.

Uighurs living in Turkey protest against China’s oppression of Muslim Uighurs in far-western Xinjiang province, in Ankara, Turkey, Feb. 5, 2018 (AP photo by Burhan Ozbilici).

In 2017, the General Secretary of the Chinese communist party, Xi Jinping issued a directive that “religion in China must be Chinese in orientation and adopt themselves to socialist society.” This directive led to a fresh crackdown on religious practice that particularly affected the Uighurs. China sent jails to the Uighurs and tell the world that it is doing it to stop extremism, but in reality in the detention camps, China forces the Uighurs to learn the Communist principal and Mandarin. The Uighurs stay there without food, water and sleep. When they free, they are subjected to open camera surveillance where they cannot wear their traditional clothes and cannot celebrate their festivals.

A young Uighur man who risked severe punishment to take a video of himself in detention in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and his aunt, who sent the video out of the country, have both “disappeared,” according to the man’s uncle.

On 6th Aug 2020, the BBC published a nearly five-minute video showing Merdan Ghappar, a 31-year-old Uighur model for Chinese online retailer Taobao, shackled to a bed in filthy living conditions while political slogans are played over a loudspeaker outside his barred window.

A screenshot from a video taken by Merdan Ghappar that purportedly shows his hand shackled to a bed while in detention in Xinjiang’s Aksu province, in January 2020. (Courtesy of Abdulhakim Ghappar)

It is unknown how Ghappar managed to get hold of a mobile phone while being subjected to intense scrutiny by authorities. He used the phone to send gory details of the atrocities meted out to Uighur Muslims in the camps via the Chinese app WeChat, until the communication abruptly stopped one day.

Why Xinjiang is important to China?

1. It is the largest province of China, roughly this size of Iran, 1.5 times size of Pakistan and 12 times size of Bangladesh and shares border with 8 countries.
2. It is strategically most important because it is the roadway to central Asian countries and Europe for China and It is in the heart of Xi Jinping’s Dream project BRI.
3. It has 1/3rd of China’s total gas reserve, gives 60% of China’s total cotton output and it has 38% of China’s total coal reserve.

In order to take the benefit of the region the Wuhan virus producer, China continues to do the massacre of Uighurs from last7 decades.

Protest after: “Islamic scholar Mohammed Salih killed in Chinese concentration camps. We want justice.” Muhammad Salih Hajim, 82, died in custody back in January, about 40 days after he, his daughter and other relatives were detained in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. They were held without charges being laid. He was the first to translate the Quran into Uyghur.

There are investments in the Xinjiang region and which created a lot of jobs but the jobs are taken by Han Chinese, the mass immigration of Han Chinese in the Xinjiang region made Uighurs Minority in that region.

But, why the Muslim world is silent, the reason is simple Chinese cheque book brought Silence from those nations.

5 major Muslim power Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Turkey and Pakistan, all are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC). OIC is the collective voice of Muslim Rights but when it comes to China it becomes the collective defender of China’s genocide of Muslims.

last year July, 22 western nations raised concern over the human rights violation by the Chinese government in Xinjiang region but after that 37 nations defended China and called it as a way to suppress the terrorism surprisingly 14 of those 37 nations were Muslim majority nation and members of OIC.

Cartoon by Rebel Pepper

Saudi Arabia: Riyad Chosen Chinese money over Uighurs. China is one of the largest importers of crude oil. in 2019, the Saudi crown prince went to China and when he was asked about Uighurs, the said: “China has every right to take anti-terrorism and de-extremism measures to safeguard national security.”

Turkey: Erdogan wants to be the leader of the Muslim world, who gave false and fake statement about Kashmir at UNGA and converting museums into mosques, never speaks about Uighurs because he need help of China to revive his shrinking economy. Turkey also said to the Uighurs in Turkey to went back to China.

Malaysia: A country who did not refuse to give shelter to a radical televisionalist and say India an unsafe place for him never speak up for Uighurs.

Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei claims that he speaks for Muslim rights, recently he launched twitter handles in different languages one in Hindi too but not a single one in mandarin. Iran speaks for the Government of China because Teheran needs the help of Beijing to Counter Washington.

Pakistan: The biggest hypocritic nation in the world. The whole country depends on China and according to Imran Khan, the future of Pakistan lies with China. The country always spread fake propaganda against Kashmir and Indian Muslims stay silence of Uighurs. Whenever he was asked about Muslims he says one thing: “we do not know much about them(Uighurs).”

The leading Muslim countries have their buckets filled with Chinese cash. Someone rightly said Beggers cannot be protesters. Muslim solidarity is a foreign policy tool for these countries and they use this whenever it suits them.

In 28 august 2020, Dhaka witnessed protest against China’s treatment of Uighurs, on 22 Dec 2019, hong kong protestors rally for Uighurs, In 2019, Indonesia also witnessed protest against China. In Aug 2020, the Indian American protest against Chinese aggression and Treatment of Uighurs, there are many cases of protest but the work can only be done by Leaders. The world needs to stand together against China.