In August, a United Nations human rights panel said it had received many credible reports that a million or more Uighurs and other minorities are being held in what resembles a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy” in Xinjiang.
China says it is not enforcing arbitrary detention and political re-education.
Aside from the mass detentions, rights groups also say that the Chinese government has significantly raised limitations on everyday religious observances in the region.
Last month, the region’s capital Urumqi launched a campaign targeting halal products, like food and toothpaste, which are produced according to Islamic law, in order to prevent what it sees as the incursion of Islam into secular life.
Just as the Chinese government forced Uighur restaurants to stay open during Ramadan, it is making it ever more difficult for Muslims to avoid what is haram. The Chinese government is now targeting what it calls “pan-halalization.” This is done by making sure that non-halal foods are present everywhere, including schools, hospitals, and government canteens. Those who are government employees, according to official reports, “should not have any diet problems” — meaning that if you work for the government, you should be willing to eat regular, non-halal foods. And “work canteens will be changed so that officials could try all kinds of cuisine” — which means, of course, trying out foods that are strictly haram.
After more than a year of witnessing the ratcheting up of the campaign to restrict the practice of Islam in Xinjiang — those shorn beards, those confiscated Qur’ans replaced by edited versions, those banned babies’ names, those dancing imams in the public square, those re-education camps, Muslim countries have remained remarkably silent. Some, such as Egypt, have even sent Uighurs back to China, where they undoubtedly faced prosecution. Even when a Pakistani government official finally issued, in late September, a statement about the crackdown in Xinjiang, in late September, it was only to urge that there be a “softening of restrictions” on the Uighurs — with no details given, and that the Chinese government exercise “patience” in dealing with the Uighurs — in other words, the mildest of protests.
The silence is understandable. Chinese are big buyers of oil and gas from Muslim countries. They are also providers of large amounts of both foreign aid and investment, and Pakistan, in particular, economically on the ropes and so reliant on Chinese investment and aid, cannot afford to alienate Beijing.
Finally, at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, not Muslim but Western countries spoke out about the re-education camps:
China faced calls on Tuesday [Nov. 6] from Western government to end its mass detention of Uighur Muslims, but brusquely rebuffed the concerns as “not factual” and “politically driven.”
“China is here to seek cooperation,” said its vice foreign minister, Le Yucheng, at the opening of a review by the United Nations Human Rights Council. He pointed to China’s achievements in lifting millions of people from poverty, largely skirting its treatment of ethnic minorities.
The focus and tone changed after North American and European diplomats expressed concern over deteriorating human rights and a crackdown in the western region of Xinjiang that has swept upwards of a million people into indefinite detention in re-education camps. The Muslim detainees are told that they are infected with an “ideological virus,” and are indoctrinated in devotion to the state and the Communist Party.
Representatives of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and other countries called for an end to the detention of Uighurs and members of other minority groups, and urged respect for freedom of religion, expression and association.
Here is something to bring up, whenever Muslim propagandists tell us how aggrieved they feel at the “colonialist” and “anti-Muslim” West and its “islamophobic” peoples. Remind them that it was that West — NATO forces, led by the United States — that rescued the Muslim Bosnians from the Serbs. (Whether that policy was folly is a different question.) Remind them that the Americans have spent 5.6 trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan. The Americans wanted only to end the despotic rule of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, of the fanatical Taliban in Afghanistan, and also to help Pakistan, which has proven to be a meretricious ally, to fight the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorists, while remaining economically afloat. At least 5.6 trillion dollars — keep reminding yourself and the world’s Muslims — has been spent since 9/11 to improve the lives of Muslims. Mention, too, the colossal sums — in the tens of billions — the United States has spent since 2001 on economic and security aid to Egypt, to Jordan, to Pakistan, and other Muslim-majority countries. Note, and re-note, that of the six top recipients of American aid, five are Muslim countries.
And then, as a final fillip, point out that it was the West — the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia — that raised with China the issue of the re-education camps for Muslim Uighurs, while the representatives of Muslim countries sat on their hands. That might, if only temporarily, shame the International Islamic Grievance Committee into a chastened silence.
SamB says
The halalization of pork is interesting…Muslims must now pause for a moment and internalize the integrity of Western governments as opposed to the Chinese. The behaviour of the Chinese towards Muslims is astounding. Tienanmen Square comes to mind…the Chinese do not give damn about personal liberties unless is it conforms to their doctrine. Now Muslim tell me do you appreciate the West(ern) doctrine?
Emma says
Muslims admire dictatorships and is the reason why their countries are almost all totalitarian. Islam itself discourages all forms of self reflection that could lead to inner moral standards based on a conscience.
abad says
+1
Dimitri says
Same tactics as used in Islamic countries against Christians is being used here
UNCLE VLADDI says
Re: “The behaviour of the Chinese towards Muslims is astounding. Tienanmen Square comes to mind…the Chinese do not give damn about personal liberties unless is it conforms to their doctrine.”
AU CONTRAIRE.
I find it to be the restraint of the Chinese government towards these global crime-gang members which is truly astounding. Unlike our treasonous “leaders,” the Chinese seem to instinctively understand the threat islam presents. Now, maybe it’s only because the Chinese government are also criminal gangsters, who recognize a rival when they see one, but nevertheless they still have a perfectly legal right to resist it.
Everyone who defends islam and muslims endorses crime.
Endorsing crime IS a crime, so those doing it are criminals.
Right in the Qur’an is: the obligation to murder Jews and Christians (Surah 9:29), to terrorize all non-Muslims (8:12), to rape young girls (65:4), to enslave people for sex (4:3), to lie about one’s true goals (3:54), and the command to make war on all the infidels (9:123) and subjugate the entire world to Allah (9:33).
Are death-threats legal? NO.
Is extortion legal? NO.
Is slavery legal? NO.
Is murder legal? NO.
Is rape legal? NO.
THEN ISLAM IS ILLEGAL!
Rape, slavery, robbery, extortion and murder are never OK!
Everything muslims pretend to see as “holy” is already a crime!
So nobody has a legal right to practice islam anywhere on earth!
Jeff says
Well said sir!
Chand says
UNCLE VLLADI : “……..because the Chinese government are also criminal gangsters.”
Well, which one isn’t criminal?
The Chinese govt today are descendants of a party that found a very unpleasant and very violent and chaotic solution to the hell that their country folks had descended into. You know, lawlessness, warlordism, abject, grinding poverty, civil strife, constant wars, severe exploitation by colonial powers, opium addictions, you name it. Needed radical surgery and these ‘Red bandits’ provided it.
Who else would have done it? Not the liberal democracies of Europe and America as they were partners in the crime of impoverishing China. Russia had just then provided a possible solution, however imperfect and terrible, by Lenin and the Chinese followed it.
Present day govts in the continents of America or Australia are descendants of European colonialists who took over the lands by violent means. And then in the case of North America ‘gangsters’ fought against the colonial power Britain to gain independence. So they too are ‘criminal gangsters’, right?
the fact is all govts have to get established by some violence and struggle, at least initially. Also called revolutions. All legitimacy ultimately emanates from the ‘barrel of the gun’, in Mao’s words.
Wellington says
I don’t at all admire the Chinese government and am certain it means to compete with America for superpower status (actually it’s in the process of doing this right now). China also steals Western technology with regularity and manipulates its currency in an unethical way. So, there is much about China that turns me off but they are a strong horse and the one thing the Islamic world admires, per Osama bin Laden, is a strong horse. I also don’t think you have to abandon human rights as China has in order to be a strong horse. Free and decent countries can be strong too but right now so many Western nations have gone sappy, in effect have become weak horses, and the Islamic world knows this only too well.
abad says
My guess it’s not just for their government, but more as a defender of Chinese culture.
Compare east Asian countries with those of western Europe, you won’t find a lot of Moslem power in them. Japan is probably least affected by the “Syrian Refugee”(TM) nonsense. I’ve no idea what the status of Moslems is in the Koreas – probably next to none in North Korea, maybe one or two in South Korea.
It needs to be said, but:
Islam can never be a part of Chinese culture, Islam is not inherently Chinese.
And if the Uighers prove to be an ongoing problem on Chinese soil, well, China can always send them to Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Truthseeker says
Greetings,
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the long term. According to Google/Wiki/CIA internet pages there are 20 million Muslims in China. Fifteen years before Muhammad died, even 2-3 years before Muhammad migrated to Medina, Muslims were making contact with China. Muslim traders quickly moved along the Silk Road and established a Mosque in Wuhan about 750 AD, the Eastern terminus of the Silk Road and the then Imperial capital. Other major early Mosques also sprang up around the port of Hong Kong. In 1070 AD a Song Emperor (according to Wiki) invited 5,300 Muslim men from Bukhara to settle along the Southern boarder of China to serve as a buffer against the Liao people. All this is to say that there is not an “insignificant population of Muslims in China” that is fairly dispersed and that the eradication of such a belief system is by no means a certainty.
How belief systems change and advance over time is an interesting study in History and Social Psychology. Does the Flat Earth Society lose because it becomes “patently untrue”?
Must in the “Clash of Civilizations” one people be ethnically cleansed as per my ancestors with Tecumseh’s people at the Battle of Tippecanoe, or Andrew Jackson driving out the Cherokee in the “Trail of Tears”? And while the shrill war cries of the Apache and Sioux have been silenced through reservation and “re-education processes” have the spiritual gems of their cultures been uplifted in schools across the US, in the Boy Scouts Order of the Arrow and in countless Pow-Wows held most weekends in the US?
Must an ideology like Prussian and Samurai militarism be annihilated through a crushing military defeat so the Phoenix of peaceful trade and cooperation rise from its ashes? (Noting that the German and Japanese people did not rise up to cast off their oppressors, and that Hitler NEVER gave up till the last hour and the Japanese high command was split down the middle as to give up or fight on after the fire bombing of Tokyo and two atomic bombs – shades of Monty Pythonism.)
Can a passion for a more humane future be advanced by force of reason, wisdom, compassion and perseverance, in the end winning over hearts and minds as per abolitionists trying to eradicate slavery or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. putting his life on the line for new visions of racial possibilities?
Or could there be totally unexpected interventions from a spiritual realm that would enable a nomadic shepherd named Abraham to shine forth for thousands of years because He challenged the Flat Earth like belief that idols should not be worshipped, but that True Reality lay in the hands of a loving, All-Knowing Spiritual Creating Essence? Or a teacher whispering in the ear of an Indian prince in the height of battle attract hearts and minds forever? Or a stammering Jew raised in the court of Pharaoh, assisted only by His brother and His staff, prevail against the “supposed embodiment of the sun god himself”? Or would the ideas of a wandering mystic who came to rest under a bodhi tree also be fondly cherished? Or a Jewish Carpenter brazen enough to drive the money changers from the Temple to establish a new deeper spirituality be more powerful in conquering the hearts and minds of the Roman leadership than the Zealots who rose up in 70 AD against Roman occupation to restore the honor and dignity of Jerusalem? (The Zealots being first cousins to ISIS?)
All of this is to suggest that change will and does happen.
All of this is also to suggest that it happens in ways that we totally do not expect nor would bet on any success.
There are those who pray for China to succeed. To whom are such prayers directed and how do they work? While I too hope that a Higher Power can bring peace and harmony to the planet I am not sure such a power would totally endorse the CCP.
There are those who say Muhammad was the seal of the Prophets, but he says he is the seal only of the Nabi (lessor Prophets like Elijah), not the seal of the Rasu’llah (Messenger with a Book)? (Ref. Surah 39).
There are those who say God’s hand is chained up, that there will never be another Messenger. There are those who say God’s hand can never be chained up, it is always above all of our hands.
There are those who say we as a species are just coming out of adolescence, wrestling (indeed mud wrestling) with what it means to live effectively as adults on the “Third Rock from our Sun” in what is a very tiny solar system, in one of millions or billions of galaxies. In the last 200 years we have overcome great, great calamities. I hope and pray we will learn together how to overcome these most challenging of issues and lay an enduring foundation for a peaceful planet.
Respectfully yours, Truthseeker
(Greetings Wellington and Gravenimage, I have only been lurking for a long time.)
gravenimage says
+1
Kepha says
@Wellington: Excellent comments.
On the other side of China, Chinese authors have now published works questioning Japan’s right to the Ryukyu Islands. Apparently, satisfied that the world will allow them to occupy Taiwan in the not-too-distant future, they figure they can carry their irredentism further. American commentators take this challenge to the Ryukyus as part of Japan as less than serious, but I do not. One of the wonderful things about a totalitarian state is that whatever gets published and openly disseminated is published and disseminated with the approval of the government. I take this as Beijing believing that the time is not too far off when it can challenge the USA for the mastery of the Pacific.
@abad–Islam actually has been part of China since shortly after its birth. While the Uighurs get noticed for their separtism, there is a large Islamic population called Hui, who are Sinitic in language and general culture. This population has generally identified with the Chinese state, and when they rose in revolt against the newly installed Communist government in the early 1950’s, it was in support of the Nationalist regime. Official China has had some recent problems with Hui Muslims as well, but this is more a matter of the Hui seeking greater religious liberty under the Chinese state rather than separation.
Westman says
The Muslim detainees are told that they are infected with an “ideological virus….”
What a great description of Islam – like an earworm, reinforced so many times that it never stops playing.
I picked up a Quran on the beach, held it to my ear, and heard, “love muhammad or burn, Jew bad, Christian bad, unbeliever bad, woman inferior like dog – stops prayers, take over the world, hate unbelivers, Allah loves torturing….”
Perhaps the best thing to come out of China’s OBOR project will be Islam running into opposition that is not undercut by liberals who have no comprehension of Islam’s ideology. China knows the exact nature of Islam and that Islam creates incompetence, a factor China will exploit at the right time.
DHazard says
All I can think of are all the non-political, half assed Uighur Muslims caught up in China’s scorched earth policy towards dissidence of any kind. These closeted apostates have no way out of the mess Muhammad started. China has looked at the whole picture of Islam and has decided that reshaping it to conform to their society, rather than the other way around, is in the best interests of the Chinese. The silence from Muslim countries may also be part of the human tendency to overlook the faults of you enemy’s competitor. In any case, it will be interesting to see if Islam is completely eradicated from China or if they will leave a shell of the former culture, so tourists can take pictures and China’s numerous Napoleon’s can say, “look, we’re tolerant”.
Kepha says
China is also unkind to Christians, the few Jews resident in China, Buddhists who start wondering if the time of the Mi-le-fo (Maitreya) is near (think Falun Gong), people who want political pluralism, independent labor organizations, writers and artists who fail to follow the Party Line, etc. It is tolerant of those who extend their irredentism beyond the Taiwan issue; racial chauvinists; etc. Never forget that the Chinese state is the world’s last, best hope for 20th century totalitarianism.
janwog says
Islam respect only strong governments, thus not the West.
Free Radical (@orbitalsymmetry) says
Why bother with criticism of China? We need to do that same thing here in the west!
janwog says
One has to learn from the Chinese how to manage anti-social activity of Islam.
Chand says
However unpleasant and harsh, the Chinese way to counter the threat of jihad seems fair and humane. They treat all religions equally.
They are correct, in my opinion, to try and purge all organized religions and unproven mythical ideas from the minds of the masses.
The muslims there will ultimately benefit from it as they will be purged of the harms that religionscan cause.
seabird says
We were told by our US Govt. that if we just “worked with” the Chinese Govt. they would
become rich capitalists and overthrow the
Chinese communists for democracy- wrong; we ended up with rich communists who are becoming an increasing threat.
We were also told the same for Islamic countries-whoops, wrong again, almost all the
Islamic countries we “worked with” have become more “orthodox” Like SArabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brunei etc.
With the growing threat of Islam spreading their criminal ideology through financed Mosques and organizations all over America (and the World);
is it too much to ask the Govt. to terminate their tax exempt status?
Will the US Govt. take any substantive action
to revise their failed policies and protect its citizens from this growing threat?