Human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in northwest China’s Xinjiang province are once again in the news. The Chinese Communist Party has come out with new advice when the information found by the UN fact-finding team has been discussed all over the world and it has caused a great loss of image to the Chinese government.
Wang Yang, described as the fourth member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top body, accuses Uyghur Muslims of not moving in the right political direction and that they are not holding up the banner of patriotism. Wang Yang said this to the representatives of the China Islamic Association. He calls upon the Muslim groups to be ready to fully implement the party’s basic vision on religion and the leaders to influence the ranks in this direction. Muslims should be guided by patriotism and equality. He also said that an Islam that is adequate for the Chinese situation is needed. Wang says it means that the government orders it. In China, the party is the government.
Wang Yang’s advice lies at the root of the alienation and persecution experienced by Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims. The problem is that the government does not believe in Muslims. President meets with Imams. China also has good relations with Muslim countries. Everything is fine. But there is a big flaw in the approach towards Muslims. The party is in the citadel of preconceptions. The Chinese government is feeding the Islamophobic narrative that all religious people are sympathizers with terrorists. The big leader in the Politburo is repeating the age-old nonsense that has no basis in fact that if you are religious you have roots somewhere. It should create patriotism; Learn to be a socialist. China should make a mature Islam.
It must be remembered that this is being said to the innocent believers of the religion who have unhesitatingly declared that nationalism and equality of status are part of the faith. A religion that instituted forced almsgiving for a system where everyone wears and wears clothes. A lifestyle that gave women the right to property for the first time in the world. A religion guided by the teachings of the Prophet who took a strong stand against caste discrimination. The community of believers around the world is a proof that Muslims can become good believers by adhering to the social, political and cultural realities of their respective places.
The Chinese government still distrusts the Uyghur Muslims only because they put forward a political demand for more autonomy. The demand was not religious. Xinjiang was formally annexed to China in 1949. The claim at that time was that the status of autonomy was given. The Chinese government has branded the gatherings of Muslims as separatist to assert their religious, cultural and linguistic identity. Doubtful of their patriotism, the Chinese government in the 1950s devised a plan for the comprehensive development of the Uyghur region. The end result of the plan was to smuggle Han Chinese people there. A strategy to alienate the Uyghurs in their own land.
The Han people cultivated the fertile soil of Xinjiang. Army retirees and their families were resettled in the province on government salaries. The Han people permeated the social background of the province. They attacked the Uyghurs under the guise of government protection. They were uprooted from their natural fields of employment. With that, the UN report shows the shocking evidence of the human rights violations committed by the government on Muslims who could not stand.
The most serious finding in the UN report is that crimes against humanity are being committed in Xinjiang. The report states that the system operating in Xinjiang under the guise of a labor training camp is a flagrant torture center. Mental, physical and sexual abuse takes place in the camp, which lacks basic facilities. Youths from Muslim sects who follow religious practices are arrested and thrown in such camps. Here they are being forced to follow the way of life that the Chinese authorities dictate. Those who do not yield to it will have to suffer severe torture.
According to the report, training centers in Xinjiang provide all facilities to those who cooperate with the authorities. The language of China’s responses to this report shows how much it annoys them. So let the Chinese Communist Party leaders learn about Islam before teaching Muslims. Let the world learn what is happening in Xinjiang.