Uighurs: The inconvenient Muslims

‘Politics will help you understand the world until you don’t understand it anymore, and then it will get you thrown into a prison camp. Politics and religion both’ penned Heather Morris.  These words can be found between the pages of her novel ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ based on the life of Ludwig Eisenberg; three years of in-depth interviews disclosed the horrors witnessed and experienced by the Jewish Tätowierer. Over six million Jews were put to death as a result of ideological and systematic state-sponsored prosecution and mass murder by the Nazi Germany regime. Gas chambers, starvation, mutilation, no brutality was left untouched. When the truth came to light, the world was horrified.

On 1^st November 2005 during the 42nd plenary session the United Nations General Assembly in passing resolution 60/7 designated 27^th January as the ‘International Holocaust Remembrance Day’- the day Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Red Army- to commemorate the Second World War tragedy. Three years later, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, observing the day stated: ‘we must also go beyond remembrance…we must do our utmost so that all peoples may enjoy the protection and rights for which the United Nations stands.’ The world was in consensus; such brutality must never go unnoticed again. But today Uighur Muslims in China may be suffering the same fate and once again the world has done little to halt the atrocities.

The China Cables, a small collection of Chinese government documents leaked by exiled Uighurs to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that more than one million Uighur Muslims are being held captive inside camps within the western Xinjiang region. Close examination of satellite imagery by Reuters revealed that the thirty-nine camps almost tripled in size between April 2017 and August 2018 now covering a total area roughly the size of 140 soccer fields. Germany-based Xinjiang researcher Adrian Zenz found that construction spending on security-related facilities in Xinjiang increased by 20 billion yuan in 2017- that is roughly over $2.96 billion. Within the walls of these camps the Uighur Muslims are said to be undergoing atrocious ‘re-education’ programs to relinquish their faith and pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party.

Rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have maintained that the Chinese government is guilty of subjecting the Muslims to torture, starvation as well as forced sterilization. According to a report by Radio Free Asia released in November 2019, a forced-living arrangement between Han Chinese men and Uighur Muslim women has been likened to ‘mass rape’. Other claims of brutality also include the harvesting of organs from living prisoners. The underlying aim has been identified as the eradication of Islam; arrests over the possession of a Quran, destruction of more than 15,000 mosques (as per UHRP), toilets built over mosque sites (as per RFA), more than 45 Muslim cemeteries desecrated (as per AFP).

Uighur activist, Rushan Abbas, whose family members have been forcefully detained in the Xinjiang camps for more than a year, insists China’s ongoing crackdown against the country’s ethnic minority can be termed nothing but genocide. The Chinese Government, on the other hand, has defended the program as an exercise for unity calling them centres for ‘vocational education and training programs.’ But let us not forget, originallyNazi concentration camps like Dachau, Birkenau, Wedel, and others were also constructed as work camps with the intention of housing incarcerated prisoners for reformation as opposed to extermination camps; the ‘Final Solution’ in the form of gas chambers came much later. Accordingly, on the entrance gates of many of these camps, the words ‘Arbeit MachtFrei’– i.e. hard work will set you free- can still be found.

Expressing alarm over the genocide UN has demanded ‘unfettered access to China’s ‘educational’ camps housing the Uighur Muslims. To date, this demand still remains unfulfilled as China enjoys the silence bought from its allies including Pakistan. When Prime Minister Imran Khan, a proud advocate of Islamic principles, was questioned about the plight of the Uighur Muslims at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he first claimed to not ‘know much about’ the scale of the abuse. Upon the reporter’s insistence he acknowledged Pakistan’s special relationship with China stating ‘China has helped us. They came to help us when we were at rock bottom, and so we are really grateful to the Chinese government.’ But drawing upon Islam and calling out injustice cannot be righteous solely when convenient.

Surah An-Nisa clearly states: ‘And what is the matter with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and for the oppressed among men, women, and children who say, “Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself a protector and appoint for us from Yourself a helper?”’(Quran 4:75). If ignorance is bliss, silence is inadvertent participation in oppression. Unlike in the case of Kashmir, pointing out the ethnic cleansing of Uighur Muslims would be inconvenient for Pakistan given the benefits we seek to reap from CPEC. Many have called the Uighur Muslim genocide as pure propaganda by the USA to destabilize China and its relations with the world including Pakistan. The veracity of the ethnic cleansing allegations may be subjected to scepticism but the burden to dispel the claims lies with China by providing unrestricted access to the camps.

The possible genocide of Uighur Muslims by the Chinese government is a concern Pakistan should raise vigorously- not merely as a formality. We must demand an investigation into the matter instead of feigning ignorance. The pursuit of economic progression at the expense of human lives is repugnant.  Pak-China ties must be strengthened and CPEC propelled forward for mutual benefit, but with a clean conscience. If we can stand for our Kashmiri brethren on the basis of religion then we too must stand in solidarity with Uighur Muslims even if it is inconvenient.