CHINA AND THE MUSLIM LEADERS: 'Saint Beijing' can do no wrong; a head-spinning display of ego-centrism!
Mourning the killing of a loved one. Image source Uighur Netherlands
If you're wondering why the Muslim world isn't outraged over China's mass killings and incarcerations of the Uighurs, forget outrage. Most Muslim leaders were among the 37 countries that applauded China's horrifying persecution of millions of Uighur Muslims calling it "remarkable achievements in the field of human rights." These include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Syria and even the otherwise refined Algeria. There has never been a signed joint statement from the smallest group of Muslim states to the UN Human Rights Commission condemning China for oppression of minority Uighur Muslims.
After all, it's discernible that most of those Muslim states in this callous group of 37 are also the ones who have the Palestinian issue placed lowest in their list of priorities for decades. Apparently the malady of self-absorption is intrinsic with little respect for rank or courage.
For the Uighurs, those concentration camps (dubbed "re-education camps") forcing millions into penal servitude might be the lesser of their woes. They are living in permanent fear of random detention, arrests and fatal beatings. Anyone expressing their Muslim identity is doomed, to the extent they are not permitted to select traditional Muslim names for their children. That's considered to be "illegal" with some of the harshest of penalties imaginable. It goes beyond coerced assimilation such as forced consumption of alcohol and pork and cutting off long dresses in public. The ultimate goal is extermination, similar to the policy in genocidal Myanmar. Uighur mothers forced to abort their unborn babies is no rare occurrence. The practice began in 2010 (or earlier) and has gotten worse ever since. A couple of years ago shortly prior to the month of Ramadan, Indonesia needed to send a special request to the Chinese government to allow the Uighurs to fast.
A Uighur mother holds the tiny feet of her unborn baby she was forced to abort.
Image source: Islam in Ukraine
Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan, views himself as the intrepid and unwavering kingpin championing the cause of Muslims. But during his recent visit to China his statement was jaw-dropping, that the Uighurs were "living happily" despite the anger of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Turkish people over China's treatment of Uighurs. The Foreign Ministry pressured Erdogan repeatedly to take up the issue with Beijing. That made Beijing furious and Erdogan yielded like a timid lil kitty.
Grieving Uighur women at Xinjiang. Only The Almighty would know the atrocity they have endured.
Image source Affinity Magazine
Pakistan's deafening silence has been similar if not worse, etching an ugly blemish on the country's self-respect. In northern Pakistan there are approximately 2,000 Uighurs who immigrated from China back in the 19th century. Though a very small community, China is aware of their presence in Pakistan and isn't comfortable with it. Many have disappeared in detention camps in China without a trace. They received no assistance from Islamabad. On the contrary, Pakistan government has been complacent over Chinese embassy officials spying overtly on Uighurs from Pakistani soil. In northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi there was a guesthouse close to the busy silk stores of China Market. The privately owned guesthouse was built for Uighurs on transit from China on their way to perform Hajj in Mecca. It was shut down 13 years ago at the behest of the Chinese government. The small Uighur community doesn't feel much safer in Pakistan than their relatives do in Xinjiang. Even the slightest criticism of China's policy inside Pakistan can get them in deep trouble.
Though all of Saudi Arabia's requirements are met by the U.S. with care and excellence, yet that's not enough. The Kingdom needs more. It needs China as a standby as well.
Even those who have themselves suffered as victims of profound injustice such as Syria couldn't care less for injustice endured by others. Undoubtedly Bashar al-Assad has proven himself not just successful but undaunted and gutsy as a leader in the face of all odds, handling one of the most calamitous proxy wars in the history of the Middle-East. But these long years of bloodshed in his country have left him stony and pitiless in regard to human suffering from a broader perspective. Some of his below-the-belt gestures have been baffling. His government supported Myanmar's genocide against the Rohingyas, sided with New Delhi intensifying its persecution of Muslims of Indian occupied Kashmir, and hasn't expressed too many words of concern for the widespread death and destruction in war-torn Yemen even though AnsarAllah is a close ally of HezbAllah which has played a pivotal role defending Syria. One may wonder if he has any heart left even for the Palestinians any longer, though 'once upon a time' Syria was the safest sanctuary for the persecuted and long-suffering Palestinians. The example of Assad's apparent paranoia of the suffering endured in the rest of the Muslim world is another policy-goal of the New World, unleashing utter chaos and keeping our leaders under unrelenting pressure for prolonged periods, snatching away much of their fraternal compassion.
Image source Business Insider
At the end of the day, everything boils down to low cost trade, economic assistance and transportation - namely the Belt and Road Initiative where all land routes pass through Xinjiang. It would be catastrophic to annoy Beijing. Even the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has been mute, shaming its own title. Chinese investment is more vital than defending the honor of their mothers and sisters. If there were no Belt and Road, no CPEC, no "made in China" labels on those cheap and substandard commodity products, you bet there would be calls for a jihad against Beijing. Howbeit, convenience talks louder than values. Pragmatic? Yes, but it's so darn grotesque, like they never knew Faith requires humanity, cohesion and recognition (at the minimal) of the intense tyranny inflicted on your defenseless fellow Muslims.
Pro-U.S. government sources taking advantage of this unsightly scenario have been ridiculing the aspect of Muslim solidarity alluding to the hypocrisy of Muslim leaders. That too is misperceived. It's the people who may aspire for solidarity, not those leaders who have long quit the idea of a pan-Islamic linkage.
Image source Daily Express
Malaysia has been one of the very few Muslim states plucky enough to defy Beijing, nullifying the government's $21 billion East Coast Rail Link project with China Communications Construction Co. The official reason for cancellation was its very high cost. But PM Mahathir Mohamed's decision was a resounding blow to China's economic diplomacy. Last fall, he also released 11 Uighurs detainees who fled to Malaysia from a Thai prison. The Malaysian PM sent them to Turkey, ignoring Beijing's insistence to extradite them to China.
Though Iran hasn't taken steps as bold as Malaysia for fear of exacerbating the existing crisis of sanctions / isolation and the noise of war drums .. at least she has refrained from being among those 37 countries that did the abominable. If one isn't in a suitable position to condemn or confront tyranny, at the least they can refrain being a party to it. Fair enough. But those Muslim states that neither denounced nor refrained, rather joined the group of 37 applauding oppression and torture, dubbing them as "achievements of human rights" did the unforgivable.
Image source DAWN Pakistan (link not available at the moment)
The toughest war we are fighting in planet Earth at the moment is the tussle between human values and economic perks with debilitating terms. The latter seems to be winning, unfortunately. The queen of all tragedies: Despite catering to tyrants, the fake 'Islamic' republic of Pakistan continues to remain cash strapped, bogged down with monetary / moral corruption and feudal bullying.