Chinese atrocities on Uighur Muslims continue as Islamic community maintains strategic silence

Xinjiang province is 1.5 times the size of Pakistan and 12 times more than Bangladesh, and it also borders eight countries, including India, along with 5 other nations where Islam is the largest religion.

New Delhi: China's Xinjiang province is known to have a majority population of Muslims, but people here are devoid of every right to follow their religion. The state is 1.5 times the size of Pakistan and 12 times more than Bangladesh, and it also borders eight countries, including India, along with 5 other nations where Islam is the largest religion. 

Muslims here, known as Uighur Muslims, are not allowed to grow their beards or observe fast in the month of Ramadan, women are not allowed to wear a burqa, and they cannot celebrate their religious festivals. The DNA report will reveal several other facts in today's analysis and will also let you know why Islamic countries maintain a strategic silence against these atrocities while they have waged a war in other parts of the world in the name of Muslim brotherhood.

Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, comprising 50 percent of the population, are considered to be from eastern Turkistan. Till 1949, 90 percent of the population here was from Turkish origin while descendants of the Han dynasty were less than 4 percent. In the ongoing genocide for the last 70 years, the population of Turkish Uighur Muslims is now reduced to 55 percent while Han Chinese people have increased to 45 percent.

China has not only targeted the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, but it has also kept 3 million Muslims of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Turkish descent in different concentration camps. Islamic community across the world has not opened its mouth against this atrocity in China while they were enraged over cartoons on Prophet Mohammed published in a Paris newspaper Charlie Hebdo and they attacked the newspaper's office in 2015 for insulting Islam. 

Muslims of Xinjiang have been continuously saying that they are a free nation, but China has crushed their voice. The people of East Turkistan are also struggling for the last long time, but China has trampled all the protests, as it is now suppressing the voice of democracy in Hong Kong, or had suppressed Tibet.

China had demolished mosques in Xinjiang as it wants to destroy the identity of Muslims living there. Out of about 20 million Muslims living in China, 10 million are Uighur Muslims. According to reports, so far 18 lakh Uighur Muslims have been imprisoned in China, 10 lakh Muslims have been kept in more than 1000 concentration camps, which are called re-education camps. 

In these camps, Uighur Muslims undergo all kinds of atrocities and their organs are reportedly smuggled. Muslim women are also raped, men are forced into sterilization, and children are separated from their parents. 

In the last three years, 10 to 15 thousand mosques have been demolished in Xinjiang province, according to the Uighur Human Rights project report. But Muslims across the world, including India, have failed to raise voice against atrocities on Uighur Muslims of China. 

Many people in India protested when a new law on citizenship law was passed, and recently people belonging to the Muslim community resorted to violent protests in Bengaluru to express their anger against a Facebook post on Prophet Mohammed. 

In the year 2017-2018, when Rohingya Muslims were expelled from Myanmar, it was criticized all over the world, but on the question of atrocities on Muslims in China, even the United Nations avoided the criticism of China.

Muslims in China apparently cannot raise their voices, but countries that have raised the banner of Islam are also silent on this matter. Saudi Arabia, which considers itself to be the leader of Islamic countries, has never spoken on this issue.

Turkey, which wants to replace Saudi Arabia in the Islamic world, has rather preferred to send Uighur Muslims to China if they land upon its territory. Pakistan also avoids the issue of Uighur Muslims and maintains a stoic silence. Malaysia, which vociferously raises Kashmir issue along with Pakistan on global forums, has never flayed China stating that China never responds to criticism.

On the other hand, Iran has stated that China is rather serving Islam by suppressing the voice of these Muslims. 

Notably, 24% of the world's population, 180 crores, resides in 50 countries where Islam is the largest religion, while believers in Christianity are 250 crores. Islam, therefore, is the second-largest religion after Christianity, but 180 million Muslims never speak against China. 

The reasons are obvious: Most of the Islamic countries are afraid of China, which has virtually bought many of these nations through it monetary power. China has invested Rs 4.47 lakh crore in Pakistan. In 2017, China had signed a deal of Rs 5.20 lakh crore with Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. 

Similarly, China is likely to invest Rs 29 lakh crore in Iran, while Malaysia's 45 percent of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) is from China. Not only this, China has also saved the sinking economy of Turkey. China is also the top nation to import oil from Gulf countries, and this primarily is the key reason behind the silence of these countries.

Among the nations that have agreed to be part of China's One Belt One Road project, 30 are Islamic countries.