The history of the Uyghur nation is about four thousand years old. This nation is originally a native of independent East Turkestan. East Turkestan is a Central Asian country along the ancient Silk Road, bordered by China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia. The history of Muslim settlement in the region is more than 1300 years old. At the time of China’s emergence as a socialist country under Mao Zedong in 1949, the province’s population was 90 percent Muslim; Currently it is only 45 percent. In 1911, Chinese rule was introduced in East Turkestan with the overthrow of the Manku Empire. But the independent-minded brave Uighurs did not bow before this foreign rule. Because of this, in 1933 and 1944, they gained independence twice by showing extreme bravery with the Chinese. But still fate was not in their favor. They were defeated by the Chinese Communists in 1949 and Xinjiang became the Uyghur Autonomous Province.
Ever since China became an autonomous province, this nation has been subjected to inhuman oppression. The worst thing is that the whole world is very much aware of their inhumanity. According to Freedom Watch, China is one of the most oppressed countries in the world on religious grounds. Due to the lack of freedom of media, the world cannot know much about these oppressions.
According to UN data, as many as 1 million Uighur Muslims are being held in camps in the western Xinjiang region. Human rights organizations say that they are being re-educated in these camps. The Chinese government has named this prison camp as ‘character corrections’. The Chinese government claims that this activity is to provide security and protection from the chaotic situation. It has emerged in the international media that the Chinese government is torturing and torturing these Muslims in the name of character reformatory. According to various sources of the international media, the brutality of the Chinese government on the Uighur Muslims living in Xinjiang province has exceeded the limit. Imprisonment of Muslims has not stopped yet. According to the BBC, women are systematically raped, sexually assaulted and tortured in re-education centers for Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. At the same time, evidence of the Chinese government’s oppressive surveillance of people living in Xinjiang province is becoming increasingly clear.
They are imposing restrictions on regular mobile and internet connections so that this information about Muslim torture cannot go outside China. Travel to Xinjiang province has also been officially banned for domestic and foreign journalists. Recently, the Chinese government is also taking the decision to select any city in Xinjiang province for underground nuclear testing and explosion. Not only the violence, since 1964, about 40 harmful explosions have been carried out without protecting the environment of Xinjiang province. About 2.5 million residents of Xinjiang are staying in various countries of the world, including neighboring countries, in order to escape from the oppression and torture of the Chinese government. The Chinese government is punishing Uyghur Muslims with imprisonment and even death under various pretexts. Not only the torture, but the Chinese government has undertaken a massive program to destroy Muslim heritage and culture, which they are gradually implementing. Some of them are – not allowing any old mosques in Xinjiang province to be renovated. Permission to build new mosques stopped. Renovation of the old mosque can only be approved if the plan to renovate it like a Buddhist temple is accepted.
There is no opportunity for public religious education in Xinjiang. So Uighurs have to take religious education in strict secrecy. The Holy Hajj is being completely discouraged. Through posters, the Chinese government is campaigning to pray at home, not at the mosque. The Chinese government is adopting new plans to destroy the Islamic cultural and values of the Uyghur Muslims. Educational opportunities for Muslims are also severely restricted. They are effectively being kept uneducated. The silence of the Muslim world on this issue raises various questions in the minds of common people. When the Myanmar government killed thousands of minority Muslim Rohingya and expelled seven million Rohingya from the country, the Muslim world was not silent. There was a storm of protest. But the same storm of protest never came over the Uighur question. The hellish attempt to suppress Islam in the western province of Xinjiang has always been silent.
More than 1 million Uighur Muslims have been illegally detained in “concentration camps” in Xinjiang for the mere crime of being Muslim. They are being tortured there in the name of the process of taking them into the mainstream of society with technical training. And the 49 Muslim majority countries of the world have remained almost silent in protest of this repression. Malaysia last year refused to send back a dozen Uighur refugees to China, four members of Kuwait’s parliament protested the persecution of Uighurs in January, and Turkey condemned China’s brutal treatment last month. That’s it, that’s all. The rest did not say anything about the matter, it was better not to say. Apart from Al-Jazeera, the Arab media and even in major Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia have not heard much about it, which can never be a sign of civilization.
The Uyghur Muslim region formerly known as East Turkestan is now in Xinjiang province. The Chinese government named this region Xinjiang. About 1 million Uyghur men and women are imprisoned in secure detention camps in this region of 90 million Muslims. The Chinese government named this detention camp as a character reformatory. The Chinese government claims that this activity is to provide security and protection from the chaotic situation.
It has emerged in the international media that the Chinese government is torturing and torturing these Muslims in the name of character reformatory. According to various international media reports, the Chinese government’s brutality against Uighur Muslims living in Xinjiang province has gone beyond limits.
Imprisonment of Muslims has not stopped yet. Famous Hui Muslim poet Cui Chui Houjin (aka Poet Yiner Aidhaarih) was recently arrested for writing a poem demanding the release of Uighur Muslim prisoners. They are imposing restrictions on regular mobile and internet connections so that these information about Muslim torture cannot go outside China. Travel to Xinjiang province has also been officially banned for domestic and foreign journalists. No Uighur Muslim has yet taken any preventive or self-defensive action against these persecutions by the Chinese government.
Still, the country’s government is diverting the attention of the outside world by labeling Uyghur Muslims as terrorists. However, the government has not found any involvement of Uyghurs with any domestic or international terrorist group.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has undertaken a massive program to destroy Muslim heritage and culture, which they are slowly implementing. Some of them are – not allowing any old mosques in Xinjiang province to be renovated. Not allowing the construction of new mosques. Renovation of the old mosque can only be approved if the plan to renovate it like a Buddhist temple is accepted.
There is no opportunity for public religious education in Xinjiang. So Uighurs have to take religious education in strict secrecy. The Holy Hajj is being completely discouraged.
Through posters, the Chinese government is campaigning to pray at home, not at the mosque. The Chinese government is adopting new plans to destroy the Islamic culture and values of the Uyghur Muslims. Educational opportunities for Muslims are also severely restricted. They are effectively being kept uneducated.
Most recently the Mecca-based Rabita al-Alam al-Islami sent three hundred thousand copies of the Quran translated into the local languages of Xinjiang for free distribution among Muslims. But the communist authorities confiscated all copies. Later they returned some copies under pressure from the international Muslim community.
As a result, the rights of Muslims to practice their religious practices are being limited in China’s most Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province. These informations have come up in human rights and international media.
Recently, the Chinese government has decided to select a city in Xinjiang province for underground nuclear testing and explosion. Since 1964, about 40 harmful explosions have occurred in Xinjiang province without protecting the environment.
According to various media reports, about 2.5 million residents of Xinjiang are staying in neighboring countries and other countries around the world to escape the oppression and persecution of the Chinese government. The government has been imprisoning Uyghur Muslim leaders and even putting them to death under various pretexts. Despite the persecution of Uyghur Muslims, their love for the country is still unwavering. Even in the face of hundreds of tortures and persecutions, patriotism did not wane. They love China. Uighur Muslims want to live with their beloved and holy religion Islam in their own country.
Dr. Ibrahim Islam is an
Islamic scholar.