Beginning from March 15 this year, the United Nations has declared this day as anti-Islamophobia day. The suggestion for this had come from the Organisations of Islamic Conference (OIC) on the prodding of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The UN succumbed to the OIC which in turn had succumbed to Imran khan whose country is in China’s debt-trap. Possibly, it was China’s strategy to play up Islamophobia to counter western countries’ campaign about Uyghur Muslims. The UN has been very cleverly manipulated. It will have at least two effects: (I) every year there will be violent agitations, in countries like Pakistan, against western countries who have been accused of desecration of holy Quran, of printing insulting sketches of Prophet Mohammad or writing against Islam to hurt the feelings of the Muslims. Such agitations may also target other countries like India.
The second effect will be that these agitations will not die down in one day. They will linger on for a long period and generate hate and encourage terrorism. And all this will take away attention from the western campaigns against human rights violations of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
It is doubtful if the OIC made an honest study of Islamophobia. For example, how can writing against Islam become Islamophobia while an order banning Islamic practices, as in Xinjiang, or burning of Italy Quran in Pakistan, is not. It is surprising, or rather hypocritical, that the OIC countries do not see worse than Islamophobia happening in camps of Xinjiang where one and half million Muslims are being forced to unlearn Islam. Chinese call these Muslim terrorists. OIC members believe all that.
A careful study of China’s impositions on Uyghur Muslims create a suspicion that Xinjiang is being used as a laboratory forde-Islamisation. These impositions include discouragement from observing Islamic practices like fast during the holy month of Ramzan, eating of halal meat, giving children Islamic names, dresses for men and women that identify their religion.
China has made a clever decision to use a Muslim country (Pakistan) to counter west’s campaign against human rights violations of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. In September last year, Pakistan led 68 countries at the 51st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council opposing what they called interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights. They said Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet were
China’s internal affairs and there should be no politicisation of human rights and double standards.
China was very happy with this joint statement. Chinese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to UN Chen Xu thanked his Pakistani counterpart Khaib-ur-Rehman Hashmi and requested him to cosponsor a joint statement again during the 52nd session of the council.
The Chinese wanted the joint statement to say: “All human rights should be treated with some emphasis, with sufficient importance attached to economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development in particular.”
In the two joint statements, Pakistan has very conveniently ignored the basic cause of rights violation: Uyghur Muslims’ insistence on living in accordance with their faith (Islam) is not tolerated by the Communist government. As a result, Uyghur Muslims face worst kind of Islamophobia in Xinjiang.
As for the Islamophobia day, will the UN declare a day each for Hinduphobia, for Christian phobia and Jeruphobia because they all face hate, persecution and even extermination in different degrees in different parts of the world?