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Muslim nations remain silent??China jails Muslims

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Printed Date: March 28 2024 at 1:45am


Topic: Muslim nations remain silent??China jails Muslims
Posted By: carbon20
Subject: Muslim nations remain silent??China jails Muslims
Date Posted: December 23 2018 at 12:45pm
Why Muslim nations remain silent as China sends ethnic minorities to re-education camps
By Tasha Wibawa
Updated yesterday at 9:55am

A police officer speaks to a man as security forces keep watch behind them.
PHOTO: Re-education was often used by Chinese leaders in the past to force cooperation. (Reuters: Thomas Peter)
RELATED STORY: US company selling clothes made in Chinese 'concentration camps'RELATED STORY: US and Australia call on China to close Uighur re-education campsRELATED STORY: 'Absolutely massive': China's secret detention camps seen from spaceRELATED STORY: Inside China's 'vocational training centres'
Beijing's crackdown on its ethnic Muslim-minority Uyghurs has been met with international condemnation, however some very significant voices have remained silent — those of Muslim nations.

Key points:
Muslim nations fear diplomatic and economic retaliation from China, experts say
Beijing has refrained from intervening in other countries' domestic issues
Crackdown on Uyghurs and others have not deterred Muslim tourists visiting China
The United Nations estimates that up to 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have allegedly been detained in China's far-western Xinjiang province since 2017.

Experts say Muslim nations cannot be lumped into one category, however, there are a number of key similarities behind much of their silence — political, economic and foreign policy considerations.

China's war on religion
China's war on religion
Banned bibles, burnt crosses, and re-education camps — denomination aside, religion is a dangerous pursuit in Xi Jinping's China in 2018.
China policy expert Michael Clarke, from the Australian National University, told the ABC that China's economic power and the fear of retaliation was a big factor in Muslim politics.

"You're dealing with one of the most powerful states in the world," Dr Clarke said.

"It's ultimately a very unfortunate situation the Uyghur people find themselves in."

In contrast, countries including Australia and the United States have publicly denounced Beijing's actions in the region.

The Turkic-speaking ethnic minorities have been detained in 're-education' camps and subjected to political indoctrination, including being forced to learn a different language and give up their faith.

Recent research reveals that the 28 detention facilities have expanded by more than 2 million square metres since the beginning of last year and detainees have been forced to sew clothes for export to a US sportswear company.

A deafening silence
Two satellite images side-by-side from February and October 2018, showing buildings appearing.
PHOTO: Satellite imagery captured over a remote and highly volatile region of western China lifts the lid on the size and spread of internment camps. (ABC News/Google Earth/Digital Globe)
Governments of Muslim-majority nations including Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have avoided raising the matter publicly.

Pakistan has gone even further by defending China, saying the reporting on the Uyghurs' situation has been "sensationalised" by Western media.

China's frontier of fear

Satellite imagery lifts the lid on the size and spread of China's internment camps, used to indoctrinate vast numbers of the Xinjiang region's Muslim population.
The Indonesian Government has remained quiet on the topic until last week when the issue was brought up in parliament.

"Of course, we reject or [want to] prevent any human rights violations," Jusuf Kalla, Vice-President of Indonesia, told local journalists on Monday.

"However, we don't want to intervene in the domestic affairs of another country," he said.

The statement is in stark contrast to the stance of Indonesia on other Muslim issues such as the Israel-Palestine conflict and the plight of the ethnic minority Rohingya in Myanmar.

However, the Foreign Ministry has now conveyed its concerns to China's ambassador to Indonesia, amid growing pressure by domestic Islamic groups.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Malaysia and others have also repeatedly condemned the persecution of Rohingya Muslims and Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

An economy 180 times bigger
A child stands near a large screen showing photos of Chinese President Xi in China's Xinjiang region.
PHOTO: An estimated 1 million Muslims are detained, forced to give up their language and their religion and subject to political indoctrination in Xinjiang. (AP: Ng Han Guan)
Dr Clarke said China's economy is 180 times bigger than that of a country such as Myanmar, making the latter a far safer target for criticism.

'Like lambs waiting to be killed'
'Like lambs waiting to be killed'
Since last spring, several hundred thousand and possibly more than a million ethnic minorities — mostly Uyghur — in Xinjiang have been interned in mass detention facilities.
"In Myanmar, you're dealing with a much weaker regional state which is much more open to pressure and international criticism," he said.

Chinese investments and contracts in the Middle East and North Africa from 2005 until this year amount to $144.8 billion.

In Malaysia and Indonesia, it is $121.6 billion over the same period, according to think tank American Enterprise Institute.

Beijing has heavily invested in state-owned oil and gas industries in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and promises continued investments across Asia, Africa and the Middle East with its Belt and Road initiative.

"It [seems] to act as a break on any of those states from openly criticising Beijing," Dr Clarke said.

A Chinese police officer stands in front of an armoured police vehicle.
PHOTO: The treatment of Uyghurs is seen as a response to terrorism threats following deadly attacks in the region. (Reuters: Petar Kujundzic)
Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups has not deterred Muslim tourists from travelling to China.

Muslim travellers spent more than $US8 billion ($11.3 billion) in China this year, a figure that is expected to increase by $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) annually, according to a recent report from market research company Salam Standard.

China's non-intervention stance pays off
Students from ethnic minorities give the Young Pioneer's salute to their teacher in a classroom.
PHOTO: Chinese characters above the blackboard read, "Always be prepared to strive for the cause of communism". (Reuters)
Beijing's policy of "non-intervention", whereby it avoids becoming involved in the domestic affairs of other nations, has long been a key part of its foreign policy agenda.

But analysts say it is now paying off with Muslim countries reciprocating the favour.

Embedded video

WorldUyghurCongress

@UyghurCongress
.@AP reported on Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz detainees arbitrarily detained in internment camps in China are being forced to work sewing sportswear and other products, some of which are being sold by US companies.

39
3:42 AM - Dec 20, 2018
56 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
China has gone as so far as to repeatedly abstain from votes or use its veto power in UN security council meetings on many international interventions, such as proposed sanctions in Syria and in Myanmar.

"Many [Muslim nations] have their own internal issues whether its religious or ethnic minorities … so they are very loathe to criticise Beijing for its handling of its own problems given they have their own problems to deal with," Dr Clarke said.

This case can be made for Turkey, which has spoken out against China on Xinjiang — a move Beijing has not forgotten.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the events in the restive province as "a kind of genocide" while Turkey also provided asylum for Uyghurs fleeing the region.

Beijing had extended an offer of support during this year's economic crisis in Turkey, on the provision that Ankara didn't release any "irresponsible remarks" related to Uyghurs or ethnic policy in Xinjiang — and no comments on the matter have been publicly made since.

"Unfortunately, it all comes down to the calculation of [whether] it's of any benefit to us and our relationships with others more broadly," Dr Clarke said

The Indonesian Government did not respond to requests for comment.

A map of Xinjiang and surrounding regions.
PHOTO: Bordered by eight countries including the former Soviet Central Asian republics, Xinjiang is China's largest province. (Supplied: Google Maps)

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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius



Replies:
Posted By: CRS, DrPH
Date Posted: December 23 2018 at 7:31pm
Thanks, C20! The Chinese Death Star is well-named.

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CRS, DrPH


Posted By: EdwinSm,
Date Posted: December 23 2018 at 10:44pm
I wonder if it is because many of the governments have uncertain hold over their people and protesting about China would rock to boat too much as they need the economic investment China is making to keep their people happy enough (not to try to change the leaders).

It could also be part of the rift in the Muslim world between different powers with what seems to be a very uneasy triangle/power struggle between Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.


Posted By: carbon20
Date Posted: December 23 2018 at 11:20pm
The USA, decides it dosnt want flights from certain countries,

People marching in streets.......

Why no Muslim's in western countries marching on Chinese embassys......

Hypocrites that's why......

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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: January 11 2019 at 11:38pm
Carbon - The Uyghur people are a Turkic-speaking people so even though they live in China they are not Chinese and there for a threat and even though they are Muslims most Islamic governments look at the U.S. today and can't rely on this government so they don't want to pi__ off the Chinese! Another victory for Trump, Russia and China!

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Buy more ammo!


Posted By: carbon20
Date Posted: January 19 2019 at 4:43pm
Uyghur refugee tells of death and fear inside China's Xinjiang camps
By Ivan Watson and Ben Westcott, CNN
Jan. 19, 2019
Washington (CNN) - The children's eyes light up when their mother pulls out a photo of her triplets taken shortly after their birth in 2015.
"Moez!" three-year old Moez says, pointing at the infant version of himself.
"Elina!" says his sister Elina.
But when it comes to the third baby in the photograph, the siblings become confused.
When they grow older, their mother Mihrigul Tursun says, she will tell her children about their missing brother Mohaned.
"I will tell them everything," Tursun says. "I will tell them the Chinese government killed their brother."
Tursun says she and her son are victims of Beijing's growing crackdown on Muslim majority Uyghurs in China's far western Xinjiang region, where a US State Department official says at least 800,000 and possibly up to two million people may have been detained in huge "re-education centers."
The Urumqi Children's Hospital in Xinjiang, where Tursun says her son died, didn't respond to CNN's requests for comment meaning CNN is unable to independently confirm her claims.
But Tursun's story of detention and torture fits a growing pattern of evidence emerging about the systematic repression of religious and ethnic minority groups carried out by the Chinese government in Xinjiang.
'Open-air prison'
China's actions in Xinjiang have been fiercely condemned by countries around the world, including in the United States, where lawmakers introduced draft legislation called the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act on Thursday.
"Credible reports found that family members of Uyghurs living outside of China had gone missing inside China, that Chinese authorities were pressuring those outside the country to return, and that individuals were being arbitrarily detained in large numbers," lawmakers wrote.
According to the US State Department, Chinese authorities have indefinitely detained at least 800,000 Uyghur, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities since April 2017.
"The pervasive surveillance in place across Xinjiang today has been frequently described as an 'open-air prison,'" Assistant Secretary of State Scott Busby said on December 4th while testifying before Congress.
Beijing has had a long and fractious history with Xinjiang, a massive, nominally autonomous region in the far west of the country that is home to a relatively small population of around 22 million in a nation of 1.4 billion people.
The predominately Muslim Uyghurs, who are ethnically distinct from the country's majority ethnic group, the Han Chinese, form the majority in Xinjiang, where they account for just under half of the total population.
Uyghurs have likened China's campaign against their people to a form of "cultural genocide," with former internment camp detainees describing forced lessons in Communist Party propaganda and region-wide bans on Uyghur culture and traditions.
China has repeatedly denied it is imprisoning or re-educating Uyghurs in Xinjiang, instead saying that it is undertaking voluntary vocational training as part of an anti-extremism program.
"The local Chinese government is taking these preventative counter-terrorism and de-extremization measures to protect more people from being devoured by terrorism and extremism," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said last month
In early January, Chinese authorities took some foreign diplomats and journalists on a carefully supervised tour of some of the "vocational education centers."
Detainees were seen taking language courses in standard Mandarin Chinese, painting, performing ethnic dances and even singing the song, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands," according to a Reuters report.
"All of us found that we have something wrong with ourselves and luckily enough the Communist Party and the government offer this kind of school to us for free," one Uyghur inmate told journalists during the tour.
'Where is my baby?'
When Mihrigul Tursun touched down in Urumqi, Xinjiang, to see her parents on March 13, 2015, she didn't know it was the beginning of three years of pain and loss.
Tursun had grown up in Xinjiang, but like many young Uyghurs moved overseas for employment opportunities. She was flying with her eight-week old triplets from Egypt where she had been living and working. Upon arrival at Urumqi airport, she claims Chinese officials began to ask her questions.
"They start to ask me, what you take from Egypt? Who (do) you know in Egypt? How many Uyghurs do you know?" Tursun says.
It was at this point, Tursun claims, that she was detained and her three children taken from her by officials.
CNN contacted multiple Chinese ministries and institutions mentioned by Tursun, including the Xinjiang Prisons Administration Bureau and Urumqi Police, for comment on her story but none responded.
After she was released from detention three months later, doctors told her that her son Mohaned had passed away in the local Urumqi Children's Hospital.
All a doctor told her about Mohaned's death was that he had died at some point after an operation. He was less than a year old.
Tursun says she was never given any reason why her children were admitted to hospital. When she questioned why her children had matching scars at the base of their necks, she was told intravenous drips had been necessary to give them nutrition.
Even then Tursun says the Chinese authorities didn't leave her alone. She says her passport was confiscated, forcing her to remain inside China.
In April 2017, while in her parents' home county of Qarqan, 1,184 kilometers (735 miles) away from Urumqi, she says she was taken away from her two remaining children and placed in detention by Chinese authorities.
After she was taken into the Xinjiang center, Tursun says police placed her in an overcrowded cell with more than 50 other women. Many of them, she recognized from her hometown.
"I see someone is my doctor, someone is my (middle) school teacher. Some are neighbors. Some studied with me (in the) same school," Tursun says, a single tear running down her cheek. Tursun says the inmates ranged in age from 17 to 62.
The room was so crowded that the women had to take turns sleeping in shifts and standing. During her time in the centers, Tursun claims she saw nine of the detainees die due to hostile conditions.
One woman, a 62-year-old named Gulsahan, had spent at least six months in the center, says Tursun. "Her legs and her face were swollen and there were rashes," Tursun recalls. One day Gulsahan didn't wake up.
"Police tell us 'make her wake up.' When we touch her hand she is cold," Tursun says.
According to Tursun, another casualty was a 23-year-old a mother of two, named Padegun, who had spent thirteen months in prison.
For two months, says Tursun, Padegun suffered from non-stop menstrual bleeding. One night, at around 4 a.m., Tursun says Padegun collapsed during a shift when she was among the prisoners standing.
"We all screamed and then police said don't anyone touch her. (Then) they dragged her by her feet," says Tursun.
I don't remember my parents' voices
Tursun's eyewitness accounts are a long distance from the happy, almost utopian image of the camps Beijing has attempted to paint in its official propaganda.
In footage from inside the camps broadcast on Chinese state-run TV in 2018, Uyghur inmates were shown attentively sitting in classes learning standard Mandarin Chinese, and being taught skills such as sewing.
But many Uyghurs whose relatives are believed to have disappeared into this detention system call the idea it is a voluntary vocational training system absurd.
"My mom (Gulnar Telet) is a mathematics teacher. She graduated from university. She's fluent in Mandarin. I don't know what kind of skill or education she needs," 21-year-old Arfat Aeriken says. "It's just an excuse."
Aeriken grew up in Xinjiang but moved to the US to get a university education overseas in 2015. Gradually, his parents stopped calling or messaging him until all communication ceased some time in 2017.
"My parents didn't want to 'get disappeared' so they didn't text me too often," he says. "It was very apparent that having contact with someone outside of China is dangerous."
He said he only finally learned that both his parents had been detained from a family friend who fled to Kazakhstan last August.
In September, Aeriken posted a desperate plea on YouTube, begging the US government and the United Nations to take notice.
"I don't remember when was the last time I heard my parents' voice," he says in the video. "I ask the United States government, United Nations and all other foreign governments to take immediate action to stop this brutal attempted ethnic cleansing."
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Afraid to communicate with anyone in Xinjiang, he says he has no information about who may be caring for his 10-year-old younger brother.
Aeriken has been granted asylum in the US. But with no tuition money coming from his parents he has been forced to drop out of college.
He isn't alone. There is an untold number of other international students from Xinjiang similarly stranded in the US, according to Sean Roberts, a professor of development studies at George Washington University and expert in Uyghur language and culture.
"They're terrified. They don't know what to do. They don't necessarily want to declare asylum in the US because that reflects badly on their family," says Roberts. "But they've also gotten messages from the region that they shouldn't come back because they'll definitely be put in one of these internment camps."
'When my country is free'
It wasn't until 2018 that Mihrigul Tursun and her children finally escaped China.
She said diplomats from the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing intervened to help secure her release from prison and reunite her with her Egyptian-born children. In April, she finally left for Cairo.
Today, she and her children live in a two bedroom apartment in Virginia, on the East Coast of the United States, where they are working through the US asylum process.
The adjustment has not been easy.
Her son Moez suffers chronic asthma attacks, that have landed the family in the emergency room twice in recent months.
But without health insurance, Tursun says she cannot afford to take her son to a pediatrician. Meanwhile, she says for the last month her parents' phones have gone silent.
Asked whether she think she'll ever see her parents again, she says "only when my country is free."
"Then maybe I can see them."
TM & © 2019 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
A WarnerMedia Company.
All Rights Reserved.

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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius


Posted By: carbon20
Date Posted: January 19 2019 at 4:44pm
Where's the protest marches in Pakistan,Malaysia,Indonisia... ???

Hypocrites .....

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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius



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