UNREST IN XINJIANG: WHERE’S THE MUSLIM OUTRAGE?
By Matthew Clark
Christian Science Monitor
13/unrest-in-xinjiang-wheres-the-muslim-outrage/
J uly 13 2009
Muslims around the world have largely remained silent about last week’s
deadly riots between Han Chinese and Uighurs. What makes this case of
‘oppression’ of Muslims different than others?
Shhhh! I think I just heard a pin drop.
Nope. It’s just more deafening silence from the Muslim Street in
the wake of last week’s ethnic riot that killed more than 184 in
China’s restive Xinjiang Province, home to the Uighurs, a Muslim
minority group.
According to the Chinese government, the majority of the victims in
the riot were Han Chinese, attacked by Uighurs who’ve complained for
decades about being marginalized, abused, neglected, and oppressed
ever since former Communist leader Mao Zedong launched a campaign
to flood Xinjiang with Han Chinese in 1960s. But many of the victims
were Uighurs, too, and thousands of Uighurs were arrested as a result
of the melee. Many could face execution.
China also closed mosques last week – just one of many strict limits
on freedom of expression in Xinjiang.
It’s the kind of stuff that would arouse passionate protests if a
Western country were the one cracking down. (Remember the apoplectic
protests over the Danish cartoon of Prophet Muhammad?)
But there were no Chinese flags burned in Karachi. No effigies of Hu
Jintao smoldered in Cairo. No "Death to China" chants echoed through
the streets of Tehran.
Not that the Monitor would ever be in favor of such protests against
any country. But why does it seem as though there such a different
reponse for China?
The Uighurs’ spiritual leader, Rebiya Kadeer (profiled here by the
Monitor’s Beijing Bureau Chief Peter Ford), has some ideas.
"So far the Islamic world is silent about the Uighurs’ suffering
because the Chinese authorities have been very successful in [their]
propaganda to the Muslim world … that the Uighurs are extremely
pro-west Muslims – that they are modern Muslims, not genuine Muslims,"
she said at a press conference Monday in Washington.
Ms. Kadeer contrasted a lack of action from Muslim countries with
the support Uighurs get from Western democracies and called on Muslim
nations to do more.
Turkey drops the G-word
Days later, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the situation
"genocide" and thousands of Turks protested China’s treatment of
Uighurs on Sunday. Turks share ethnic and cultural bonds with the
Turkic-speaking Uighurs, so the support in Turkey goes beyond sympathy
for fellow Muslims allegedly being oppressed by non-believers.
Iran’s clerics speak out
Iranian critics are starting to get into the act, too.
Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a high-level cleric, demanded
that Iran’s foreign ministry quickly condemn what he described as
the Chinese government’s "horrible" backing of "racist Han Chinese."
The news website Tabnak, backed by, Mohsen Rezai, conservative
challenger of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the
government of hypocrisy in ignoring violence against fellow Muslims:
"When Israel was striking Gaza, state radio and television aired
round-the-clock reports and analyses about the massacre of Muslims, but
now only short reports are heard. . . . During the Israeli invasion of
Gaza, nearly 1,000 died in 20 days – or 50 per day. In China’s riots,
nearly 100 Muslims were killed in a day. Our government is silent
regarding clear carnage."
But, by and large, the Muslim Street has been just as silent.
A plea from the Palestinian territories
"Muslims around the world have an absolute religious, moral,
and human duty to identify with their oppressed brothers and
sisters in [Xinjiang]," journalist Khalid Amayreh in an opinion
piece on Islam Online, comparing the Uighurs’ plight to that of the
Palestinians. "Muslims, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
said, must never betray or abandon other Muslims, especially in time
of distress. Unfortunately, however, Muslim states and Muslim peoples
alike have been largely silent in the face of these atrocities in
[Xinjiang]."
Will this change? We’ll see.