china's treatment of uighur muslims

never again.

that's what we said about the holocaust.

across german-occupied europe, nazi germany and their allies systematically murdered nearly six million Jews, between 1941 and 1945. their murders were carried out mainly in mass shootings, gas chambers and extermination within concentration camps.

this was considered to be one of the worst genocides’ history has ever seen.

and we said never again.

never again, would there be a time in history where people were horrifically persecuted. never again, would there be a time where people were discriminated and tortured due to their religious beliefs. never again, would there be a time where we would stand down and ignore those in trouble and in need of our help.

so then why, despite all our promises and reassurances, are we ignoring the mass torturing and murders that are happening to the Uighur Muslims in china?

the Uighur Muslims are one of china’s 55 ethnic minorities – they are turkic in origin and with cultural associations to central and eastern asia. despite being native to one global region, the chinese administration refuses to classify Uighurs as a native population, claiming their identification as a regional minority. during the early 1940s the Uighur population were briefly independent, but by 1949 they were under the control of the chinese government. by then most of the Uighur Muslims started to reside in xinjiang in china.

with only 1% of the chinese population being Uighur Muslims, they are clearly dominated by the han chinese who make up over 93% of china’s population. after most of the Uighur Muslims settled down in xinjiang, the chinese government encouraged han chinese citizens to migrate to the region – causing strain between the Uighurs and the han chinese. the han people belong to the largest ethnic group in china, with around 90% of people in mainland china being han – they are said to be deeply patriotic and have strong cultural ties with the country, therefore the conflict between them and the Uighur’s are high.

campaigners state that the central government strategies have gradually reduced the Uighurs’ religious beliefs and cultural activities, over the past couple of years. this is due to the fact there were lots of violence and protests during the early 2000s and one riot even led to the death of 200 people – the chinese government believed that it was due to the Uighur Muslims and their ‘extremist views’ these riots were occuring – so they decided to do something about it.

since, the 1990s, the chinese government have been accused of escalating its suppression after street protests in Xinjiang and then again in 2008, in beijing. thus, encouraging the han chinese to move to the region; implementing their policies to dominate the Uighurs and eroding any rights that the Uighurs’ have.

this leads to the present. in 2014, Muslims students living xinjiang, told the bbc that they were ‘banned from fasting during Ramadan’ and other reports discovered that Uighur local governments were barred from attending mosque and from fasting.

this is…well it’s fucking outrageous. and it’s not even the worst part.

in 2017, the chinese president xi jinping released a decree stating that "religions in china must be chinese in orientation" and "adapt themselves to socialist society". this basically meant that a new shutdown on religious beliefs and practices were to take place, particularly affecting the Uighurs.

many new persecuting ‘rules’ began to take place such as the investigation and policing tactics against them, forbidding them to name their children with conventional Muslim names, growing “abnormal beards” and wearing head scarfs were not allowed andthe chinese government banned them from fasting during Ramadan. in fact news reports showed that over 16,000 Mosques had been destroyed in china !

to enforce these measures would take place the chinese government set up the ‘xinjiang re-educating camps’ (officially called vocational education and training centres) . to quote wikipedia (which perhaps usually isn’t the best source of information, but this time it is correct and factual), the camps are ‘used to indoctrinate Uighurs and other Muslims since 2017 as part of a "people's war on terror," a policy announced in 2014’. wikipedia also states that the camps are for “the purpose of countering extremism and terrorism and promoting sinicization". (sinicization is basically a procedure where non-chinese communities come under the influence of chinese culture -particularly han chinese- culture, language, societal norms, and ethnic identity. research and exploration shows, that there are over 380 camps in china obliterating a whole culture and population; population growth in Uighur areas have fallen by 84% between 2015 and 2018.

chinese officials argue that these camps are for students to participate in classes, a variety of extra-curricular activities and sports. they argue that no one is coerced to go to these camps and instead that they are a blessing as they teach ‘employable skills’ and ‘good culture’

however, people who have escaped (that’s right- escaped) these camps say that they are forced to go there and are separated from their families…

these survivors say:

- over 1 million Uighur Muslims are being held in these camps against their will and are forced to denounce Islam.

- these camps are surrounded by towering walls, fences and barbed wire

- electrocution, food/sleep deprivation, organ harvesting, medical experiments, forced sterilization, gang rapes and murders are just a few examples of what happens behind closed doors

sounds familiar? these very actions happened between 1941 and 1945, during the second world war. thousands of jewish people were locked up and tortured – treated inhumanely with no human decency. persecuted and oppressed for their religion and what they believed in.

the chinese government say these are ‘rehabilitation’ camps. rehabilitation means ‘restoration, especially by therapeutic means, to an improved condition of physical function’. these camps are not rehabilitation camps. there is nothing wrong with Uighur Muslims, nothing that needs to be fixed within them. these aren’t rehabilitation camps. they are concentration camps.

with the mountain of evidence corresponding with those who escaped (drones showing footage of the camps and official documents, seen by bbc panorama, show inmates locked up, indoctrinated, and punished) – why isn’t there enough action? well the main reason is due to the fact that china’s uk ambassador has said that these documents and footage are fake. it is also very tough to report in xinjiang because state security agents prohibit it and will coerce reporters and anybody who speaks to a reporter. when china does allow media to access these camps, they portray a very pleasant time, where nobody is seen to be suffering!

so, what can we do? so far, there has been minimal intervention in the Uighur genocide by large countries. the uk government have spoken out about the abuse and the us have imposed sanctions on china – but the widespread action has been absent, and this is simply not good enough!

considering the urgency and brutality of this situation it is unbelievable that the government has not done enough action and has not made this a priority. so it is up to us!

here are some things we can do:

- contact your local mp (or if you’re not from the uk, any local influential government figure) urging them to speak up about it

- donate to charities such as amnesty international, to help save those who are imprisoned and help fund those who have escaped

- sign as many petitions as you can!!

- spread awareness – this is so so so influential, the first time i heard about this horrific situation was through an instagram story – spreading awareness will open the eyes of so many people allowing them to help those in need too

by helping out and doing our bit we would be saving the lives of millions. we cannot let history repeat itself and allow millions to die and suffer while we sit back and complain about our ‘first world problems’. we cannot be bystanders.

“the holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. it forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction.” – tim holden.

let there not be another holocaust.

it is time to take some action.