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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:01 am Post subject: Why doesn't the Islamic world speak up about the Uighurs? |
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Where are the fatwas? The angry marches in front of embassies, the indignant speeches? Where are al Qaeda's videos? In short, what does China have that Denmark did not? China has been actively discriminating against Muslims, and recently a number of them have been killed in violent street riots.
In Denmark a newspaper printed cartoons of the prophet Mohammed and the Muslim world erupted in anger. Today that same Muslim world seems to be mute, deaf, and blind, and is oblivious to the violence and discrimination suffered by the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group, at the hands of the Chinese government.
The reaction to the cartoons was swift and furious. Eleven ambassadors from Muslim countries formally protested to the Danish government, which offered the obvious response: In Denmark, freedom of the press is deeply respected and the government had nothing to do with the images that caused the offense. The reply was as obvious as it was futile: The Danish consulate in Beirut was burned, and several people died in violent street riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia. Newspapers in Norway and elsewhere decided to print the cartoons in an act of solidarity, which inevitably fueled the wave of violence. In Damascus, a large crowd burned down the Danish and Norwegian embassies. In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad retaliated with an alternative cartoon exhibit mocking the Holocaust. Threatening fatwas thundered against the journalists, publishers, and editors who went into hiding and had to seek police protection. Al Qaeda's videos and Web sites explained that the offensive cartoons were simply another example of the continuous crusade of the West against Islam.
Meanwhile ...
Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has been carrying out systematic policies that discriminate against Uighurs. Their language is forbidden in schools; government employees cannot have long beards or head scarves and are not allowed to pray or fast during working hours. Uighurs also face strong discriminatory practices in education, healthcare, housing, and employment. Young Uighurs are often forced to work in faraway provinces, while Han Chinese -- who comprise about 90 percent of China's population -- are encouraged to move to Xinjiang, the autonomous region where Uighurs are the largest ethnic group. More than 2 million have settled there.
Any protests against these practices are harshly repressed. The repression of the Uighurs intensified after the September 11 attacks, when many of their political leaders were jailed, accused of having links with foreign Islamist terrorists. Since then, any individual or group convicted of terrorism, religious extremism, or separatism has received draconian sentences.
The recent troubles in the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, have left 184 dead, about a thousand injured, and thousands more detained. These are official figures; Uighurs claim the real numbers are much larger.
Chinese repression of Uighurs has been going on for a long time. What have Muslim leaders worldwide said or done so far? Not much.
As Foreign Policy has reported, in different countries, mullahs, imams, and assorted clerics have found the time to issue fatwas condemning among other practices, Pok�mon cartoons, total nudity during sex for married couples, and the use of vaccines against polio, not to mention Salman Rushdie. They have yet to find the time to say anything about China's practices toward Uighurs.
Take, for example, the case of Turkey. Although the Uighurs have close ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties with the Turkish people, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not deemed their plea as urgent or worthy of his attention as that of Palestine. At the same time that Erdogan was actively trying to get the international community to recognize Hamas, his government was denying a visa to Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the Uighurs (though last week Erdogan has softened his posture and said that she would be allowed to visit Turkey). Only recently has Erdogan's government, which has been criticized at home for its tepid support of the Uighurs, started to express its concern about the situation in Xinjiang. Ahmet Davutoglu, the country's new minister of foreign affairs, said late last week that Turkey "cannot remain silent in the face of what is happening [in Xinjiang]."
This did not go well in Beijing. On July 10, Global Times, an official Chinese press outlet, published an article by Mo Lingjiao titled "Turkey, another axis of evil!?" It noted that "After the riots in Xinjiang, many governments around the world are very cautious making comments, including the American government. But the Turkish government is an exception. As Urumqi is on its way to recovery, this arrogant country has never stopped lashing out at China. In fact, both the Turkish government and its nongovernmental organizations were harsh on China. ... Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, 'We have always seen our Uygur [as] brothers, with whom we have historical and cultural ties...'" The article concluded: "Turkey's support for the Uygur separatists and terrorists can only cause public indignation in China. If it does not want to ruin the relationship between two peoples, please stop standing behind those mobs and separatists, stop being an axis of evil!"
In politics, blindness and deafness are often induced by an acute awareness of where one's main interests really lie. China will clearly make efforts to clarify to the governments that express too much concern for the Uighurs what their real interests are. And the continuous silence about the situation of the Uighurs that may ensue in coming months and years will offer an eloquent demonstration of Beijing's ability to persuade. |
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/13/mute_muslims?2
Because they don't smell weakness in China. That's all. |
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Karea
Joined: 07 Jul 2009
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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An outlier. I'm waiting for the attacks on Chinese diplomatic outposts, the talking down to diplomats, riots, fatwas and the rest.
Eventually they will go crazy about China too. But they're scared. They know that is a can of worms entirely different from the UK, Spain and Denmark. China will throw down. |
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Tjames426
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:58 pm Post subject: Because... |
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In the middle of a war, while bullets are flying and your fellow soldiers are dying around you in vicious hand to hand combat, Chinese soldiers don't start reading...
"you have the right to remain silent..." |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:01 pm Post subject: Re: Because... |
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| Tjames426 wrote: |
In the middle of a war, while bullets are flying and your fellow soldiers are dying around you in vicious hand to hand combat, Chinese soldiers don't start reading...
"you have the right to remain silent..." |
They also don't start whining about "the other" and post-colonial gender theory as it relates to the uniquely evil character of their civilization. |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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Komichi
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Location: Piano Street, Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Okay so a couple hundred Chinese Muslims have been murdered. They can get lots of virgins now. But seriously...total nudity during sex for married couples? That's just disgusting and evil on all levels. Obviously this is a more pressing issue, in this life. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:29 am Post subject: |
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Now we're cookin:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15757&size=A
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Erdogan: Xinjiang is "nearly genocide." But the Islamic world remains cautious
The Turkish premier wants to push the UN Security Council to address the crisis in Xinjiang. But Beijing could block it. The Turkish foreign minister calls for a boycott of Chinese goods. Demonstrations of Uyghurs in Istanbul, Canberra, Holland, Germany. Nothing new from the Organisation of Islamic Conferences or Iran.
Ankara (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Islamic world feels little solidarity it seems, with fellow believers in Xinjiang. Among governments, however, Turkey has distinguished itself. Yesterday, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defined what is happening in China as "nearly genocide." The Turkish prime minister made this statement at the end of the G8 in L'Aquila, where the heads of nations did not mention events in Xinjiang at all, though President Hu Jintao cancelled his presence at the summit as a result of the demonstrations and subsequent clashes between Uyghurs and police and between Han and Uyghurs in recent days. |
Though, Erdogan is prone to hyperbole:
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Erdogan: assimilation is crime against humanity
ANKARA - Turkish PM warns Germany's leaders not to confuse assimilation with integration. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks in Germany on Tuesday to reject assimilation, repeating comments that drew a furious response last weekend.
"I repeat... assimilation is a crime against humanity," Erdogan said in a speech to parliament in Ankara.
Erdogan warned Germany's leaders not to confuse assimilation with integration for the nearly three million people of Turkish origin living in the country. |
http://europenews.dk/en/node/7132
Assimilation as a crime against humanity, a few hundred dead is a genocide. Yup. Makes you wonder about the "apartheid wall" and related. They seem to have huge troubles with honest language. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
Now we're cookin:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15757&size=A
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Erdogan: Xinjiang is "nearly genocide." But the Islamic world remains cautious
The Turkish premier wants to push the UN Security Council to address the crisis in Xinjiang. But Beijing could block it. The Turkish foreign minister calls for a boycott of Chinese goods. Demonstrations of Uyghurs in Istanbul, Canberra, Holland, Germany. Nothing new from the Organisation of Islamic Conferences or Iran.
Ankara (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Islamic world feels little solidarity it seems, with fellow believers in Xinjiang. Among governments, however, Turkey has distinguished itself. Yesterday, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defined what is happening in China as "nearly genocide." The Turkish prime minister made this statement at the end of the G8 in L'Aquila, where the heads of nations did not mention events in Xinjiang at all, though President Hu Jintao cancelled his presence at the summit as a result of the demonstrations and subsequent clashes between Uyghurs and police and between Han and Uyghurs in recent days. |
Assimilation as a crime against humanity, a few hundred dead is a genocide. Yup. Makes you wonder about the "apartheid wall" and related. They seem to have huge troubles with honest language. |
I don't know, aren't the Turks plenty qualified to pass judgment on genocide? After all, their experience with the Armenians and the Kurds has provided them real familiarity with the subject.
I don't think you could even find an example of Chinese genocide in the histories, except if you included what Mao did to his own people. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:55 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, they'd know one if they saw one. |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:01 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| I don't think you could even find an example of Chinese genocide in the histories, except if you included what Mao did to his own people. |
The Chinese Nationalists (KMT), 1928-49, killed 10 million Chinese.
Pre-20th century Chinese history saw 33.5 million Chinese killed from 221BC onwards (defenseless civilians killed by their own rulers, whose job it was to protect them - not combatants killed in warfare).
(from Death by Government, RJ Rummel)
Do you have a romanticized view of China, perchance, Kuros? |
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Tjames426
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:14 am Post subject: |
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The Chinese Nationalists (KMT), 1928-49, killed 10 million Chinese.
Failed to mention the Warlords? the Civil War? the Japanese Invasion?
Hmmm...it was not the Nationalists who were to blame for most of those deaths. The Nationalists were the Chinese Government and part of the Allies during WW2.
BTW, why not mention the greater amount killed after 1949 to modern times by the Communists?
Interesting |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Tjames426 wrote: |
The Chinese Nationalists (KMT), 1928-49, killed 10 million Chinese.
Failed to mention the Warlords? the Civil War? the Japanese Invasion? |
One or two examples sufficed (Kuros' claim being "I don't think you could even find an example of Chinese genocide in the histories.....")
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| Hmmm...it was not the Nationalists who were to blame for most of those deaths. |
The Nationalists killed 10m Chinese from 1928 until 1949, as I said
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| The Nationalists were the Chinese Government and part of the Allies during WW2. |
And?
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| BTW, why not mention the greater amount killed after 1949 to modern times by the Communists? |
Because Kuros already mentioned it ("I don't think you could even find an example of Chinese genocide in the histories, except if you included what Mao did to his own people")
But yes, to clarify, the Chinese Communists murdered 35 million Chinese |
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Karea
Joined: 07 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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| a boycott of Chinese goods |
Heehee! |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:18 am Post subject: |
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| Well, the Turkish Government said the China is committing a genocide. I don't know if that's true or not. Al Qaeda spoke about killing Chinese people. I am not sure if they would do that, not that we need such things in our world. Why isn't much said about what is happening in China because Arabs are under dictatorships. Of course, some might find it to be a kind of hypocricy, but does the US always stand up when China does something? Not really since China is rather powerful. I mean the US saw the Chinese Government massacre all kinds of students at Tianamen. |
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