The Holocaust happened and we said “never again”, but it’s happening again. What do you know about what is going on in China? You have a device in your hand that holds all the information that you need to know about this situation, but you’re either too ignorant too look it up or too lazy.
For as long as I can remember, Muslims have been a target. Everyone is quick to blame an entire population for tragedies such as 9/11. But this isn’t just happening in America. Since 2017, the Chinese government is actively detaining more than two million Uyghurs in camps within Xinjiang. The Chinese government denied the allegations, saying that these so-called “re-education centers” were not camps. But what kind of re-education center has barbed wire fences and watchtowers?
Who are the Uyghurs? They’re a Muslim ethnic minority group that has cultural and ethnic similarities with Central Asian nations. There are an estimated 11 million Uyghurs living in Xinjiang.
According to the Chinese government, they are extremists and are a threat to security. This is rooted in the events of 2013 and 2014, when China’s Tiananmen Square was attacked and when a knife attack broke out in Kunming. After these events, China became fearful of Uyghurs, or any Muslim for that matter. They claimed they were trying to take their human rights away. So, China did what they thought had to be done: detain all Muslims to be “extra safe”.
Muslims are taken to detention centers because they seemed “suspicious” and would daily interrogate 15-20 people at a time with unbearable brutality. Girls and women from 14 years of age to 80 would are taken away for interrogation and come back with bruises all over their faces and bodies. After the torture and bringing them back to the camps, they would tell them that they did nothing wrong, that they were just re-educating them.
They’re “re-educating” includes ten hours of classes, and they’re all the same every day. What the Chinese government is trying to do is brainwash them, to make them renounce their religion and worship the Chinese Communist Party. They teach them Mandarin and “vocational skills”. They’ve also destroyed mosques, criminalized Uyghur speech, and Uyghur music. The U.S has called this act “cultural genocide”.
China is destroying and mutilating everything that they can get their hands on. They’re destroying Uyghur burial grounds, effectively trying to fully eradicate Uyghur’s ethnic identity and ancestry in Xinjiang. The Xinjiang government is also destroying cultural cities in Kashgar’s Old City, a site that holds numerous historical touchstones and cultural significance to Uyghur Muslims. Muslims have to deal with forced abortions, sterilizations, and IUD insertions to “finish the population”. And, as if things couldn’t get crazier enough, many Uyghur intellects (such as poets, professors, and translators), celebrities (like musicians, photographers, and authors), and religious figures have been either detained or missing.
The camps initially targeted Uyghurs, the largest Muslim group living in Xinjiang, but later the Chinese authorities included other Muslim peoples: Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and even Dungans (who are actually ethnic Chinese Muslims). Now there are up to three million Muslims being held in 500 different concentration camps.
Here are laws that Muslims have to follow:
Aren’t allowed to pray, so they’re forced to do it in private
Aren’t allowed to fast, which is an essential part of the Muslim faith
Saying ‘Salam’ (which means peace) is forbidden
Islamic wedding is forbidden and reward up to $7,500 to people who report them
Teaching Uyghur language and Islamic literature education is forbidden
Uyghurs are forbidden to talk to reporters or foreigners without government supervision
Each Uyghur vehicle must be fitted with tracking devices for the state to monitor them.
Frequent pullovers (even traveling by bike)
Forced labor is mandatory for Uyghur Muslims
Heavy policing
Passports are being confiscated
Restricted access to certain other towns
Muslims women are being forced to marry Chinese men and are tortured of they break any laws
Women are given injections to make them infertile to reduce future generations of the Muslim population
Over 70% of Mosques have been demolished
Parents are forbidden to name their children common Islamic names, failure to do so could restrict access to education and healthcare for their children
Halal food is banned in Uyghur areas
They are being forced to eat pork and drink alcohol (knowing that it is against their religion)
Over one million communists are living in Uyghur Muslim populated areas to monitor them
Uyghur Muslims have to install an app that tracks all of their activities
Millions of Uyghur Muslims, by law, have to submit a sample of their DNA for police records
Chinese authorities confiscate land and properties of Uyghur Muslims and give them to Chinese communists
Islamic children are being taken away from their parents and put into homes where they do not practice Muslim religion to ‘force it out of them’
A letter was sent to the UN Human Rights Council, reporting the arbitrary detentions of marginalized Muslims. Twenty-two countries signed this letter, condemning the Chinese leadership. But, four days later, another letter was sent to the UN Human Rights Council with 37 signatures from 37 different countries, praising China for defending themselves from “terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.” A direct quote from the letter itself: “We commend China’s remarkable achievements in the field of Human Rights by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and protecting and promoting human rights through development.” Eventually, the U.S condemned China, calling the camps a “horrific campaign of repression.”
SIGN PETITIONS
DONATE
SOURCES