Usually around this time of the year in China, Uighur Muslims would converge on the Imam Asim shrine. People would leave some markers of their prayers at the shrine. It is thought to be as good to visit a sacred shrine at least three times as to complete the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. However, no one can visit the sacred shrine anymore as it was torn down and razed. Recently, the Guardian and Bellingcat open-source analyst Nick Waters observed 91 mosques and shrines and it was found that 31 mosques and two major shrines had parts of them destroyed, 15 of those mosques and both shrines were either completely or almost razed.
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| Imam Asim Shrine |
China has been recently targeting Muslims in the name of "containing religious extremism." China's foreign ministry spokesman has stated, "China practices freedom of religion and firmly opposes and combats religious extremist thought... Religious believers can freely engage in religious activities to the law." However in late March, party secretary Chen Quanguo has said that the government must "improve the conditions of religious places to guide religion and socialism to adapt to each other" by razing Islamic buildings. Despite saying that religious activities are legal, the Chinese government's actions say otherwise as they force Muslims to eat lunch during Ramadan and monitor people to see if they are a Muslim.
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| Jafari Sadiq Shrine |
Reaction: I think that what the Chinese government is doing to the Uighur Muslims is wrong. They have been discriminating against them for many years and have done many acts that have violated their human rights. Although it is morally wrong, it is understandable that the Chinese government wants to solidify their position of power and make it last as long as possible, obtaining it with whatever they deem necessary.
Connection: This connects to world history at is similar to Germany and Jews. Instead of German people discriminating against Jewish people, it is Chinese people discriminating against Muslims. They both use their targets as scapegoats and the movement is driven by the government.
Questions:
1. Why do you think the Chinese government is discriminating against Muslims?
2. What potential consequences do you think could happen if this continues as it has been for the past few years?
3. Why do you think that more countries don't try to step in and stop this?
I believe that the Chinese's actions against their Uighur population are very childish and close minded. For so many years now, the Chinese have been hostile and unaccepting of their muslim population. I believe that the Chinese have discriminated against the Uighurs because they view them as different, and therefore a threat. Instead of accepting their different ways and understanding that everyone is human, they decide to put fear in he place of compassion, and teach others to protect themselves from the "dangerous" Uighurs. I think that other countries aren't stepping in or calling for change because they might be doing very similar things to their own minorities. The scapegoating and discrimination experienced by the Chinese Uighurs is just one of the many cases of discriminatory acts worldwide. Sadly this stigma of differences has been around for a long time, and most likely will not end very soon. However, hopefully everyone will do their part in raising awareness and acting on different ways to stop the discrimination against the Uighurs in China.
ReplyDeletehttp://time.com/5584619/china-xinjiang-destroyed-mosques/
The Chinese government’s action proves the insecurity of the country. I think the government is discriminating against muslims to prove the superiority and power over those that don’t practice the faith of the majority. They say that anyone is allowed to practice any religion in their country just so the country is not looked down upon by the other developed countries that have similar freedoms, not because they actually allow freedom of religon. Even if this continues for the next few year, there are so few muslims in China, relatively speaking, at less than 2%, which means even if there was some form of protest, China’s communistic government could easily stop any uprising, especially as they monitor people to see if they are muslim or not. I do not think that any major events will happen, other than occurrences where China’s military has to disband groups of protesting muslims. I don’t think more countries are trying to step in because they don’t want this issue to expand. Raising awareness other social actions will not change anything in China’s government unless it affects thier economy or thier overall position in the world. Other countries getting involved will just make the whole situation worse, especially since the the muslim side would require an incredible amount of backing to actually make a difference, which would just create more tensions, which is not something any country needs right now.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/dozens-mosques-major-shrines-razed-china-xinjiang-190507112857399.html
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/asia/asia-top-stories/revealed-new-evidence-of-chinas-mission-to-raze-the-mosques-of-xinjiang/ar-AAB1Ia7?li=BBJGEmF
I agree that their actions prove their insecurity, the government has been communist for decades and they need to keep the support of the masses in order to keep power. Their actions have some political "reasoning" behind them and is hard for others to do anything about it. I also agree that due to how low the population of Muslims is in China, there will most likely not be any major events or protests against the Chinese government's actions.
DeleteEven though it seems like the Chinese government is targeting Muslims, all other religious groups are all being discriminated against. Chinese government believes that any form of religion or believes will take away a person’s ability to believe in Communism and the country’s government. In the past, Christianity has almost been wiped out, and the minorities are not allowed to voice out. Buddhism and other major religions are “silenced,” as these religions prefer peace themselves as well. Most religious individuals choose to not protest and reveal their believes. However, Muslims in Xinjiang and people of Han nationality have a unpleasant history, as both sides view the other as inferior. This leads to the protest of Muslims in Xinjiang, and the forceful suppression by the government. In my opinion, this conflict has been around long enough that the entire world knows about it, especially major Islamic countries. This will lead to uneasiness between other religious countries and China, since their religions are being discriminated against. These countries with strong believes might try to aid the Muslim population inside China or offer them refugee homes. However, China will continue to deny their actions, which might keep some major countries from intervening. In addition, with the media censoring actions of the Chinese government, less people inside China will know the truth about current events. This minimizes the possibility of a civil war or protest in large scale inside China.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese government practices extreme censorship and overall is very controlling of its' population. I believe the Chinese government is discriminating against Muslims as they are a minority. Their belief system is also different to that of communism or other ideology practiced in China. In an article by the Washington Post, author Reld Standish explains how China is expanding their discrimination. ¨For decades, China has suppressed the language and faith of its Muslim citizens. But until recently, the effort has been contained largely within China’s own borders. Now the sweep has come to include the fluid region where Chinese nationals and Kazakh citizens have long moved freely back and forth between their countries, with those on opposite sides of the border mingling and marrying and working among one another.¨ (washingtonpost.com). The Chinese government has created ¨the new hard line against Kazakhs is motivated by the same ´blend of Islamophobia and racism´ toward Muslim minorities that has led Uighurs to be viewed as dangerous¨. It saddens me that the Chinese government is discriminating and harming these minorities, based off of no facts, just biased fear. I hope the international community will take action in stopping the Chinese government from leading these hate-filled campaigns against Uighur Muslims and now the Kazakhs.
ReplyDeleteTaking away an individual’s religious freedom is abhorrent, but also not surprising. China is obsessed with the idea of control over their citizens through preaching their communist mission. Like what Celine said, throughout the past they have put down other lifestyles and forced the communism motive onto their citizens. A recent example is that they censor much of what shows up online, and they often replace it with not-so-subtle propaganda to brainwash Chinese people. They have also recently set up CCTV cameras near every road to mass survaile Chinese citizens, which is creepy and goes against personal privacy. I think that this “religious cleansing” movement is taking their ambition to a new extreme, and it might be the most freedom-obstructing thing that has ever happened in modern China. In the article, it says the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman says they do things “in the name of containing religious extremism,” but it is obviously just discrimination and a weaker attempt at extermination.
ReplyDeleteJust like stated in the reaction, I believe that the Chinese government is continuing discrimination over the Muslims to have that sense of power over a minority. I feel as though one potential consequence is the complete elimination of the Uighur Muslims in China as their religion is slowly getting drawn out of them. Other countries may not be stepping in because in one way or another there are ways that all countries have shown be superiority over minorities in their own country, and it is not something you can stop overnight. The Chinese government is creating restrictions on many people from freely expressing their religious values, including "remov[ing] crosses from 1,200 to 1,700 Christian churches as of a 2016 New York Times report, and has instructed police officers to stop citizens from entering their places of worship." (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/25/china-must-end-its-campaign-of-religious-persecution-221910). The Chinese government wants to eliminate all sorts of freedoms and is doing so through many different manners, starting with religion.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, in communist regimes such as Russia and China, religion is outlawed because it undermines the ruling party. The idea that some higher power exists beyond the state government is dangerous to the communists, as it can cause people to act against the government if their religion says so. Since there is a lot of fear surrounding terrorist groups, the Chinese government is exploiting this fear to scapegoat the Uighur Muslims of China. This problem extends past the Muslims, however, as other religious groups are also discriminated against for the benefit of the Communist party. The world should exert pressure against China to discourage these blatant acts of discrimination, as it has against other oppressive regimes.
ReplyDeleteOnly one country, so far, has protested against this crisis. Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly condemned China for its human rights violations and many people around the world are calling for the UN to take action. But it’d be hard for countries to just “step in and stop” all of this because it's China. The Uighurs - the victims of this brutal crackdown - cannot voice the persecution they have gone through and are forced to say that they are in these camps “voluntarily”. Also China’s way of censoring major information leaves the rest of the world inadequately informed. However, with the recent satellite images, I feel like more and more countries need to join in in condemning the Uighur crisis.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-19/how-china-is-defending-its-detention-of-muslims-to-the-world
Deletehttps://www.trtworld.com/turkey/turkey-calls-on-china-to-close-uighur-detention-camps-24016
The actions of the Chinese government against the Uighur Muslims are horrific. I think that the Chinese government must be discriminating against Muslims because of the negative image that society provides them with. Islam, like any other monotheistic religion, but especially Islam, was constructed from beliefs of peace and acceptance of all others as equal under God. However, when extremists infuse their own made-up beliefs into the religion and call it "Islam," they create a negative image for Muslims across the planet and cause them to come under great scrutiny from the media. If the issues with the Uighurs stay very quiet in today's media, the Chinese government may experience minimal consequences when in reality they're abusing millions of a whole over a billion Muslims worldwide. A reaction to this could cause the Chinese government to come under even greater amounts of scrutiny than they already have been as of late, as a result of various curiosities. I think that lots of other countries haven't chosen to step in because stepping in would be seen as aligning themselves with Muslims, an undesirable idea because of the illustration of Muslims as negative in today's media. If there is no way to get over the fact that extremist Muslims are a fraction of a minority then we may never solve this issue that is ongoing and ever increasing in ugliness.
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ReplyDeleteChina’s actions against the Uighur/Muslim population is extremely discriminatory and uncalled for. The claim that the Uighurs are terrorists is unfair and a shallow attempt at getting the population to turn against them. China views the Uighurs as a threat and is attempting to use discrimination to insure that they don’t gain too much power or popularity. I think if this were to continue and to escalate even further, this may end up slightly like what happened with the discriminations against Jews in the 1900s. That’s also a reason that other countries aren’t stepping in. They don’t want to create another full fledged war. But they should put their fears aside and attempt to take action before the situation escalates too much. The Uighurs should have just as many rights as the rest of the population and they certainly shouldn’t face discrimination for their beliefs just because China is scared of losing power.
China's discrimination against the Muslims is obviously very immoral and disgusting. Due to bias, sometimes a news source might manipulate the truth to make one side look bad. However, in this case, there is physical evidence of China's destruction. It is shocking to believe that countries still perform such prejudicial actions on other races, even after historical but significantly dreadful events such as the Holocaust. China's actions may possibly be from historical resentfulness to other countries. For example, they were unfortunate victims of the Nanjing Massacre. Also, Chinese immigrants were seriously discriminated against when settling in the United States. Still, I do not see any reason for the Chinese to cruelly mistreat the Muslims. Their choice of religion is obviously their own decision and their own basic human right. In the future, this conflict can only potentially de-escalate without intervene from other countries. To end apartheid, worldwide criticism and foreign aid were very crucial and effective.
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