The Chinese Muslims and Internment Camps: Time to Take Action
Day Five of Ramadan, MashAllah Allahumma Barik you all are making it through! May Allah bless your time, May Allah forgive your sins, accept your good deeds and help you gain new connections and habits that will bring you closer to Him!
As time flies again I am reminded how our brothers and sisters worldwide suffering and experiencing hardship while they are fasting. One country where there is chaos and turmoil going on, is China, where Muslims who are a minority there, certain ethnic groups like the Uighurs, the Turkic in the area of Xinjiang are being forced into internment camps. Meanwhile the government there denies that this is happening, that this camps are "re-education camps", claiming that these facilities exist only to help reeducate Men and women are are supposed Islamic camps. These bordered prisons, in which CNN tried to access and find more information about, but were blocked multiple times by police who did not like them filming and even threatened a man who they tried to speak with who had dropped off food for his brother at one of the camps.
Watch the video Here: https://www.cnn.com/
“Thank you to the Chinese embassy in Islamabad for stating directly that this large swathe of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, including those undergoing ‘compulsory education’ and ‘hard learning’, is not permitted to fast during Ramadan,” tweeted Megha Rajagopalan, a journalist.
Practicing the Muslim faith in any shape or form is considered extremism, even if you are in private. The Muslims are closely monitored and can receive a punishment or sent to these internment camps if they show any signs of fasting or dressing or behaving like a Muslim.
"That not only includes obvious practices, such as growing a beard, wearing a headcover or praying, but also extends to things people may not do out of religious conviction, such as abstaining from eating during Ramadan or refraining from drinking alcohol.
In Ramadan, all Uighur students are monitored by the school management and asked to prove that they’re not fasting. If they dare to fast, they are sent to detention centres that Chinese officials call “re-education camps” for “assimilation”, or “hard learning”.
Ex prisoners of these camps have something different to say about the camps, that they were forced to drink alcohol or eat pork, to denounce Islam, and are forced to pledge Allegiance to the Communist Party in China. They have been tortured and even raped, in order for Chinese officials to control the population and wipe out Uighur culture, religion and identity.
China has even gone as far as to have officials go under cover to spy on Muslim families, to have cameras setup in the areas they live, have police checkpoints to check their ID's and force them to prove they are not terrorists by questioning them. They have no freedom to be able to even speak without fear of being watched or detained. They have also attacked Mosques, and even bulldozed and destroyed them.
Most of the Uighur population have a family member who has been detained at one of these camps, mothers are separated from children, husbands are separated from wives, and some have not heard from their relatives in years, unable to contact them or even find out which camp they are in.
China is doing everything in its power to silence and deny the ethnic abuse and harassment against the Uighur Muslims. It continues to deny the purpose and cruelty of these camps, despite the evidence by videos and by people who have themselves been trapped inside or family that have been taken in. One woman describes how she is a Uighur and American citizen, and how her public outcry of the crimes against the Uighur Muslim community led the Chinese government to take her sister and aunt against their will.
Find more about that story here: https://www.usatoday.com/
The Chinese government even claims that the internment camps are hospitals, that the people they are putting in these camps are in need of medical treatment, because they are terrorists or criminals, who they need to teach a lesson or cure them of their diseases.
“Religious belief is seen as a pathology” in China, explained James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University, adding that Beijing often claims religion fuels extremism and separatism. “So now they’re calling reeducation camps ‘hospitals’ meant to cure thinking. It’s like an inoculation, a search-and-destroy medical procedure that they want to apply to the whole Uighur population, to kill the germs of extremism. But it’s not just giving someone a shot—it’s locking them up for months in bad conditions.”
I did not want to share this information without also offering solutions whether it was campaigns or organizations that we can donate to, but unfortunately I could not find anything like that. I feel like China is a very powerful and dominant country, I suppose if they are continuously denying what is going on and not allowing people to film or talk about this on social media, they wouldn't want any sort of rescue or charity setup. The only thing I can offer are these links to petitions, they may not do very much, but it is better than nothing. There is an option on the first link to donate, to help the petition spread further!
Petition to Free Muslims in Chinese Concentrations Camps: https://www.change.org/
Email Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission: https://www.amnesty.org/
Lastly of course, this is a month of blessing, where our prayers and deeds are answered and accepted more, so not not forget our Chinese brothers and sisters in your duas.
May Allah protect the Uighurs, and the other Muslim minority groups who are being oppressed in China and worldwide. May their fasts be accepted, may there be no fault on them if they are forced by the government to commit things against their faith, May they be given strength, patience and reward during this difficult times. Ameen.
Sources: https://www.theatlantic.com
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