Why Muslims Should Break Their Silence And Speak Up Against China

China, the great power of today’s world, is becoming one of the fastest developing countries economically, military, and culturally. Economically, China is ranked to be the second largest economy around the world and let’s not forget the history of this country when it comes to its economy. China had experienced a tempestuous and unsettled economy growth since 1949. With its tenacious insistence, it evolved from being an isolated country into a backbone of the economy and its name is now shining bright in every corner of the globe.

Military, China is considered to be powerful as it is possessing nuclear weapons that are allowing it to have a large reputation among countries. It has dramatically grown up to be one of the most powerful military capabilities. Actually, it started to expand beyond the Pacific Ocean which makes from it a dangerous competitor for the United States. Culturally, China reflects one of the oldest cultures and civilizations. With its 1.386 billion people, its culture reflects also the customs and traditions of a huge population around the world.

We should not be deceived by the image China is showing. It is trying to embellish its portrait and to act perfect. However, as an opposite to what it makes us see, the reality is painful. It is exercising a dictatorship which is ruled by a communist party in what is called “re-education camps” where a huge number of Chinese are being incarcerated and tortured until being brainwashed. These “re-education camps” are located exactly in the far-western Xinjiang region. People there are forced to hear talks about ideological thoughts, and praise the communist party through songs as if it was god. They are also struggling with sleep deprivation, hitting and torture.

I’m wondering that you are asking why the Chinese communist party is persecuting its Chinese people? Well, I can only tell you that the communist party doesn’t accept differences between one and another. As it seems to be, they want China to produce prototypes and only prototypes. As you may have noticed from what I said, the communist party is mass torturing Muslim minorities. It may be choking for you but yeah, we’re living in the 21st century and there are people around the world who still do not respect dissemblance.

Muslim minorities especially the Uighurs are being targeted. The Uighurs are basically Turkic people who live first and foremost in Xinjiang and that are in fact Sunni Muslims. The Chinese communist party considers all religions without any exception full of superstitions that must vanish and disappear. They attained a level where they allow themselves to prohibit people from expressing their real beliefs, praying, fasting Ramadan, growing beards. They are even forcing them to eat pork and to drink alcohol, which are both strictly banned by Islam. (Akyol, 2019.)

China is denying the accusations of its persecution of Muslims. However, there is a growing evidence of high supervision over these minorities. (Hughes, 2019.) Actually, authorities in China are pretending that they are doing so to capture terrorists. They assigned the cause of them establishing the “re-education camps” to some extremists among the Uighurs that they have to get rid of. The reality is that some Uighurs have carried several attacks not because they are real terrorists. In fact, they carried these attacks against government in response to the oppression and marginalization exercised by the government. They are also exposed to subjugation and ethnic colonization. The whole story of counterterrorism used by the communist party will lead to nothing but a vicious circle of counterproductivity which only helps to make the situation worse. This is something authoritarian leaders cannot understand; they can only amplify it. (Akyol, 2019.)

Did you all notice that this story is strange? Some Muslim minorities are tortured in some “re-education camps” in China and what do you think the response of Muslims all around the world is? Silence! Muslims chose silence as an answer to the persecution, oppression, and beating of Muslim minorities by the Chinese authorities. Muslims chose to defend their religion and faith by keeping silent. These actions have been criticized by several groups especially human rights groups without mentioning Uighur organizations themselves.

But, me as the president of Turkey, I’ve decided to break my silence and to speak up for those people who are suffering in the “re-education camps” in China. This is a very long-suffering given how gloomy the situation is. If the same oppression had been carried by Israeli people, things would have been different and Muslims would have paid more attention to the problem.

I guess you are wondering why I was so lenient toward China when it comes to the tortured people over there. I did not have a choice but to stay silent. As you know, China is considered to be the second largest economy and actually, it offered its economic assistance and help to keep some countries silent. In fact, China is buying our silence with money. Hush money is what kept me and Turkey silent for all this period. I admit that I was wrong, but the interesting editorial the Chinese authorities ran blinded me.

It was about helping Turkey obtain its economic steadiness and it was selfish of me to think only about Turkish people who were inside Turkey but not outside of it. I completely forgot about the Uighurs who were tortured and subjugated in some region in China called Xinjiang. Turkish officials were obligated to stop acting irresponsible and to stop making reckless remarks about the situation in the “re-education camps”. This was the only demand from China to Turkey in order to help it with its economy, and it means that Turkey must stop condemning human rights violations in China.

Actually, Angela Merkel promised to help Turkey too but only if it stops violating its own human rights. In a nutshell, Turkey have been pulled out by China and Germany in the same time in opposite directions. Unfortunately, we have taken the wrong path in the past which is absolutely the dark one and that it proved itself stronger at that time but not anymore. I’ve decided to break the silence as I said earlier and to follow Germany’s path instead of China’s one.

There is no way of keeping silent now. We should act and act fast to avoid more people being oppressed and tortured. Why do we see anyone and everyone speaking themselves when something happens to a Christian, Jewish, or anybody from any other religion? Why do they defend each other but not us? Many terrible things have happened to Muslims in Burma and all what they get is silence. We should not forget about New Zealand attack as well where Muslims died in a mosque, and we did not saw a lot of interactions. People from other religions would have defended their people and searched for a fair punishment. However, we as Muslims, are living separately where everyone is only seeking his own interest. We should start caring about each other because that is what our religion is about. We should stand up and support our brothers in China and fight for their rights as it is still time for fighting.

You are free to choose whatever religion you opt for and want to practice. YOU are free to express your belief. YOU are free to be who you are and who you want to be without any political brainwashing. Slavery time ended up a long time ago and there is no way it would start again. I, as the president of Turkey, demand from China to close its “re-education camps” for indoctrination and to release the 1 million Muslims detained in Xinjiang. I designate myself as the leader of the Muslim world, and I know that Uighurs have always wished that I will adopt this posture and stand by them. I failed them in the past, but I won’t do it again. I’ll do my best to protect them from the violence exercised over them. I call Chinese authorities to close these “re-education camps” and to release these innocent people because I think that what makes them violent and aggressive is your violence and aggressiveness towards them. What you are doing with these poor detainees is a great shame for humanity. (Shih, 2019.)

What made me took so long to speak my mind and denounce authorities in China in what they are calling anti-extremism campaigns is their powerfulness economically, military, and culturally. Maybe the fear of backlash is what kept me and all Muslim leaders around the world away from the chorus of international condemnation. China has been successfully keeping Muslim countries silent about the “re-education camps” issue, and I consider this problem as a kind of genocide. It is a crime that should not be forgiven by the ones that were tortured and violated.

Thus far, I want to say that unison and cooperation are major keys to solve this issue. So, I’m inviting all Arab and Muslim leaders to participate in the campaign that we are going to launch against Chinese authorities to stop their violation of human rights. We can all of us do so by boycotting their products, stop visiting their country to make their tourism percentages go down, stop trading with them because as you all know trade is a major element in China’s growth. There are a lot of things we can do to make Chinese authorities back off from their atrocious actions. We’re Muslims, and our religion makes it imperative to us to stand by our brothers and sisters who are suffering in China. Thus, we have to move and act fast to end this suffering. We should stop this shame, this genocide, and this awful crime from happening. We can do it!

In conclusion, it is not only about words and critical statements. It is about taking effective actions and working harder to make China give up what it is doing to our Muslim minorities. It is by launching a campaign against Chinese authorities that we will win. (Hughes, 2019.) China is not going to close its “re-education camps” by listening to my speech. It is going to close them by seeing actions done by all of us to destroy its economy. China’s most important strength and weakness all at once is its economy. That’s why, we should focus on this particular point and try to make from China’s strength a weakness and from our weakness a power to close these internment camps.