Macabangkit B. Lanto
Like the Filipino Moros, the Uighurs have a long history of violent struggle for separatism from China for fundamental issues.
What is the truth about the reported plight of the Uighur Muslims?
There are always two sides in any controversy — the truth and the untruth. This is somehow blurred by the advent of speedy information technology dishing out news of dubious veracity, if not fake, in our swirling infodemic. It is a challenge for an objective reader to read between the lines and summon one’s power of discernment to filter information to arrive at facts.
Readers will notice that this column has always taken the cause of Muslim injustice to a wider audience. Never mind that it concerns the Palestinian Muslims, the French Muslims and the Rohingyas of Burma. Based on credible media reports, we described in graphic images the persecution and ethnic cleansing they have been subjected to, which has attracted world attention. The world community through the United Nations has lent a sympathetic ear, resulting to the passage of a resolution that seeks to redress these grievances.
The Muslims are taking a beating in some parts of the world. The bloody ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya Muslims of Bangladesh has put to severe test the raison d’être of the United Nation (UN). Despite its resolution decrying the inhuman treatment of Rohingyas, which had reduced them into meandering stateless gypsies, member-nations for selfish geopolitical reason just pay lip service to the UN call. The Palestinians are still embroiled in a war that defies solution. And in France, the government failed to protect its Muslim citizens from violence and harassment from radicals.
One of the loyal followers of this column, former Justice Undersecretary Zabedin Aziz, on several occasions posted reports about alleged inhuman treatment of the ethnic minority, the Uighur Muslims of western Xinjiang, China. There is a shade of parallelism between the minority inhabiting Xinjiang, the largest autonomous region in China, and the Filipino Muslims in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The grant of autonomy to both minority tribes was a political strategy to put out the flame of secession.
Like the Filipino Moros, the Uighurs have a long history of violent struggle for separatism from China for fundamental issues, reportedly ranging from violation of human rights to injustice.
Western media made a lot of noise about the alleged sad plight of the Uighurs. It has weaponized it to discredit its political and economic rival China by demonizing China state authorities. Many opinion writers fell prey to the manipulation of media by the Western power, especially the United States.
However, tidbits of reports have flowed that questioned the veracity of earlier reports about inhuman policies against Uighur Muslims, which debunked the anti-China reports.
In a published report, the influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the largest intergovernmental body of 57 Muslim countries, surprisingly passed a resolution through its Council of Foreign Ministers in March 2019, which “commends efforts of… China in providing care to its Muslim citizens.”
Likewise, in another unexpected move, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates joined the 37 countries that signed a letter in 2019 addressed to the UN Human Rights Council praising China’s “contribution to the international human rights cause” and claimed that China restored safety and security “after facing terrorism, separatism and extremism in Xingiang.”
It was reported also that when Saudi crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman visited China in 2019, he declared that “China has the right to take anti-terrorism and de-extremism measures to safeguard national security.”
Moreover, in Egypt and UAE, Uighur Muslims were arrested and deported back to China at Beijing’s request.
If all the narratives about persecution of Uighur Muslims in China are true, why are radical Muslim countries who are known to be champions of Muslim causes, like Iran and Turkey, not coming out with a strong condemnation of the alleged human rights violation? Remember, these Uighur Muslims trace their roots to Turkey; in fact, they are mostly a Turkish-speaking ethnic group.
This brings us to the question of whether or not the plight of the Uighur Muslims is being used as a pawn in the political and economic power struggle between the West and China.
Readers should be more discerning.
Email: amb_mac_lanto@yahoo.com