People have been asking me about my views on this crisis. I hold a rather moderate view. I guess I am in a rather peculiar position because I am a Muslim who was born and bred in China. Having said that, the environment in which I was groomed in was rather western. Sure, I would go across the border to have Xinjiang cuisine once in a while, but that hardly classify me as someone with the legitamacy and experience to have an objective view of this (on a first hand source). My criticism is rather a more outwardly one to the wider Islamic ummah (community).
The Ottoman (Islamic) empire had once conquered most of the world from Cordoba in Spain to the far reach of China. Following my former post on Islam in China, I will continue my discussion into this issue. By no means is this a new phenomenon in China, the clashes between Uighers and Chinese. Most of my Chinese friends would tell me of stories where there were fights in school during their school days between ‘Muslims’ and ‘Han’ Chinese. This is in mainland China. I did a long thesis back at A-Levels discussing whether it is religion, namely Islam, which is to be blamed for the various outbreak of ‘wars’ in the world. I concluded that it was more to do with the people than the religion. Perhaps one which my colleague had answered but I failed to understand until I write this post now. Even though Islam preaches peace, there are times when the condition in which jihad or struggle becomes obligatory - that is when you feel that your religious rights and freedom is being threatened. It is said in the Hadith that when you pray and someone walks in front of you, you should try to stop them, but when they continue to walk through it is obligatory to fight them for they must be satanic. However, in a land such as China it has become difficult to speak out when your religious rights are being threatened. For example, the closure of the tens and hundreds of mosques in Uramqi closed for Jummah (Friday) prayers be considered a breach of religious freedom in many places, but with such curfew in place, would one dare to speak out against the government?
Communist China overthrew the Qing Dynasty back in the 40s, it is strange to think such a diverse land of constant war and peace as China being able to accomodate such a diversed mixed of culture and religions. It is rather strange to talk about the accomodation of religions in a communist and marxist regime, because by Marx’s definition, religion is the opium of the people and by definition a Marxist state is one which does not tolerate religion. But yet, Islam is ingrained in the culture of so many people belonging to minority groups in China. I was watching a documentary on BBC I-Player the other day. It was about Deng Xiao Ping and the economic reformation of China. How one person, as Deng, was able to combine Marxist principles with that of Capitalism. Deng had created special economic zones in China such as Shenzhen and Xiamen in the 90s for foreign investments to be able to take base. But it wasn’t until early this year when the first Airbus was created in China. This particular reform was slowly being spreaded across the country. Obviously, these places selected for their stretegic geographical location were dominated by the ‘Han’ people. Well, traditionally speaking, there were only 2 mainstream categories of people in Chinese history books - the ‘Han’ and the ‘Moon’ - The hans being more characteristic Chinese as we know today and the moons being more characteristic Mongolian and Russian. But when these ‘han’ Chinese were imported around the country for economic reforms, the other original inhabitants who had their own cultures and religious practices were being diluted. I’m sure most of you reading my blog would have come across a Chinese person and understand how proud they feel to be Chinese. So it is not very difficult to imagine what was going on in Xinjiang when Uighers were practicing Islam, praying 5 times a day, eating Halal without pork in their dishes - it was different, and ultimately there would be conflicts. Having said that, Chinese people through a lot of Chinese philosophical thinking had developed a rather peaceful approach in dealing with people. So it is always difficult when it comes to violence because Chinese usually doesn’t condone it. I have often told people who asked me whether they think China is suppressing Islam, I would respond by telling them I see this particular conflict as being more a conflict between minorities. There are many Islamic communities which thrive in China. If you take religion out of the picture, and look at it from a purely psychological and economical angle, you could understand why the Uighers would be frustrated. Whether or not there is a real crave for a separate state (Xinjiang), I don’t believe this is as much a wish as of Tibet. Islam had always been able to adapt to the local political and cultural environment and had thrived in many places.
Back to my criticism on this issue. Firstly I would like the criticise the media for over-exaggerating this issue. Perhaps many people would be surprised by this point. Ok listen me out here, yes, this is a news worth reporting and I am grateful that the world had finally opened their eyes to this issue. This is a very normal scene in Xinjiang in a way that if you talked to a mainland Chinese, they would tell you this is rather old news. The difference is, this time the Chinese government had taken an over-reaction over the situation. Randy told me that Wendy said 150 for China is a small number, and I couldn’t agree with Wendy more because why moblise 1000s of soilders to bring a city to a standstill over such a relatively small incident. I guess for the press what is interesting this time is the first time its seeing the effect of the global economic crisis taking a toll on the political stability in China. Hu Jingtao had to cancel his G8 summit in Italy to go back to Beijing for this issue. Secondly, I am appaulled by the suppression in a military form. China had always pride itself in having 56 minorities living harmoniously under one country and using 1 common language (Mandarin) - although each area in China has its own unidentifiable dialect. Why then when there is a clash between minorities do they lock everyone up instead of talking to one another resolving the issue. I have many Chinese friends and they are very accomodating to my religious requests, so I do not think religion is too much of a problem here. Rather, why is the news agency in China blackening the Uighers and painting the Hans as the victims when obviously both people are victims - its doing things which are not helping with cultural harmony, rather inciting hatred.
Ok, I am going to start a new paragraph for my last criticism: The wider Muslim communities in the world. As I mentioned earlier on, the Ottoman empire spreaded across the world. Obviously there is a break in the Islamic Ummah (community) nowadays. Back in the golden age, when Islamic empire was the pioneer of scientific advancement (instead of being accused of being backwards and medieval now) and Baghdad was a center of elite learning(instead of being the center of terrorism now), the Islamic community was very strong. However, looking at the Muslims now - Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan in ruins because of the remaining ideologies left from the Americans trying to fight off the Soviets (resulting in the Taliban), Kurds being gassed by Saddam Hussein during the gulf war, Shiites being bombed by Sunnis and vice versa in parts of Iraq and Iran - it just seems like the golden ages are far behind us. When you can have Egypt giving Israel almost free gas, whereas Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from lack of food. When Dubai is the playground of the riches of the west - when they can have free champaign bars in a country where citizens don’t drink - I see something seriously wrong. Terry was sponsoring a child in China who was a Muslim through World Vision which is a Christian organisation, but there was no mention of the Uigher crisis on Muslim Aid’s website, I feel a little disheartened. The 3rd pillar in Islam: Zakat - charity. Yet, the muslim community are all concentrating their energy in finding justice against Israel and fighting the American ideals but fail to help a dying brothers and sisters, I really don’t know what to say. There is a disease within the Muslim community. I leave you now with a news article from Al-Jazeera on this crisis. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/20097725217198672.html
By the way, if you have time, please have a watch of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urd5Rf8QIOY&feature=channel. You will understand why I prefer Al-Jazeera to BBC and CNN.