China’s protest against the burning of the Qu’ran in Stockholm is just propaganda. The CCP offends Islam daily in much worse ways in the Uyghur homeland.
by Kok Bayraq
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning portrays herself as urging Western countries to respect religious beliefs in response to the public burning of the Qur’an in Sweden by a Danish far-right politician protesting against Turkish President Erdoğan: “China will, as always, advocate inter-civilization dialogue together with Islamic countries and work [with] them to jointly uphold the freedom of religious belief of Muslims and all other population groups.”
No one may doubt the beauty of these words, but when considering the speaker, and especially her country’s record of human rights violations, we can only laugh.
Because it is no secret that China is committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims. Just recently, in an effort to hide the genocide, China halted the discussion of the Uyghur issue at the UN, and invented fake Muslim organizations to create propaganda and spread it via regional tours.
It is clear in China’s own reports and statements that they have defined Islam as a “mental illness” and established internment camps to “treat” Uyghur Muslims. These camps are still functioning in China today.
Independent media outlets have reported that in the years 2015–2016, in East Turkistan, 25,000 mosques were demolished under the guise of repair. Those with beards and headscarves, and even those who stopped smoking and drinking because of their beliefs, were punished.
Isn’t it said that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones? How could China dare to lecture the West on respect for Muslims?
I think the reasons are as follows: in Chinese debate culture and society, it is customary to repeat and insist on an idea, regardless of whether it is wrong or illogical, to make sure that the truth is not heard. Even in the propaganda war, the logic of the Chinese Communist Party is that an “attack is the best defense.”
The current geopolitical issues are the catalyst for this courage.
Some sections of the Islamic world are resentful of the West because of old international issues, including Palestine and Kashmir. Muslim leaders, especially in Arab countries, who are currently in power without elections, are uneasy about the human rights accusations made by the West. The strongest country criticizing the West and the US-led coalition is, of course, China.
Understanding the situation and benefiting from it, China was able to present itself as “pro-Muslim” in front of the Islamic world, despite the genocide it is committing against the Uyghurs.
For instance, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) invited China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, as a special guest to its annual conference in 2022, while the Uyghur Genocide was becoming a hot international topic. During the conference Wang said that “China shares the same hope” as the OIC on Kashmir, a Muslim majority region that both India and Pakistan rule in part but claim in full. This is not because of China’s love and respect for Islam. China’s defense of Muslims is nothing more than theatre.
“We have noted recent media reports on individual Western politicians’ public burning of copies of the Quran,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said. She continued, “The incidents shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of some Western politicians who pride themselves on their respect for freedom of religious belief.”
Thus Mao, recalling the West’s anti-Chinese stances on the Uyghur genocide, openly accused the West of hypocrisy. This means that China’s attitude stems from taking revenge on the West and not from supporting Muslims.
However, no matter how skillfully they play their role or how much revenge they attempt, the Chinese cannot change the truth. Equating Islam to a mental illness and claiming to be “curing” three million Muslims in concentration camps is no less insulting than burning the Qu’ran. The attempt to wipe out the entire Muslim population of a region, the prevention of the birth of two million Muslim children, and the murder of hundreds of thousands of people in prisons are no less harmful than drawing a caricature of the prophet.
These kinds of theatrics from China may affect some interest groups in the Islamic world, but they will not convince the entire global Muslim community to believe China’s lies. Because, and this is something that Arab dictators and selfish businesspersons do not believe but honest Muslims do, a well-known Hadith teaches that, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” Islam teaches that “to shed a human’s blood is to shed the blood of humanity.”
I believe that Communist China’s attempt to divide humanity and destroy some of it in order to save its own existence will certainly fail.
