SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Historically, Chinese officials have not been fair to Muslim minorities in China. In the past two years, there have been some events within China’s borders with dubious endings; police have killed Muslims in Xinjiang with almost no justification needed. Details about these events are few and sparse in between. What this shows is that the Chinese government has a problem with religious expression and ethnic minorities itself, not just Muslims. By justifying the deaths as deserving, the Chinese show that social hierarchy still plays an important role within their society. Surprisingly, however, business operations have not been religion-biased in China. While many businesses in China continue to work with Muslims across all of Asia including the “Middle East”, and profiting, the Americas and Western countries lose out on a lot of business because of their extreme Islamophobic tendencies.
In past few years Islamophobia has rapidly increased in China. The country has conducted several crack down on religious freedoms, China has forced the imams of eastern Muslim majority district of Xinjiang to dance in the street, and swear to an oath that they will not teach religion to children as well telling them that prayer is harmful to the soul. Previous year in the month of Ramadan, China banned fasting in Xinjiang. Recently a Muslim man has been sentenced to six years in prison for keeping a beard in Xinjiang. In the Muslim dominant region of Xinjiang, the 38-year-old man was handed the punishment by the Chinese court. In addition, his wife has been sentenced to two years of imprisonment for wearing an Islamic veil. Between 1964 and 1996, China conducted more than 40 poorly-controlled, nuclear tests in Xinjiang. An expert who studied radiation effects from tests by the US, France, and former Soviet Union, calculated that as many as 194,000 people may have died from acute radiation poisoning, among a whopping 1.2 million people who received doses high enough to induce cancer and gross fetal abnormalities.
More impressive still, is the capacity of the Pakistani political leaders, touting Islamic unity and decrying the oppression of Muslims wherever they may be, to ignore the Islamophobia raging in its most favoured state. Not only Pakistan but other Muslim countries should raise voice against injustice and deprivation of Xinjiang Muslims.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
