By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
In response to the rising international criticism regarding the detainment of more than a million Uighur Muslims in so-called "re-education camps", China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi defended the country's actions , stating, "the efforts are completely in line with the direction taken by the international community to combat terrorism ... if we can take care of prevention, then it will be impossible for terrorism to spread and take root."
Several Chinese officials were known to speak ill of Islam. Some of them even defended their country's actions, claiming that Islam is an "ideological illness," positioning the concentration camps as "hospitals" needed to "cure" people from this sickness. Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the US, stated that the country is trying to turn the Uighurs into "normal people," and a pro-government newspaper tweeted: "The West should be consistent over its own value system. How can it be fine to kill terrorists with missiles, but a humanitarian crisis when Xinjiang attempts to turn them into normal people?" Such statements describe the faith of over 1.7 billion people as an illness from which they need to be cured.
Viewing Islam as an abnormality and the cause of "extremism," is not exclusive to China , rather it finds its home in the West's Countering Violence Extremism (CVE) programs , which view expressions of Muslim identity as uniquely associated with "extremism" and "radicalization."
In 2011, a US government white paper likened the hijab, worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion to "passive terrorism" and an indicator of support for violence. Hijab and veil bans are also sprouting up across Europe. Politicians and activists who support such measures argue that a piece of cloth is equal to violence. Such policies are built on a false and unfounded premise that identifies markers attributed to Muslim identity (growing a beard, attending mosque, wearing a hijab, etc) as indicators of "radicalization" and "extremism." China too has adopted this framework as veils and long beards are forbidden in the Xinjiang region.
In 2014, Oklahoma state representative, John Bennett, described Islam as a "cancer in our nation that needs to be cut out."
In March 2017, far-right Australian politician, Pauline Hanson, stated: "Islam is a disease; we need to vaccinate ourselves against that." Caroline Santos a candidate for United Kingdom's right-wing UKIP, described Islam in 2017 as a "cancer" in a tweet praising far-right figure Tommy Robinson.
In 2018, Swiss officials fined a man for saying "Allahu Akbar" in public, and defended their actions arguing that a "passersby could have mistaken him for a terrorist." Today in China, Muslims who have been heard greeting one another with the common phrase, "As-Salam Alaikum," (peace be upon you) have found themselves detained in the ever-expanding network of concentration camps.
China continues to tread the path of western politicians to "cut out" Islam, by criminalizing any expression of Muslim identity, including removing Qurans from people's homes, restricting fasting during the month of Ramadan, and forbidding Muslim parents from giving their children Muslim names. In an effort to "heal" Muslims from this "dangerous ideology," the government has established 28 detention camps, described by Amnesty International as comparable to "wartime concentration camps," aimed at mass scale eradication of Uighur Muslim identity.
Thus, the happenings in China against Islam and Muslims is the product of a framework that points to Islam and the expression of Muslim identity as the root cause of terrorism, a viewpoint that finds its roots to the Western political discourse.