Religious minorities…Reality and truth
2/6/2008
Sayyed Nazeely
On 16 May 2008 newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published an article by writer Amir Tahry which discussed the tragedy of the Uighur Muslims under the headline, “the Forgotten People of China”.
It is the Muslims of China and not Tibetans who are most excluded and banished from the human spirit and most deprived of their human rights according to the standards discussed by the United Nations and international civil society organisations. It is known that the Muslims of Uighur live in an area that used to be called “East Turkestan”. Islam entered it early on, and they were powerful, obstinate and of pure character.
They are of Turkish origins and under the pressure of Chinese murder and terrorisation many Muslim tribes fled to central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran. Small groups stayed to wage war, and they are the reason why China was unable to take control over the region until the middle of the 1960s.
The Chinese frequently attacked this Muslim people and killed millions of them. In 1863 more than one million Uighur Muslims were killed. More than a million Muslims were also killed in the clashes of 1949 when the Chinese Communist regime led by Mao Zedong took over and the province’s independence was abrogated and it was forcibly incorporated into the Republic of China and the following took place:
1. The province was cleared of its Muslim inhabitants who were distributed in other provinces so that they formed a minority in these new areas.
2. An attempt to crush the Muslim’s identity and restrict their acts of devotion and signs of Islam. Mosques were destroyed and schools demolished so that new generations would be formed completely removed from Islam.
3. The Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong in the late 1960s was merely a fire whose flames burnt any display of Islam on the pretext of democracy and freedom. How many barbaric crimes have been committed in their name of these false claims across the course of history and until the present day in the era of the American emperor “Bush” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia…etc
Amnesty International published a document in 1999 while Canadian MPs prepared another in 1998 accusing “Peking” of fabricating terrorism charges against the Muslim “Uighur” people and falsely accusing them of being “Islamist fundamentalists” and “Islamist terrorists” and “separatists”. The document affirmed that the “Uighur” were not responsible for any of these terrorist acts. Rather, it is them that are living under dangerous and terrorising domination by the Chinese government. “They had nothing against them, except that they believed in Allah, the All-Mighty, Worthy of all Praise” (Surah Al-Borooj, 8)
This Muslim minority is living under the control of an atheist, communist regime that deprives it of its rights to education, health, dignified work and to participate in managing its own affairs, as well as depriving it of the modern, democratic life that most advanced countries boast about while concealing a simmering hatred of Islam and Muslims and who work on pulling it out at the roots.
Islam protects minority rights
Yes, we say it proudly because over the course of the centuries only Islam has protected minority rights, preserved their humanity and respected their independence, both in the past and in the modern age. Because they are brothers to Muslims and have the same rights and duties, there is no objection to their acts of devotion, rituals, churches and houses of worship, nor their systems, codes, laws, crosses or priests. “Allâh does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion nor drove you out of your homes. Verily, Allâh loves those who deal with equity”. (Surah el-Mumtahina, 8) “It is only as regards those who fought against you on account of religion, and have driven you out of your homes, and helped to drive you out, that Allâh forbids you to befriend them. And whosoever will befriend them, then such are the Zâlimûn (wrong-doers those who disobey Allâh)” (Surah el-Mumtahina, 9)
This is the true understanding and practical application of real “citizenship”, commendable neighbourliness and fair and kind treatment.
Far removed from that, in fact in contradiction to it, is the insanity, nonsense and chaos called for by many so-called secularists, atheists, leftists and individuals who are supposedly calling for progress and science and the vestiges of Communists who altered their “compass” and “loyalty” towards America when the Communist Party became bankrupt and ended after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
These individuals represent the hypocrites’ army in Muslim countries. “They hide within themselves what they dare not reveal to you” (Surah Aal-Imran, extract from verse 154).
They know very well that any minority living under Islamic Sharia rule is without doubt a lucky minority, and that its members enjoy privileges and rights, security and wellbeing and respect and freedom – what no Muslim minority living in the finest modern democracy in Europe or America enjoys.
Our Coptic brothers in Egypt know that their safety and security lies in Islamic Sharia, and that Sharia has been applied for more than thirteen centuries without oppression, repression, coercion or aggression against their blood, wealth, honour or beliefs.
Some of them feel that there is religious discrimination and hold conferences in Egypt and abroad, and spend suspect millions on them, and recruit various media agencies for PR purposes and to make a din. And gifts and presents rain down on the self-declared leftists and intellectuals who attend them. They try to throw oil on the fire of strife not out of love for our Coptic brothers or a concern for their interests and rights as they claim, but ultimately out of hatred for Islam and Sharia after they sold themselves to the devil.
The question here poses itself: does “citizenship” and “non-discrimination” mean wiping out the identity of the majority of inhabitants and separating between practicing their religion and applying their Sharia in a way that doesn’t harm the rights or feelings of our brothers in the homeland?!! Is there a Muslim minority anywhere in the world able to govern the majority and prevent it from practicing its religion and say to them don’t practice the religion you believe in because it constitutes aggression against our existence or our rights!!
The situation of some Muslim minorities in the world:
– India has the world’s largest Muslim minority in the world. It numbers more than 200 million and constitutes 20% of the population. Despite living in a relatively democratic society they are subject to murder, arson and destruction every now and again and cannot freely practice their religious rites such as slaughtering cows during Eid Al-Adha; anyone who does so has committed an unforgiveable sin and is attacked by Hindus, the cow worshippers. They kill whoever the kill and burn their houses before withdrawing in complete safety without being subject to any kind of punishment. Where is citizenship here? And where is democracy? And where are so-called human rights?!!
– Since Megellan and the Nazarenes* set foot in the Philippines the Muslims have left their rich land and been forced onto the overworked, barren land. Up until this day they haven’t been content with harassing Muslims, natives of this country (even the capital’s name Manila is a corruption of its Islamic name, aman Allah, “security of God”) and the state’s organised armies, supported by American military aid lay siege to the Muslims in the extreme south of the Philippine islands and refuse to legitimise their existence or accord them self-rule.
– In “Thailand” and “Myanmar” there are a large number of Muslims who embraced Islam centuries ago and who are now controlled by “Buddhists” treating them to a taste of exclusion, abuse and deprivation of freedom and citizenship rights, education and administrative positions in the managing of their own affairs. They are considered second or third class citizens and have no international Islamic backers to defend them against this oppression.
– In Ethiopia Muslims form the majority (65% of the population) and yet they are completely deprived of their political rights. They don’t have a minister in power nor anyone in a key position. They do not attend state schools which are in the hands of Nazarenes. Even Kottabs are put under the strain of taxes by the state so that they close and are forbidden from receiving financial aid from abroad. It is known that the Ethiopian army is currently killing Muslims in Somalia on behalf of America.
– And do you remember “Zanzibar” and “Tanganyika” where a third of the Muslim population were ethnically cleansed and the two entities were combined into one state governed by Nazarenes under the name “Tanzania”!!
– In France, in the free world: there are calls to expel Muslims, and they and their property are fair game in the most brutal way, even though the enemies [sic “Number” is probably what was meant here] of Muslims stands at seven million Muslims deprived of all their rights.
And so…
We cannot continue to the end of this course because we are running out of breath, our tears are falling and our hearts are shaken by pain, grief and sadness.
But we can say:
- Muslim minorities everywhere in the world, rather the majority of them, suffer oppression, dominion, subjugation and deprivation from the most basic human rights in a way that no one could imagine and not in conformity with any standards or protocol.
- Non-Muslim minorities in all Muslim countries, and in particular our Coptic brothers in Egypt, enjoy all their rights, respect, kindness and justice. And it is them who are most aware of this and the wise among them comprehend this very well.
- Beware of secularists, leftists and those who call for creative chaos, and of the strife people, who don’t necessarily love Copts but rather hate Islam and loathe Sharia and eschew a world governed by morals, virtue, justice and equity.
* النصارى el-nasaara loosely translated as “of Nazareth”, is an arguably linguistically neutral term which has acquired a derogatory meaning by the fact that firstly, Egyptian Christians rarely, if ever, use the term to describe themselves and secondly, it has come to be associated with sectarian rhetoric used by some Islamists. We have chosen to translate the term as “Nazarenes”.
This was originally published in Arabic on Ikhwanonline.com
