China has been a center of contention for the entire world these days. Apart from the regular issues with its neighbors, it is massively infamous for poor handling of the Corona pandemic. There is one issue that has tarnished the image of China, that it the repression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province.
Media across the World has come down heavily on the Chinese government, for its illegal detention of millions of Uyghur Muslims in its re-education camps. It is said that these Muslims are forced to undergo psychological indoctrination programs organized by the Chinese Government. They are forced to study communist propaganda, they have to treat Chinese President Jinping as their supreme leader.
The Chinese government has banned certain Islamic names, including Prophet Mohammad’s name in these regions. They have banned long beards and veils. Uyghur Muslims are forced to watch only the Chinese Government’s channels, they are forced to send their kid to the Government school, instead of Madarsa. The Chinese government has enforced the consumption of Liquor, smoke, and pork and any violation of these policies attracts brutal punishments.
Several Human rights organizations, the United Nations, and multiple governments have urged the Chinese government to stop the crackdown against Uyghur Muslims and disband these detention centers. However, China remains defiant and denies any such charges whatsoever. China maintains that these are mere vocational training centers, that do not infringe on Uyghur’s human rights.
Such news often creates an emotional downpour and people accuse the Chinese Government of their brutal tactics to handle Uyghur Muslims. We have seen even Indians shedding tears for Uyghur Muslims and showing solidarity for their cause. However, we know that most of the Indians are unaware of the reality of Uyghurs, and in this article, we would be presenting some cruel facts about them, which may change your heart.
Who are Uyghurs?
These Uyghurs are predominantly Turkic-speaking ethnic groups primarily from China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. It is said that more than 10 million Uyghur Muslims live in this region. Uyghurs speak their own language, which is quite similar to the Uzbek language. Most of the Uyghurs practice Sunni Islam.
This Xinjiang region is under China’s administrative control since 1949. It is an extremely important province which has high strategic and business importance since ages. It shares borders with other Muslim countries like Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. It is situated along the ancient Silk Road trading route and known for its abundance of oil and other natural resources including rare earth metals.
The cause of current disturbance if the demographic shift due to the increasing number of Uyghurs and Han ethnic people and a constant fight to retain control over this area.
Uyghurs are reaping what they saw
The current Xinjiang region was known for its Buddhism roots, the same was documented by the famous Chinese pilgrim traveler Xuanzong in 7th Century AD. We can still see the ruins of many Buddhist monasteries in the Turfan area of Xinjiang. The art and cultural evidence prove the connection of ancient India with this region. Buddhism was adopted by the famous Kocho kingdom of Uyghurs, later on, Christianity also started spreading its influence via missionaries.
However, the balance was started changing since the arrival of Islam into the Tarim Basin area. In 821 AD, an Arab ambassador visited the Uyghur kingdom and Islam spread like a wildfire since 11th century AD, and in just a few decades, Islam became the most dominant religion of the entire region and its neighboring states.
It is said that Uyghurs started conversion at a rapid pace and they show no remorse towards the people of other ethnicity and religion. Xinjiang has been home to many ethnic groups throughout history, Uyghurs were comparatively new in this region. Various Chinese dynasties (Han ethnicity) at times have ruled over Xinjian, but the brutal uprising started in the early part of the last century.
In the early 1930s, Uyghur leadership started an uprising to snatch their land from Chinese Han dynasty rulers. Uyghurs were led by They were led by Muhammad Amin Bughra and Abdullah Bughra, they infused hatred against Hans, Hindus, and Christians and initiated this bloody battle which cost thousands of innocent lives.
The Kumul Rebellions – Massacre of Hindus and Christians
The Bughras applied Shariah law in the Xinjiang region and started attacking the Hindus and Christians and were forcing them to convert into Islam. In the name of Islam, Uyghur leader Amir Abdullah Bughra attacked many Swedish missionaries and killed many Christian. Bughra’s army beheaded and killed thousands of Muslims who had converted to Christianity, as it was considered as ‘Haram’ for them. Several thousand other Uyghur Muslims who were converted to Christianity were executed at Uyghur Habil in 1933.
Uyghurs killed hundreds of Hindus in Shamba Bazaar, Khotan and Posgam on 25th March 1933. They snatched the belongings of Hindus, slaughtered them with their families, and asked the remaining Hindus to desert the Xinjiang region.
Muslim Turkic Uyghur plundered the possessions in Karghalik of Rai Sahib Dip Chand (famous Indian businessman) and his fellow Hindus on 24th March 1933. Several hundreds of Hindus were massacred in Keryia city, where a huge number of migrant Hindus from Sindh’s Shikarpur district were living for decades. Many Hindus throats were slit and thrown in wells to die slowly, just like Kerala’s Mopla Style.
The selective slaughter of the Indian Hindus was infamously called the “Karghalik Outrage“. The Emirs of Khotan (Uyghurs) orchestrated this ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Christians and declared Shariah law in Khotan on March 16, 1933.
Reason for Hindu’s killing?
Hindus were living in Xinjiang for ages, and they were economically well settled, on the other hand, Uyghurs were nomadic and they used to loiter and being fanatics. Uyghurs used to mistreat their women in inhumane fashion, they used to marry and divorce at will and used to treat their Women like an animal. Uyghur men used to sell their children.
To escape this pathetic treatment, Uyghur women used to desert them and marry non-Muslims, which is Hindus, Christian, or Han Chinese. This indeed acts as a trigger, as Uyghurs targetted only Hindus and Christians. Han were out of their bounds, hence they never tried to do any sort of misadventure against them.
Uyghurs were extremely violent, and they were always up in arms against Hindus and Christians. There is much documentary evidence which proves that Uyghurs used to slaughter cows purposefully to offend Hindus and to show them their rightful place. Per Uyghurs, Hindus and Christians have no right to live in Sharia-compliant states.
It’s a payback time for Uyghurs
Today, China is pushing more citizens into Xinjiang province. It is said that China has a state policy which is known as Sinicization, or could be called ‘Hanification’ has led to demographic change in this region. China has started paying them back in their own language. China has started concentration camps, stopped the Islamic conversion, they even started re-writing the Islamic books to make them sensitized per their own belief.
It is extremely hard for Uyghurs to find jobs, as Chinese authorities give first preference to either a person with ‘Han’ ethnicity or someone other from mainland China gets a job.
When we saw the emotional outpouring in support of Uyghurs, we repent the lack of knowledge about the grave sins these Uyghurs have committed. They massacred hundred of thousands of Hindus, Christian and Chinese, just because they were not sharing the same faith and God. We know that, people can give us lectures on humanity and what not, but before that please try and understand, that even if today, Uyghurs get a chance, they will never hesitate to repeat their blood-thirst and may kick everyone out of their territory.
Source – Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949 by Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986).
