By Fathma AliThe Muslim world is bleeding. Bleeding with no one by their side. Bleeding with continuous stabs digging further down their back. Bleeding to bleach humanity red. Bleeding uncontrollably that the last drop will be the world’s turning point.
You may be asking why I’m invoking this imagery; what’s happening?
Let’s start with the holocaust of our Uyghur Muslim brothers and sisters.
Throughout my education, I have been taught about what happened to the European Jews in 1945. Six million European Jews were brutally murdered for misconnected stereotypes and pure hatred. Six million lost their lives for being who they were!
Hitler, who started the Holocaust against Jewish people, trafficked in stereotypes that are alive and well even today in 2021, despite the fact the Nazis lost World War II, were condemned virtually worldwide, and Hitler is dead. He instilled such propaganda that Jewish people “steal opportunity” and perpetuated the idea that they’re “money-grabbers.” This was enough to create public discord and sway public opinion to the point that six million people were brutally murdered before there was any major intervention.
Right now, as you read this, you should be aware the same thing is happening in China to Uyghur Muslims. Close to two million Muslims have been abducted and forced into concentration camps. There they are electrocuted, used as labor slaves, brutally beaten and tortured, forced to renounce and convert from their faith, commanded to disobey religious practices such as abstaining from pork and alcohol, and forced into marriage and “integration” as part of the Han Chinese group.
Articles have been published, the disappearance of mosques has been visible through Google maps, multiple Uyghur Muslims have given their stories, beseeching the world to intervene. Their haunted eyes paint the atrocities even clearer. They are broken, feel helpless, feel betrayed, feel disrespected.
When you learned about the various genocides that have occurred in history, most notably the Holocaust, how did you feel? Were you shocked? Did you wonder how it was allowed to go on for so long? How it even happened?
I remember my history teacher telling our class, “History is taught so we don’t make the same mistakes.” Then someone later asked, “How could anyone let this happen?”
We all nodded. Now I wonder once more where our humanity is because it’s happening again in real-time; this time with the capability for 24 hours news cycles and easily accessible information.
Uyghur Muslims are facing genocide, and the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) has refused to investigate China’s detention camps. We can’t wait for someone else to make a difference. We are the people that make a country; therefore, let’s all stand up as humanity and prove that humanity isn’t dead. If you were there in 1945, what would you do? Would you stay silent? Or would you be the revolution? Why aren’t you doing that now?
If you were there in 1945, what would you do? Would you stay silent? Or would you be the revolution? Why aren’t you doing that now?
Let us not discriminate anyone based on what society tells us! If a spoiled grape is amongst the bunch, does it mean all the grapes are bad? Would you throw all of them out? Humanity requires empathy; where is our empathy for the plight of our brothers and sisters in China?
I am asking you to raise awareness about Muslims in Xinjiang and the genocide they are facing. #ClosetheCamps can be a unifying battle cry for all of us.
I ask you to tell someone else about what’s happening, and let’s see humanity come together again to fight against inhumanity.
No one deserves to die because of how they do or don’t worship.
I ask you to put pressure on all of our governments and international entities to stand with the Uyghurs.
We have often asked ourselves — and assured ourselves — that we would be among the good guys back in 1945. Tomorrow it may be Allah who asks us to account for what we have done to end the oppression against our Uyghur siblings. And then what will you say when it’s your turn to be accountable? Will you say that you did nothing? Or will you be able to say that you did what was right?