Dr Shabir Choudhry
As long as CPEC related projects are not completed and dollars are coming in, Pakistani Government, Pakistani people and even the religious parties can ignore anti Muslim policies of China. To these people regular flow of dollars, whether from Washington or Beijing, is more important than to speak about anti Muslim policies. Anyone who dares to draw attention of the Pakistani elite towards wrong policies is surely asking for trouble, especially if that person is a nationalist from Jammu and Kashmir.
I know many people won’t like it, but bitter fact is Pakistan sided with Britain and France when they attacked Suez Canal, Egypt, a Muslim country in 1956. Siding with a poor Muslim country, Egypt could not bring dollars, so Pakistan sided with the aggressors because America wanted that. Also this diplomatic blunder was to bring dollars and pounds to Pakistan; and for dollars and pounds the Pakistani elite can sell Pakistani men and women and even sell the national pride.
Similarly when dollars were coming – in, the Pakistani ruling elite helped America and provided all sorts of logistic support, including airports, unchecked entry and exit to Pakistan and bases from where drones could fly that America could easily kill Muslims in Afghanistan and in certain parts of Pakistan.
Ironically, on one hand Pakistan was apparently on the side of those who were fighting terrorism; and on the other hand Pakistani agencies were helping those who were considered as terrorists by America and the world community. Idea was to keep the Afghan pot boiling and bleed America, just like they were bleeding India in Kashmir. If America had won in Afghanistan, and had eliminated all the opposition there was no need for Pakistan’s support and that would have stopped flow of dollars.
Americans may think they are smart, but Pakistani elite out manoeuvred them and it took them many years to understand duplicity of the Pakistani elite. One Pakistani commentator said: Musharaf was apparently playing a double game after 9/11, supporting the United States and the Taliban at the same time.
China’s anti Muslim campaign
‘We demolished nearly 70 percent of mosques in the city’, claimed a Chinese official.
News flashed during last Ramadan that Muslims in China were not allowed to observe Ramadan as it affected their performance at work. To the Chinese officials economic production is more important than religious sentiments of Muslims. Not a single voice was heard from Pakistan against this because Pakistanis know it is not wise to bite the hand that feeds. Religious parties also thought it was prudent to remain quiet.
The latest information coming out of China is more disturbing. According to a report compiled by RFA’s Uyghur Services, ‘The Chinese Government has destroyed thousands of mosques over the past three months in the restive Xinjiang region in Beijing’s latest attempt to “rectify” the largely Muslim population there’.
The Chinese Government officials refused to reveal how many mosques were demolished, however, RFA’s Uyghur Service claim that around 5,000 mosques were destroyed over the three months of the campaign’.
China is doing all this under the “Mosque Rectification” campaign which was launched by the Chinese Central Ethnic-Religious Affairs Department and managed by the local police. A local policeman Eysajan Yaqup said:
“Convincing the people that one of the purposes for demolishing the mosques was for the safety of the worshipers was a bit difficult….Some of them laughed at us when we explained the purpose, and some of them stared at us to show their disagreement.” Eysajan Yaqup said he and other officials ignored the laughter and the stares and “most of the prayers were silenced… “We successfully completed our duty within three months”.
Beijing blames Uyghur extremists, who were at one time getting support from Jihadi groups of Pakistan, for a string of violent attacks and clashes in recent years. However, ‘critics say the Government has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs, and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for violence that has left hundreds dead since 2009’. 3
China is determined to crack down on all religious activists, and for this purpose they have employed an army of religious affairs officials who strictly impose limits on all forms of religious worship, and ‘crack down on faith-based activities that haven’t submitted to Government regulation’. For this purpose they regularly conduct night time police raids on Muslim households in Uyghur, impose strict restrictions on ‘Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including clothing and personal appearance’.
One critic of the Chinese campaign said, “First the authorities jailed all the young men who could oppose such a policy with the strike-hard campaign that started May 2014, then the authorities implemented new rules to punish rumour spreaders and now this campaign to demolish mosques”. Pakistani government and religious parties are tight lipped about what is happening to Muslims in China. However, they all become fully active once they know that Muslims in India are not allowed to eat cow meat, and some people are tortured or killed. They present these incidents as if future of Islamic faith rests on eating cow meat, which is forbidden to eat in India because of Hindu religious reasons.
(The author is Chairman South Asia watch and Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs)
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