Double standards for outrage: “What does China have that Denmark did not?”

How to deal with Mohammedanism:

“If politeness and ceremony be observed toward Mohammedans, they imagine they are feared and become arrogant; but in showing severity and rudeness, they are impressed with fear and respect, and they are supple and manageable.”

–North China Herald,1867 

Indeed: Cartoons in Denmark = fatwas, effigy burnings, riots, and death threats. (See also: Pope Rage.) Chinese suppression of Uighur revolt with actual loss of life = Meh. “Muslim world’s rage missing over Uighurs’ plight,” by Moisés Naím for the Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, via JW

Where are the fatwas? The angry marches in front of embassies, the indignant speeches? Where are al-Qaeda’s videos? In short, what does China have that Denmark did not? China has been actively discriminating against Muslims, and recently a number of them have been killed in violent street riots.

In Denmark a newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and the Muslim world erupted in anger. Today that same Muslim world seems to be mute, deaf, and blind, and is oblivious to the violence and discrimination suffered by the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group, at the hands of the Chinese government.The reaction to the cartoons was swift and furious. Eleven ambassadors from Muslim countries formally protested to the Danish government. The Danish Consulate in Beirut was burned, and several people died in street riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia. Newspapers in Norway and elsewhere decided to print the cartoons in an act of solidarity, which fueled the wave of violence. Al-Qaeda’s videos and Web sites explained that the offensive cartoons were simply another example of the West’s crusade against Islam.

Meanwhile . . .

Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has been carrying out systematic policies that discriminate against Uighurs. Their language is forbidden in schools; government employees cannot have long beards or head scarves and are not allowed to pray or fast during working hours. Uighurs also face strong discriminatory practices in education, health care, housing, and employment. Young Uighurs are often forced to work in faraway provinces, while Han Chinese – who are about 90 percent of China’s population – are encouraged to move to Xinjiang, the autonomous region where Uighurs are the largest ethnic group. More than two million have settled there.

Any protests against these practices are harshly repressed. The repression of the Uighurs intensified after the Sept. 11 attacks, when many of their political leaders were jailed, accused of having links with foreign Islamist terrorists. Since then, any individual or group convicted of terrorism, religious extremism, or separatism has received draconian sentences.

• Video: Russian flag set on fire in Tehran

The recent troubles in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, have left 184 dead, about a thousand injured, and thousands more detained. These are official figures; Uighurs claim the real numbers are much larger.

What have Muslim leaders worldwide said or done so far? Not much.

Mullahs, imams, and assorted clerics found time to issue fatwas condemning among other practices, Pokémon cartoons, total nudity during sex for married couples, and the use of polio vaccines, not to mention Salman Rushdie. They have yet to find the time to say anything about China’s practices toward Uighurs.

The same applies to the Arab League, governments of Muslim countries (where are the 11 ambassadors who protested to the Danish government?), and Muslim organizations in Europe and Asia. They have either been mute or their reaction has been too little, too late.

Take, for example, the case of Turkey. Although the Uighurs have close ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties with the Turkish people, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not deemed their plea as urgent. At the same time that Erdogan was trying to get the international community to recognize Hamas, his government was denying a visa to Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the Uighurs (though recently Erdogan softened his posture and said that she would be allowed to visit Turkey). Only recently has Erdogan’s government expressed concern about the situation in Xinjiang. Ahmet Davutoglu, the new foreign affairs minister, said this month that Turkey “cannot remain silent in the face of what is happening [in Xinjiang].”

This did not go well in Beijing. On July 10, Global Times, an official Chinese press outlet, published an article titled “Turkey, another axis of evil!?” It noted: “After the riots in Xinjiang, many governments around the world are very cautious making comments, including the American government. But the Turkish government is an exception. As Urumqi is on its way to recovery, this arrogant country has never stopped lashing out at China. In fact, both the Turkish government and its nongovernmental organizations were harsh on China. . . . Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, ‘We have always seen our Uygur [as] brothers, with whom we have historical and cultural ties . . .’ “

Erdogan has since called the situation ”nearly genocide,” but remains in a vast minority of Muslim leaders who have had anything to say at all.

Tagged as: China, double standards, Muslim outrage, Uighurs