US Congress Told of Chinese Muslims' Plight Islam Online December 15, 2005 http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/15/article04.shtml
- map: http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/15/04.shtm - WASHINGTON, December 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) China is using the US-championed "war on terror" to justify its crushing campaign of religious oppression, cultural assimilation and rights abuses of its Uighur Muslim minority, the exiled leader of the Chinese Uighur Muslims told US Congress members. "The truth is that the Chinese government has shown it will use the war against terror as a justification to persecute Uighurs," Rebiya Kadeer told US Congress Wednesday, December 14, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Today, besides our culture, history and language, our very survival as an indigenous and unique people is now under the direct threat of Beijing's ruthless policies." The Muslim activist stressed that the Chinese government is still making grave human rights abuses in its predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region. "Attempting to stop dissent, free expression and free assembly by labeling them as terrorism is not acceptable," said Kadeer, a highest-profile Muslim Uighur political prisoner who was deported to the United States after her release in March. The Uighurs are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million whose traditional homeland lies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in north-west China. Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of crackdowns by Chinese authorities, who have been accused by rights groups of religious repression against Uighurs in the name of counter-terrorism efforts. Incommunicado "Our very survival as an indigenous and unique people is now under the direct threat of Beijing's ruthless policies," said the Muslim activist Kadeer said that tens of thousands of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang region had been held incommunicado, tortured and sentenced after unfair trials. Many Uighur Muslim women have also been forced to make abortion by Chinese authorities. "Women are frequently forced to terminate their pregnancies if they are found to be pregnant outside of the Chinese family planning policies," she said. "There are frequent reports of heavy fines and other reprisals for women who break the birth control rules," the 58-year-old Kadeer said, citing her own experience once when she had to go into hiding in the ninth month of her pregnancy after being threatened by birth control officers. T. Kumar, the Washington-based Asian advocacy director of Amnesty International, also told the Congressional hearing that "Xinjiang was the only place in China where political executions of Uighurs are taking place in large numbers. "China is using the war on terror as an excuse to crack down on the Uighurs. Unfortunately they are a minority and are Muslims and that fits well into Beijing agenda of branding them as terrorists," he said. He urged the Congress to ask President George W. Bush, in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to demand a "deadline" from Chinese President Hu Jintao to stop the execution of Uighur political prisoners. He also urged the American President to invite Kadeer to the White House ahead of Hu's expected visit to Washington early next year. "That will send a very strong message to Hu and also symbolize the plight of the Uighurs," he added. Beijing views Xinjiang as an invaluable asset because of its crucial strategic location near Central Asia and its large oil and gas reserves. In a 114-page report released in April, Human Rights Watch said Chinese policy in Xinjiang "denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression". Uighur rights activists have accused the US administration, which often brags about human rights, of turning a blind eye to China's crackdown on the Muslim Uighur minority. - You May Read Also: China's Forgotten Muslims http://www.islamonline.net/English/Views/2002/06/article02.shtml - http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/15/article04.shtml ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. 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