Int’l religious freedom alliance propaganda & reality
IN recent years Chinese Government under leadership of President Xi Jinping have taken big leaps to safeguard the economy and poverty alleviation strategy to uplift the living standards of people.
China has pulled 754 million people out of poverty including those of minorities. Incidence of poverty has dropped from 10.2% to 0.4%.
Muslims across China have been united and been given equal rights and opportunities as other ethnicities.
Recently there have been some noises by Western media attacking China for the religious freedom and highlighting training centre in Xinjiang as “prisons” or “concentration camps”, which “seriously violated human rights”.
In this regard, annual summit of the International Religious Freedom Alliance (IRF) was held on 31st January and first February 2023 in United States along with 37 countries as members of the Alliance.
The IRF Summit aimed to focus on the plight of religious believers who are persecuted individually and collectively.
The summit agenda included China as a target country for key evaluation studies. The Alliance predicated on the idea that more must be done to protect members of religious minority groups and combat discrimination and persecution based on religion or belief.
Session 3 of agenda of the summit propagated the Chinese Government via theme Corporate Accountability for People of Faith in China’s Forced Labour System.
The propaganda has been mounting against President Xi Jinping since he came into power, Chinese Communist Party has been centre point of this propaganda highlighting a campaign of so-called persecution against Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners alike.
While making this Alliance US government and Alliance member countries forgot the atrocities by India in Kashmir and killing and torturing of Muslims, devoid the basic human rights of Muslims in India and by putting a curfew in occupied Kashmir, and violence by Israel in Palestine occupying illegally the Muslims houses and So-called War on terror by US which has killed thousands of Muslims around world and left millions of Muslims houseless in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan & Iraq.
After series of incidents, the United States has greatly reduced its image of the so-called “human rights defender” in international community due to its own human rights situation currently in “Black Americans”.
Pakistan-China Institute organized a first-of-its-kind webinar on the “New Cold War?
Playing the Xinjiang card against China” under its flagship event series, “Friends of Silk Road (FOSR)”.
In the webinar to express solidarity with China on Xinjiang. The speakers including diplomat H.E Naghmana Hashmi stressed that laws such as the ‘Uyghur forced labour bill’, and other legislation and policies concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Tibet, are part of a larger ‘China containment’ policy & stated that the United States is involved in starting a New Cold War with China, which requires greater international cooperation.
Among those who make voices, some have never been to Xinjiang, their allegation is based on rumours or imagination; some have hidden motives, who intentionally twist the truth to discredit China or provoke conflict between China and Muslim countries by linking effort of Chinese government in maintaining social stability with “religion repression”.
Since 1953, Chinese Muslims have successfully established “China Islamic Association” and local Islamic association at all levels, publishing and independently distributing “Chinese Muslim” magazine and printing Islamic Holy Books “Holy Quran” and “Hadith”.
After China reforms and opening up, Chinese Muslims actively participated in political, economic, and cultural construction of China.
The international community speaks highly of China’s Xinjiang policy. Since end of 2018, over 2,000 representatives have visited Xinjiang in more than 70 groups, including officials from the United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and government officials and media groups from Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and religious groups and academic circle visited Xinjiang and met face-to-face with trainees.
In January 2023 A delegation led by Ali Rashid Abudula Ali Alnuaimi, Chairman of the World Muslim Communities Council, consisting of more than 30 Islamic figures and scholars from 14 countries, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia and Bosnia and Herzegovina visited Xinjiang, China.
The foreign delegation to the region acknowledged their support for China’s stance on Xinjiang-related issues, as USA and some Western countries continuously spread rumors, throwing mud at China and attempting to sow discord between China and Islamic countries.
They witnessed how local Muslims lived and worked in peace and fully enjoy freedom of religion.
They highly appreciated the ethnic and religious policies of China, and firmly supported China’s preventive anti-terrorism and deradicalization efforts and admired region’s measures on countering terrorism and extremism, and of people who have contributed to stability and development in the region.
The righteous people in the Islamic world have never bent to the pressure from some Western countries, nor have they been fooled by lies about Xinjiang region.
Instead of following a few Western countries in using Xinjiang-related issues to interfere with China’s internal affairs, these people have affirmed the development of the Xinjiang region, exposed the political practices of the US and some Western countries, and defended international fairness and justice.
The delegation also visited an exhibition on fight against terrorism and extremism to learn more about how the region previously suffered from terrorism from 1990 to 2016, resulting in thousands of terror attacks.
Brief introductions on 52 terror attacks with photos of scenes from the attacks and victims from different ethnic groups and religious groups, were displayed.
For a long time, the US and some Western countries have applied double standards on terror attacks that took place in China’s Xinjiang region and described the Chinese government’s counterterrorism measures as “oppressing ethnic minorities.
The allegations by IRF Alliance are baseless. Working hand in hand, China and Pakistan will play a more positive role in safeguarding security of the two brotherly countries, as well as the peace and stability in the region by promoting the harmony among different religions.
—The writer is PhD in International Relations based in Beijing.
