CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Vanishing of the Uighur Muslims P eople often argue that history undeniably repeats itself; that every mistake, every disregard for human life comes full cycle. China, who is silencing the masses, imprisoning the innocent and denying allegations, has become a source of evidence for these believers. This treatment resembles the deplorable attitudes which were held against the Japanese people in the U.S. during WWII. In the Xinjiang province of China, Uighur muslims, a minority Turkic ethnic group, are being persecuted without trial and taken from their homes. China’s hidden internment camps lie in Dabancheng, where they’ve become enormous facilities imprisoning Uighurs. Authorities are desperate to keep this a secret, dismissing these massive camps as “re-education” sites where Uighurs are placed in classes designed to educate them on correct behavior. The term “re-education” is a euphemism for the sinister treatment against muslims within these internment camps. State-run media has created propaganda showing “students” gratefully accepting clean classroom environments and coursework, despite the gruelling circumstances Uighurs are truly under. This facade has supported the Chinese government’s activities of criminalising Islam and stripping away the religion from its inhabitants. Overpopulated and horrifying, these camps function as a tool for erasure towards Islam. Uighurs are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which is prohibited by Islam. Furthermore, they must perform tasks unwillingly, such as learning Mandarin, singing Communist Party songs and participating in training programs that attempt to assimilate them into Han Chinese culture. Women can no longer wear headscarves or name their children Islamic names. All freedoms have vanished and fear has taken its place. And what are the circumstances if they refuse; torture, starvation or even death. Children between the ages of six months to twelve years old are brainwashed into turning against their families and assimilating into Han Chinese culture. The children are locked up and separated from their family, taught to forget their heritage, culture and family, thus annihilating the future of the Uighur population within China. Uighur women are forced to marry Han men, while a disproportionate amount of Uighur men are taken from the comforts of their homes and locked away, punished for their religious practices. This is China’s way of forcing homogeneity and erasing the culture of these Turkish muslims in Xinjiang. This initiative is said to be the largest network of internment camps since WWII, for ten to twenty percent of Uighur Muslims in XinJiang are imprisoned within these camps. Millions of Uighurs have disappeared with no trace or reason. There is no due process of law that protects them -- China uses their religion and culture as a crime. These changes come as ramifications of Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on society. Uighurs do not maintain his idealistic loyalty to the Communist Party because they put their faith and family above the party. This coincides with the prejudice Uighurs have faced outside of these internment camps, inhibiting the freedoms of daily life and subjecting them to discriminatory practices. Ethnic profiling has incurred numerous travelling restrictions for the Uighurs, who are stopped at vehicle checkpoints and forced to give up their passports, however, the Han Chinese do not face these travel limitations. The term “re-education” is a euphemism for the sinister treatment against muslims within these internment camps. Fear infiltrates all areas of life for Uighurs, where missing family members, imprisonment and restrictions on religious practices are commonplace for them. There is no telling when prisoners will be released or for how long Uighurs will be mistreated. There is not much their society can do but wait for the world to understand their struggle and to speak up for them. Uighurs need people to see how China is trying to erase their identity and punish them for expressing themselves. Will history repeat itself, or will people listen and change it? BROOKE HALAK, editor-in-chief