Dilly Hussain – The Uyghur Muslims of China Newcastle Uni
AI: Summary ©
The Uygur-equipped Second Republic (U Assian) was replaced by the first Uygvan-equipped Second Republic (U Assian). The Uygols were eventually replaced by the first Uygvan-equipped Second Republic (U Assian), but they were faced with persecution, violence, and censorship. The Uyghouts were eventually replaced by the first Uygvan-equipped Second Republic (U Assian), but they were faced with persecution, violence, and censorship. The Uyghouts were faced with persecution, violence, and censorship, and were faced with the need for accountability to the Chinese government to prevent the virus from wreaking havoc in the region.
AI: Summary ©
My dear brothers, sisters, and friends.
Let me begin by
thanking Newcastle University ISOC for inviting me today
to deliver this lecture
on the plight of the Uyghur Muslims
of Xinjiang
or known as occupied East Turkestan.
Now many of you will probably be fasting,
so I know concentration levels
may waver a little bit. So I'll try
my best,
to try keep you all engaged inshaAllah.
Let me begin by asking you all a
very honest question, and I hope the responses
will be as honest.
Can I see a show of hands
for those who have heard or are informed
of the situation in Palestine?
Keep your hands up if you are well
informed and are aware of the situation in
Syria.
Keep your hands up if you are well
informed and are aware of the situation in
Yemen.
Let me ask you now,
honestly,
how much do you actually know
about the Uyghur Muslims
in an area of Xinjiang?
And that is not your fault.
That is not your fault because 3, 4
years ago,
I wasn't aware
that there were more than 25,000,000
ethnic Turkic Muslims known as the Uyghurs
living in an area of China, Xinjiang.
And the reason why many of us are
unaware
is number 1, because
the Chinese government
have done
a fantastic job
in keeping a lid
on what's been happening
to the Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic Muslims
of that region.
Number 2, the reason why we are seemingly
unaware in comparison to other areas and lands
where Muslims are oppressed
or are persecuted is because there are large
diaspora communities
in the UK and broadly speaking, the West.
We know what's happening in Palestine and in
Syria and in Kashmir and these areas because
there are large Arab and,
India subcontinental
communities
in the west. However, there are not many
Uyghur Muslims
in the UK
or in Western Europe or in North America.
Hence, we don't really know
about what's going on there.
Thirdly,
this is something to do more introspectively.
As Muslims,
when we understand our history
or understand the plight and the oppression
of our fellow brothers and sisters in other
parts of the world, we tend to have
a priority board. Right? We know that Palestine
is very close and very dear to our
heart. It's something which
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the prophet salawaihi
wa sallam spoke about. And the same with
Syria, Damascus is mentioned in many hadith. We
also know because there are large Pakistani communities
in the UK, we know about what's happening
in
because Burma borders Bangladesh. We know what's happening
in Myanmar.
In the same case of Yemen as well.
That Yemen is another place which is mentioned
a lot in our scripture. So there's a
level of affinity.
But when it comes to other regions and
other lands, we are either unaware
or we subconsciously
prioritize them
lesser. And that's wrong.
Because the blood, the honor,
or the Muslims are the same. Irrelevant of
color, race, or ethnicity.
And you find this common with
situations of what's happening in Africa,
with what's happening with the Uyghurs,
that we tend to not think about them,
mostly because we don't actually prioritize them subconsciously.
Because we are rightly focused
on things like Palestine,
Syria, Kashmir,
the Rohingya, and Yemen.
So I kindly request of you all today
that from this point onward, we try and
have a level of consistency
with regards to raising awareness about injustices and
oppression
of our brothers and sisters all over the
world.
Another reason I believe that many Muslims in
the west especially are unaware of the situation
of the Oigur, is because we don't understand
their history.
We understand
the history of how Islam entered the Levant,
Egypt,
North Africa,
Turkey,
the India subcontinent, we know about this history.
I'm very sure if I asked you about
which companions
are buried in which lands and how Islam
arrived in Pakistan or in Bangladesh or
We'll know these things,
but we don't know
much about the history of the Uyghurs.
A one way of remaining connected,
not just with the Uyghurs,
but any groups of oppressed people is understanding
their history.
That's why the first aspect of today's lecture
will be a bit of history.
And forgive me in advance
if some of this is just regurgitating
data and events, but it's important.
It's important that we understand the heritage of
the Oigos. It's important that we understand how
they became Muslim, when they became Muslim,
and why today they are oppressed because they
are Muslim.
Because if we understand and connect
with different people's histories, we understand
the journey in which they have taken
in arriving at the situation they find themselves
in today.
So the Uyghurs are ethnic Turks.
When I say ethnic Turks, I'm not talking
about modern day Turkey.
I'm talking about the Turkic people.
And the Turkic people,
they initially began or they they were located
in modern day Central Asia.
And the Uyghurs were one of many
tribes of what was known as the Oguz
Turks.
Now, Oguzhan
is regarded as the founding father
of the Turkic people.
And the Uyghurs,
like
who's watching? Does anyone
know of Derilish Etrul? Anyone watching Derilish Etrul?
Because some tour Gardasil are there. Yeah?
Yeah? So the Kayis, the Seljuks, the Ghaznavids,
many, many, many of these Turkic
tribes, they all link their lineage back to
Ulsan. Am I correct?
Generally speaking, including the Uzbeks, including the Kriegs,
including the Kazakhs,
including all these countries that we know today
that formulate Central Asia. The Uyghurs were one
of many
of Ozturks and they were part of a
very broad
Turkic confederation
that's located in modern day Central Asia.
And for different reasons, because they lived nomadic
lifestyles,
they migrated to different parts of the world
for different reasons.
It could have been war. It could have
been as a result of a lack of,
farming land and pasture land. It could be
because of,
famine and disease. For many, many different reasons,
different Turkic tribes,
they migrated to different parts of the world.
Some migrated westwards towards Anatolia.
Some migrated southeastwards
towards Persia and Arabia.
Others migrated eastwards
towards China.
And the Uyghurs specifically
had always inhabited an area
called
East Turkestan. Now Turkestan in Persian basically just
means the land of the Turks.
So when we talk about Xinjiang,
the region known as Xinjiang,
I'm going to refer to it as occupied
East Turkestan.
In the same way that when we talk
about Palestine, we say occupied Palestine.
In the same way that when we talk
about occupied Kashmir, we're talking about it in
terms of solidarity
with the oppressed peoples of those lands. So
therefore, it would not be fair
for me to refer
to the land which is known as Turkistan
as Xinjiang,
because that gives legitimacy
to what's happening
to them over in that land. And I'll
go on to explain what Xinjiang means, and
the significance of us trying our best as
Muslim communities
refraining from using the term Xinjiang.
And
in fact, using the term occupied is Turkestan
in the same way that we refer to
other lands which are occupied,
by foreign entities.
Now
when we talk about how Islam arrived
to the Arabs
or Quraysh, or the people of the peninsula,
we know that they followed a polytheistic
religion.
They had many gods.
And the same way we can for those
of us who have, even from a cursory
point of view, have studied
Islam, will know that what the religion of
the Arabs was before the dawn of Islam.
Similarly, the religion of the Turkic people before
accepting Islam was shamanism.
Shamanism is another polytheistic religion,
specifically Tengism, and that is that the worship
of weather, of nature,
as well as,
their forefathers,
you know, excessively praising them to the extent
where you are worshiping nature and all this
kind of stuff.
In the 8th 9th century,
there is a small recorded
account of
some Uyghurs
along with other Turkic peoples, except in Buddhism.
Not in large numbers, but small numbers.
However, the first historical recorded,
account
of the Uyghurs accepting Islam
was during a period called the Kharaq and
Ikhhanate,
where between where in 934,
a sultan called Sultan Bogrul Khan, he accepted
Islam.
And because of his conversion to Islam,
there were many Uyghurs who had also converted
to Islam, but still not in their large
numbers.
Now here we have a map.
Now this map
is what was known as the great Mongol
Empire.
After the death of Genghis Khan,
there was a internal strife between his sons
for power struggle.
So the great Mongol Empire
broke up into 4,
the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate, the Chagatai, and
the Great Khanate.
Is Turkestan,
which the had inhabited,
the way they lived, fall under the Chagatai
Khanate. Can I see a show of hands
of people who are from India, Pakistan, or
Bangladesh?
So you've heard of the Mughals.
Right? The Mughals
also trace their lineage back
to the Turkic people.
And before the Mughals became the Mughal empire,
they were part of the Chagatai Khanate.
And it was around
the mid to the late 12th century that
we started seeing mass conversions of the Uyghur
people to Islam,
and they remained firm upon Islam
ever since.
When you speak to academics,
they break Uyghur history
into 7 parts.
But
for today's lecture and to understand what's happening
to the Uyghurs today,
only 3 periods are actually important for us
to have some grasp or understanding of.
That is the period of the Manchu occupation
between 17/60 to 1910,
the republican era between 1911 to 1949,
and the communist era from 1949
to the modern day.
Those three periods are important for us to
understand
because
for those of you who have heard of
the horrific levels of religious persecution that Uyghurs
are going through, did not start
over the last couple of years, over the
last 10, 15 years, is something which has
been going on for the last 100 to
a 120 years.
So it's important for us to understand where
this all kind of began.
The Manchu Empire.
The Manchu Empire was the last imperial dynasty
of China.
You can refer to him as Manchu or
the Qing dynasty.
In 17/59,
the Manchu empire started making military advancements towards
Mughalistan.
Now Mughalistan, just to go back to this
map,
was what came after the Chagatai Khanate. It
was known as Mughalistan.
Right? Again, it traces its lineage back to
the Mughals.
It was a Sunni Muslim empire.
And in 17/59,
the King dynasty
started making military advancements towards
Mughalistan, which at that time was heading towards
decline.
And by 18/64,
the Qing dynasty had totally dominated
Moggulistan,
and that included Is Turkestan.
So the Uyghurs had now come under
the authority and the governorship of the Qing
dynasty.
And this is where
most Uyghur
historians say that the religious persecution began.
Not to the extent and the level in
which they're experiencing today, but the roots
of this racial
and religious based persecution began under the Qing
dynasty.
In 18/64,
there was a revolt,
and there was the establishment of the Oigur
Yetisard Kingdom.
So there were a number of instances where
the Oigurs did resist, and they fought the
Qing dynasty.
And in 18/76,
there was this period called the 8 year
war,
where there was a formidable
effort by the Qing dynasty
to recapture
Ishturkistan,
because it's strategically a very, very important
land, in terms of accessing Central Asia, as
well as in terms of trade route and
natural resources.
After the 8 year war,
the Oigur Yetisar Kingdom was defeated,
And on 18th November, East Turk Islam was
renamed as Xinjiang,
which in Chinese means
new frontier.
Under the Qing dynasty,
we started seeing
politicized migration of ethnic Han Chinese
from mainland China
to East Turkestan,
and we started seeing the shipping of Uyghur
Muslims away from East Turkestan
and into labor forces in mainland China.
It is under the Qing dynasty that we
first started seeing
the illegal
taking
of Uyghur farmland
and being handed over
to the new Han migrants that had been
shipped from mainland China
to,
East Turkestan.
And this is where initially
the roots
of the oppression which the Uyghurs are facing
today begins.
The republican era and Uyghur nationalism.
So up to 1911,
the Uyghurs were under
the Qing dynasty. In 1911,
the Qing dynasty was defeated.
There was a nationalist
revolution.
The Qing dynasty or the Manchu empire were
overthrown.
And in 1920,
we saw the birth of Uyghur nationalism.
Now nationalism at that time, post world war
one,
was a prevalent ideology
that had spread all around the world.
Especially in
former colonies of the European empires.
Right? Especially when
a number of colonies from Africa, from the
Arab world, from the India subcontinent had contributed
towards the war efforts of the Europeans.
After
they had won,
they now wanted
self determination and independence, and nationalism was the
ideology
which they had aspired to
to gain their independence. So in this regard,
the were no different to that.
So whilst being ruled by nationalist warlords,
there was a growing movement of Uyghur nationalism
with the support of Joseph Stalin,
with the support of communist Russia.
And in 1921,
1921,
communist Russia met
with a number of Turkic leaders in Tashkent.
Oz Beg, Craig,
Kazakh,
Tajik, Turkmen,
Uyghur. They met in Tashkent.
And the Soviets basically said, look, guys,
we want to break away
from the bourgeoisie
control
of our lands. You need to seek independence
as the people of the proletariat and all
that ideological jargon.
And basically, the Russians had essentially supported
the Central Asian Turkic
movements to gain independence from whichever countries
or empires
that were controlling over them. But in reality,
we now know in hindsight,
what Soviet Russia was actually doing here was
it was creating its own
vessel states, its own satellite states to advance
its own geopolitical and ideological
agenda.
In 1933,
with the support of the Soviets, not material
support,
not financial support, just political support,
from the Soviets,
we saw the establishment of the 1st East
Turkestan
Islamic Republic.
And that picture there,
believe it or not,
is
the government of the 1st East Turkestan Republic.
That's the prime minister,
4th to the left,
And,
you'd think that, you know, for a first
republic, that's a very
humble looking government.
But this first republic barely lasted a year.
They were defeated
by the Chinese nationalists
until
another wave of Uyghur nationalism
in 1944.
We saw the birth
of the second republic
of Ishtarkistan,
which was then defeated
by communist China
in 1949.
Now there should be some handouts in front
of you,
of some key events
and an Uyghur timeline.
And you'll see that
there are many, many, many instances
where
Oyu Gur civil society,
whether they be farmers,
whether they be students,
whether they be students of knowledge or scholars,
from all walks of life
throughout the communist era of China,
there was always an attempt
by the Uyghurs, as well as other ethnic
Turkey people. By the way, this again, I
need to make an important clarification here. Once
the Oiguz make up the vast majority
of the oppressed
group of Turkic people in East Turkistan,
there are other Turkic Muslim minorities are also
being oppressed.
Like the Kazakhs and the Greeks. But the
Uyghurs make up the majority.
And you'll find in that timeline in front
of you, there were so many protests.
There were so many nonviolent,
forms of resistance.
There was even
instances where
Uyghur groups and movements resorted to civil disobedience.
But sadly, they were met
with death
and torture
and imprisonment
and extrajudicial
killing and assassinations.
For the best part of 40, 50 years,
where the Uyghur people
tried to seek
their rights and their freedom as equal citizens
of China,
they were regarded and branded as separatists
and nationalist
and trouble causes and people who wanted to
weaken the Chinese state and break the unity
of the Chinese state.
And
the persecution which began under the Manchu empire
had increased
the racial persecution, the religious censorship,
as well as the socio economic marginalization.
The fact that the Uighurs
in terms
of academic opportunities,
in terms of employment opportunities,
in terms of
the kind of money and finance that they
used to survive on was significantly
less
than the ethnic Han Chinese.
The disparity of lifestyle
was
far and wide between.
But
it was under communist China,
it was under communist China
where the levels of oppression
had truly taken
a crazy turn.
What began as politicized migration,
what began as the taking of lands and
handing it over to ethnic Han Chinese,
things had changed in the communist China. They
had literally taken it to the next level.
I want you all
to think about something for a moment. I
wanna present to you 3 scenarios.
Think about
us living in the UK, those of you
who are British citizens.
Imagine
the home office
sent
an agent to your house,
uninvited,
knocks on your door,
and says, I'm here to stay with you.
You don't know for how long,
you don't know why,
but there is a government agent armed
at your doorstep
who says that if you don't allow him
or her to stay with you,
you could be arrested
at the spot.
So you let this agent in,
this
government agent, and he or she stays with
you for a period
from 1 week to 2 months.
And what does this agent do in your
house?
He or she will look how often you
pray,
how often you read the Quran,
what language you speak at home,
whether you make specific supplications before doing certain
actions,
what kind of foods you eat,
how you interact with guests when they come
and visit you at your home.
These are things that are being noted,
and will be fed back to the state.
Once this report goes back to the state,
depending on how religious or Islamic
your family or your household is,
you may get you may be taken from
your home and put into
what the Chinese government call a vocational reeducation
camp.
What Amnesty International has described
as something very similar
to Nazi camps during the holocaust.
I still want you guys to think about
yourselves in this situation.
Do you know what happens in these camps,
brothers and sisters?
Let me tell you what happens in these
camps.
1st and foremost,
alcohol and pork becomes a staple diet for
you to eat. You have no choice, that's
the food that you're given.
When it's time for salah
when it's time for salah, you are prevented
from praying.
Instead, you have to participate
in flag raising ceremonies,
in swearing pledges of allegiance to the Chinese
state ceremonies,
singing
communist
Maoist poetry and anthems.
You are watched
247
around the clock.
So there's there's no privacy for you to
even pray.
So prayer is replaced
by these activities.
If you happen to be in these camps
with your husband or your wife,
you are made to
share
a bed with someone else's husband and wife,
refusal to do so would mean that you'll
get violated on the spot.
If you fall unwell
in these camps,
especially for the women, if you fall unwell
and you need medication,
you'll be given sterilization pills and injections.
For those who refuse and resist are tortured,
for those who die in these camps, you
will get cremated,
or there'll be organ harvesting.
Bodies have been sent back to Uyghur families,
and they've seen that the bodies of the
deceased have been mutilated.
Organs have been taken out. This is just
the tip of the iceberg.
The Chinese government has acknowledged
the existence
of 100 of these camps
in the region of Xinjiang.
And they've said that these are voluntary reeducation
camps. These are for people who we deem
to be a threat to our society.
People who we believe, believe in certain things
which goes against
Chinese values.
And they're also for
minor criminals. And by the way, it's entirely
voluntary. That's untrue.
That is untrue.
Let's say you were fortunate enough
to not have been
essentially kidnapped and taken into these camps, which,
by the way, a conservative estimate, according to
the United Nations,
there is at least 1,000,000
Uyghur Muslims
in these camps.
That's a conservative estimate. In reality, there's anything
up to 2 or 3,000,000.
Let's say you are fortunate enough not to
make it to these camps. How's
life like in everyday society?
Well, first and foremost,
if you're
caught with a copy of the Quran, it's
a criminal offense.
If you're caught, you'll be fined.
And I'm not talking about a 30, 40
parking
fine which you can just pay off and
get on with life, no. It's a hefty
fine,
one which does not reflect fairly what the
average Uyghur can afford. If you're caught with
a copy of the Quran again, it's a
criminal offense. You can get arrested.
The hijab is banned in public buildings.
If you're someone who works in the public
sector, you're not allowed to fast.
You will be spied on by staff and
colleagues who will come and offer you food
knowing that you could be fasting, and will
stay there until they see you consume or
drink,
so they can report back and say, yeah,
Abdullah Amina isn't isn't fasting. We can prove
that.
It is not unheard of to see butchers,
butchers in different towns and cities of of
East Turkestan
who are chopping meat in a cage
because they can't be trusted with bladed articles
outside of that cage.
Madrasas are being shut down.
If you have to enter a mosque, there's
face recognition and and
and and fingerprint
recognition.
They are state spies
within one family. You cannot even trust your
own family members because he or she could
have been recruited by the state to spy
on you.
It's not allowed for you to go to
Hajj al Ummah
without seeking the permission of the state
and those who have
secretly gone and made Hajj al Umrah,
and they've come back, they've been arrested, and
sent to these camps.
This is the situation
of the Uyghur Muslims
in East Turkestan, brothers and sisters.
Allahi is so unfortunate.
It's something which
when I did my own research,
trying to find some kind of comparisons,
trying to find some kind of example where
a situation like this may have taken place
in history,
it took me back to 14/92.
Yes. We had the holocaust,
a horrific,
shameful
event in Europe. We had sebrenica.
We had many, many incidents of genocide, but
never
over the course of 500 years, never
has state
indoctrination,
state surveillance,
ideological
indoctrination
taken place like the Uyghurs have.
But it took me back to 14/92.
In 14/92,
and there's a relevance to why I'm referring
back to this, why I'm referring to this,
in 14/92,
Al Andalus fell. Muslim Spain fell in 14/92.
And the Spanish Inquisition had begun. Has anyone
heard of what the Spanish Inquisition is?
What is the Spanish Inquisition, brother?
To prove whether or not you were a
Muslim
or a Jew. Forced conversion. It was the
forced conversion of Muslims and Jews to Catholicism.
Either you convert to Roman Catholicism,
or you'd be imprisoned or killed or exiled.
By 15/02
by 15/02,
Islam
had been
banned in Spain.
It was a criminal offense
by the Castilian state
to publicly,
be Muslim.
So those who became
Roman Catholics that were from Muslim heritage, they
were known as the Moriscos.
The Moriscos,
keep in mind,
had already given up their faith.
At least, nominally and perceptively, they have given
up their faith.
The Moriscos
were, generally speaking, ethnic Berbers,
ethnic Arabs, and ethnic black Africans.
Right?
And they had given up their faith.
They
lived in an area called Alpujarras.
Alpujarras
is a mountainous region just outside of Granada.
And every year, the Castilian state used to
send soldiers up to the mountains
to live with the Moriscos. Keep in mind,
the Moriscos were not Muslims.
They had given up their faith.
Yet the Castilian states used to send
soldiers and knights twice a year to Alpujada's
mountains. And what did they used to do
then?
They used to
live with the Morisco families, unannounced.
And what did they used to do?
They used to see whether
pigs were being farmed,
sold,
consumed.
They used to live with them in their
houses.
They should see whether
upon when it came to meal time,
if the consumption of alcohol and pork during
meal time
resulted in a negative reaction,
whether you gagged or you puked or anything
that would be seen as suspicious,
you would be arrested, you'd be imprisoned.
If you refuse to eat pork and alcohol
in front of a castilian soldier,
you could potentially be killed or imprisoned there
and then.
And these were the Moriscos were a people
who gave up their faith.
Eventually, King Philip the second had banned Moriscos
from Spain
even though they had given up their religion
and and converted to Roman Catholicism.
That was the last recorded account
for my research
where something even remotely similar had taken place.
That's 500
years ago.
Not even the Nazis,
not even the Nazis
did this kind of state persecution.
Yes, they killed millions of Jewish people. Yes,
they did.
But they didn't go
and try make the Jewish people give up
their religion and accept Nazism as an ideology.
You didn't have Nazi state soldiers going and
living
with Jewish households,
spying on them, seeing how they live, etcetera
etcetera.
So what's happening to the Uyghurs is truly
and truly unique and horrific
and disgraceful.
Disgraceful that in 2019,
one of the superpowers
of the world,
one of the permanent members of the UN
Security Council
is carrying
out such horrific levels of state oppression
of the Uyghurs
simply because they are Muslim. There is no
other reason.
And the narrative of the Chinese state had
radically changed after 911
because prior to 911,
the predominant narrative was that the Uyghurs,
they are nationalists, they are separatists,
They want their
own republic.
And by the way, under Chinese law, under
the Chinese constitution,
the area of East Turkestan is actually known
as Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China.
And he actually says in the Chinese constitution
that if there is enough support,
if there is enough mass support for self
determination and independence,
that this is something which could be granted
to the Uyghurs just like it was allowed
to the Tibetans
and other groups. But obviously,
that was just something that was there
in the constitution and meant very little.
The narrative after 9/11 became one about the
war on terror.
It became one that was directly about the
religion of the Uyghurs. It was no longer
about
they are nationalist, they're separatists. Now it was
about
these guys are radicals.
They're extremists.
They're Islamists.
They want to create their own
emirate and sharia state and barbaric backward state.
Very similar language and and rhetoric which we've
heard in many parts
of not only the Muslim majority world, but
even in the western world, including the UK,
where specific groups of Muslims
or communities are targeted for the way they
look,
for the way they dress, for the way
they speak, for what they believe, for how
they eat, for how their men and women,
you know, communicate with one another in certain
environments, how they marry,
what values they espouse.
And I will go as far as to
say this,
I will go as far as to say
this,
the ideology,
the state rhetoric,
the predominant narrative
which the Chinese government is using to oppress
Uyghur Muslims
is nearly identical
is nearly identical
to that of a number of Western liberal
democracies.
Of course, the levels of persecution
is incomparable.
It's incomparable.
In the United Kingdom,
where we reside,
we have policies like the Prevent strategy,
We have schedule 7.
We have the counterterrorism
security bill.
We have the counterterrorism
and security,
board bill. We have a number of policies
which were born after 911 and 77.
And statistically,
according to the data published by the home
office, there seems to be a disproportionate
reporting
of Muslims.
Considering
Muslims only make up
5% of the population in the UK,
the home office's data shows
that we are disproportionately represented.
We're aware that girls as young as 45
who attend state schools that happen to wear
their hijab, are not questioned by Ofsted officers
without their parents being present.
We know that Islamic schools in the Midlands
and the North and in East London,
that were previously graded that are outstanding by
the Ofsted, all of a sudden, a year
or 2 later,
have now been put under special measures.
We know
from
the
cases of some individuals who have gone off
to Syria to go and live under ISIS,
to go fight with ISIS,
that when they wanted to come back after
a period of disillusionment,
their citizenship has been revoked.
And what was the basis?
What was the basis of the revoking of
this citizenship?
It's because
this person's parents
has dual nationality
elsewhere. So even our citizenship,
even if you come from immigrant parents, your
citizenship is not the same.
We have
these policies in the United Kingdom.
Of course, incomparable
incomparable to what's happening in China, but the
correlation I'm trying to make
is that the thinking which justifies these policies
is exactly the same. Just like China
has surpassed
any state
in making it very clear
about why they are choosing to do what
they are doing to the Uyghur Muslims.
Now
most of today's lecture has been
doom and gloom.
There's been a lot of
unfortunate
realities I've conveyed to you all
and
what happens
sometimes
as an Ummah,
when we hear about what's happening in Palestine,
in Syria, in Yemen, with the Rohingya, in
Somalia, in Nigeria, in Central African Republic,
in in in with the Uyghurs. When we
hear about all these situation that are taking
place Iraq, Afghanistan,
we can become
disempowered.
We can become
very pessimistic in our mindset.
And what ends up happening is that we
seclude our soul psychologically
because the situation and the state of the
ummah is so dire.
Brothers and sisters and friends,
this mindset is from shaitan.
Because it is not befitting.
It is not befitting
of the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
to have such a mindset.
That when prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in the
battle of humdak,
can I say a show of hands of
who's heard the story of battle of Hambak?
In the battle of Hambak,
when the early Muslim society was surrounded
by the Azhar who wanted to destroy them,
They were at the brink of defeat.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he gave the glad tidings of Islam entering
Persia
and the Byzantine lands.
And the hypocrites amongst the ranks of the
Muslims, they were saying to each other, look,
we can't even relieve ourselves in peace and
Muhammad has given us glad tidings of this,
this and that.
Wallahi in 20 years, that prophecy was fulfilled.
The point I'm trying to make is that
no matter how dire the situation of the
Muslims are as an ummah, it is not
befitting for us
to become so disempowered,
to become so
hopeless.
This is not
from our tradition and from our values.
So I want to conclude today's lecture by
giving you all some practical solutions with regards
to what we can do here in the
UK
in raising awareness
and assisting our Uyghur brothers and sisters. Number
1 is raising awareness,
holding events like this,
The very first stage and step towards any
meaningful activism
is raising awareness.
Hold events.
Speak to your imams.
Speak to your local community leaders. Speak about
it with family and friends.
Speak about it with your local counselors and
your MPs.
Reach out
to Do we have any in the in
the university? Do we have any
in Newcastle
or in Sunderland
or in Middlesbrough?
Do we have any Uyghurs Muslims?
Reach out to them.
Let them know
that what they are experiencing or what their
families are experiencing is the same
as if our own families were experiencing this.
That their life,
their blood and their honor
is the same as a Palestinian,
is the same as that of a Kashmiri,
is the same of that of an Iraqi,
is the same of that of a Rohingya.
A Rohingya. Means so much to them. Just
let them know. As brothers
and sisters in faith,
we are aware of what's happening to your
people.
Let us know how we can help. Network
with Uyghurs.
And of course, after raising awareness and after
networking and reaching out,
think about coordinated
campaigns.
Whether that be petitions, whether that be open
letters, whether that be engaging with the Chinese
societies in your universities.
You know, when I went to Oxford University,
I gave the same lecture back in December.
I was pleasantly surprised
to see many Chinese students. I specifically I'm
sorry brother Omer, I should have said to
you to invite the Chinese do you have
a Chinese society in the university?
In Oxford, there was a big Chinese society
and many, many Chinese students turned up. Wallahi,
the vast majority of them were unaware of
what's going on.
They were unaware. They just simply did not
know that this was happening. There were a
handful of students
who,
who had basically
adopted the state narrative that all the Uighurs
are terrorists and the separatists and the troublemakers,
and they need to be deradicalized,
and, oh, there's not 1,000,000 that are in
these counts. It's only 10,000.
As if 10,000 is acceptable.
Right?
Engage with Chinese societies.
Engage with Chinese friends and peers
and business owners and takeaway owners.
Talk to them. Do you know this is
what's happening in a region called Xinjiang in
your country?
No, I don't.
Educate them. Or if they do,
engage
in respectful dialogue with them.
Account the Chinese government.
When one of the companions asked our beloved
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that you Rasool Allah,
what is the best form of jihad?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam responded, the
best form of jihad is a word of
truth to a tyrannical ruler.
Kali matalhaq.
Word of truth.
I believe
that it's undisputed that this hadith is absolutely
applicable to the situation of Bo Uighurs.
That if we are aware
that Chinese governments,
officials,
politicians,
entrepreneurs,
businessmen,
people who are influential are visiting the UK
to attend those events, to attend those conferences,
and ask them questions
in a respectful and legal manner.
Account them.
You know, after the Christchurch attacks,
there was a Chinese businessman who had donated
$2,200,000
to the Christchurch local Muslim community.
Do you know what the local Muslim community
of Christchurch did?
They respectfully
gave back that donation,
and they said, whilst we respect
and understand that you gave this with sincerity
as a result of the tragedy that the
community has experienced,
but please give this money to the Uighurs
who are being oppressed.
SubhanAllah.
Account the Chinese government.
Write to them. Get your MPs to write
to them. Get them to talk about it
in parliament.
Attend events.
Ask questions.
But more importantly than that,
more importantly than accounting
the Chinese government,
there has to be a level of accountability
to the Muslim governments.
Because never,
never in human history,
if there anyone who can cite me as
example
to correct me, I look forward to it,
I'm yet to find one out. There has
never been a case in human history
where an oppressive state,
an oppressive empire,
or an oppressive entity
has one day woken up, had an epiphany,
and said, right. I'm no longer gonna oppress
these groups of people.
Never.
Never. It just doesn't work like that.
In many cases in history,
oppression has been uplifted
due to the resistance
of the oppressed
or from the intervention of external powers.
Those are the only all miracles of course.
Yeah? Those are the only 3 ways which
oppression has ever been uplifted.
So therefore,
whilst we should account the Chinese government and
rightfully so,
don't think to yourself that one day they
will wake up and shut down all their
camps
and think, you know what? Let's give them
their autonomy.
Let the Uyghurs have East Turkestan. It's simply
what happened brothers and sisters.
Therefore, there has to be a level of
accountability
to the Muslim government
because sadly,
what you will find in the case of
the Muslim majority world is that there is
a crisis of leadership.
We see this whenever something happens in Palestine.
We've seen it with Syria. We've seen it
in Kashmir.
We've seen it in so many cases
where all it takes
all it takes sometimes
is the utterance of disapproval
from certain Muslim governments
that will set the set the way for
others to follow. We do not even get
that.
Instead, what we are sadly faced with, and
this has been the case for the last
80, 90 years,
since the formation
of the nation state, since the formation
of the new world order,
is that we get
not just silence
and inaction. In many cases, we get complicity.
We'll get sometimes
Muslim governments. Remember, I'm distinguishing between the people
and the governments.
I
will confidently say that amongst the Ummah of
the prophet
there are sincere people who want to do
good and want to see good and want
to act towards good.
But sadly, governments
due to economics, due to geopolitics,
due to many things
are either complicit,
silent, or inactive.
To the extent
where prime minister Imran Khan,
who is seen as a breath of fresh
air
from the previous status quo government,
told TRT World that I'm not aware of
what's going on with the Uighurs.
He said that with a straight face. I'm
not aware.
Is this happening?
Where King Salman, I mean, Crown Prince Salman
of Saudi Arabia
visited China
2 months ago and basically said, how the
Chinese government wants to deal with people who
it deems as extremist is absolutely their choice
and they have our support.
This is the kind
of situation that we're dealing with on a
global level, brothers and sisters. So therefore, we
should also account the Muslim governments.
Write letters to their
their embassies.
Try and go and meet. If you are
from Bangladesh, if you know that Bangladeshi MPs
and politicians are coming, go visit them. Same
with Pakistan,
same with those from the Arab world, same
with those from the Muslim African countries. If
you know that ambassadors and representatives are visiting
the UK,
make a conscientious effort to write to them,
to go see them, to remind them.
To remind them that there is a sense
of duty that you have.
And there is this level of oppression taking
place.
And inshallah, once all of these things are
done,
once you have exhausted everything within your physical
means and capacity,
to raise awareness,
to account, to engage yourself in campaigns, to
use your own platforms, to raise awareness.
Of course, always and constantly,
supplicate to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Once you have fulfilled everything that you can
do,
you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to uplift
not only the oppression that the are facing
but the oppression of all people who are
facing injustice.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
allow us to be
contributors to seeing the change of the situation.
Ameen. May Allah
give us a and the ability
to assist those
Muslim. To uplift oppression
that they are experiencing. I mean,