Uyghurs and other Muslims persecuted in Southeast Asia

For several years now, Muslims have been persecuted in Southeast Asia and attempts to strip them of their cultures, languages and identities have been ongoing.

In Xinjiang, China, the Uyghurs are one of several persecuted Muslim minorities. According to Vox, between 2017 and 2018, the Chinese government began constructing concentration camps to slowly eradicate their language and cultural practices. 

The Chinese government had long denied the existence of the concentration camps. It was only after images began circulating when they acknowledged what they call “re-education centers” for the Uyghurs. 

In addition to the concentration camps, The New York Times alleges that the Chinese government is forcing sterilizations, abortions and slaying the Uyghurs in an effort to decrease their population.  

On behalf of the United Nations, 23 countries (including Germany) have criticized China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority. However, the process for identifying a genocide is unclear and slow-moving, allowing countries with U.N. veto power or who command the majority of the votes to prevent progress from being made. 

The Uyghurs are not the only minority to be mistreated and exploited by their government.

In Myanmar (formerly Burma), the Rohingya, a primarily Islamic-ethnic minority, have endured a series of catastrophic events. 

At the start of 2017, there were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar, the majority living in Rakhine state. On Aug. 25, 2017, the Myanmar military launched a series of deadly attacks on villages in an ongoing battle for homogeneity. As a result, families were separated and killed, and women and children were raped. 

Most of the people who escaped the onslaught found shelter in refugee camps, and, according to The Washington Post, an estimated 800,000 people were displaced with more than 10,000 killed. 

The Myanmar government has denied involvement, claiming that the Rohingya burned their own villages “to garner international sympathy,” as reported by The New York Times. 

Similarly, in 1975, a communist group known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, persecuted the educated in Cambodia, specifically Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim citizens. The Khmer Rouge sought to eliminate competition and create a society “in which people worked for the common good” according to the Holocaust Museum in Houston. 

People lived in communes and participated in “re-education” systems to support their new lifestyle. The Holocaust Mueseum in Houston estimates that over a four year period, the Khmer Rouge “killed more than 1.7 million of its own people through grueling work, starvation and torture.” 

In January of 1979, communist Vietnam invaded Cambodia and removed the Khmer Rouge from power. 

It is uncommon to hear of persecution to this degree in modern times, yet it is often left unchecked when it occurs.

Article by Kennedy Nieves of Winston Churchill High School

Photo Courtesy of Austcare-World Humanitarian Aid from Creative Commons