The angry reaction of Uyghurs and sympathetic Muslims to a series of recent statements by prominent preacher Ali al-Jifri is gaining momentum in the global Islamic media (https://youtu.be/KzZZYHenKF4). While acknowledging that the Chinese government has gone too far in its repression of the Uyghurs, Jifri attempted to shift some of the responsibility to the victims themselves. His overall message was that Muslims should not unquestioningly show solidarity with the Uyghurs and attack China, which he sees as an alternative to U.S. global dominance.
In this sense, Jifri’s argument was shocking, as he claimed that only half of the Uyghurs are Muslims. This thesis stemmed from a lack of understanding (at best, we hope) of the fundamental difference between the concepts of «Uyghurs» and the population of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In the latter, Muslims now make up more than half the population as a result of the Chinese authorities’ decades-long policy of resettlement and assimilation. However, the non-Muslim Chinese in occupied Uyghuristan are not Uyghurs, whose identity has traditionally been based almost entirely on Islam — an identity that the Chinese Communists are trying to change.
Furthermore, Jifri stated that China’s repression of the Uyghurs is driven primarily by political, rather than religious, considerations. Specifically, he argued that the Uyghurs oppose China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to facilitate economic competition with the United States. An Albanian journalist named Olsi Jazexhi tried to understand this issue and initially had a positive view of China before being invited by the Chinese authorities to investigate the situation. The reality he discovered there shocked both himself and those he informed about the results of his investigation, as we have previously reported (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=37094).
The conclusions drawn by Jazexhi and other journalists, as well as the numerous testimonies of victims of repression and their relatives, leave no doubt: the Chinese leadership is waging a war of annihilation against Islam as the foundation of Uyghur identity, which distinguishes them from Han Chinese.
A detailed rebuttal of Jifri’s statements was published yesterday on a prominent English-language Muslim website (https://muslimmatters.org/2020/05/13/a-response-to-habib-ali-al-jifris-comments-on-uyghurs/). It must be said, however, that unlike this stylistically correct critique, many Uyghurs who have responded to Jifri’s statements have not held back in their words and emotions.
And they are undoubtedly understandable. At a time when inhumane abuses against Muslims to force them to abandon their religion are attracting the attention of non-Muslims, there are Islamic scholars and preachers who not only remain silent but effectively defend the oppressors of Muslims.