Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki at Iftar by Cage Prisoners

COMMUNIST CHINA’S POLICY OF OPPRESSION IN EAST TURKESTAN

Whenever he holds the upper hand, he goes about the earth corrupting it, destroying (peoples’) crops and animals. God does not love corruption. (Qur’an, 2:205)

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INTRODUCTION

China entered the twentieth century as the remains of an empire fragmented and crushed under pressure from especially Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Russia. After imperial rule had been overthrown, no powerful central authority was established for decades. When the Communist Party came to power in 1949, China soon turned into a state of fear. That process cost the lives of tens of millions of people because of the repressive and totalitarian methods the communists used to enforce their bloody ideology. The Chinese Communist Party resorted to violence to remain in power, and implemented one of the most savage and ruthless form of communism ever, enforcing one single way of living and thinking for the entire Chinese people. Throughout that period, those who refused to abide by the rules of their communist leaders were ruthlessly exterminated.

It is commonly assumed that the savage implementation of communism has come to an end. People no longer receive food in return for vouchers, no longer are required to wear uniforms, nor suffer torture because they are unable to learn Mao’s “Little Red Book” by heart. Yet communism, adapted by the regime to the new world order, is still alive and well in all its ruthlessness.

In the eyes of the Communist Party, people are of value only as long as they can produce, and are allowed to think only within boundaries set by the Communist Party. They can freely express only thoughts in harmony with the party. The labor camps that exist through China, the system that humiliates and exploits millions of people in those camps, the mass executions in full public view, the torture methods widely employed in the prisons and the sale of the internal organs of those condemned to death, all reveal the ugly face of the communist administration. Despite all this, however, for the last 20 years a number of media outlets have been spreading the propaganda that China is rapidly preceding down a liberal and democratic path. One important point is often ignored: The fact that China has moved to capitalist practices in the economic field and has opened its gates to foreign investors in a number of areas, does not mean that there has also been a change in the country’s political structure and ideology. On the contrary, the inhuman practices still common demonstrate that nothing has changed in the mentality of the ruling Communist Party. This will be clarified with a great many examples in subsequent chapters of this book.

A major area of communist savagery is East Turkestan, home to the Muslim Uighur Turks. Located at the westernmost point of China, East Turkestan has been under occupation for the last two centuries or so, and for the last 50 years in particular has suffered great oppression from the despotic regime of the communist Chinese administration. As a result of Chinese propaganda, East Turkestan is known to the world as “Xinjiang,” or “Sinkiang” meaning “new borders” in Chinese, and most people are very unaware of the human drama going on there. Yet East Turkestan, the majority of whose population are Muslims of Uighur origin, is the scene of violence and oppression by the communist Chinese administration, the like of which is found in no other region of China. Torture, executions, labor camps and religious oppression have long been features of daily life in East Turkestan.

In recent years, there has been much talk about the increased freedom and liberalization in the economic arena in China. Yet the freedom is limited to specific areas, and the cruel and oppressive system in China has, in fact, not changed.

Muslims are arrested, kept for months (or even years) in Chinese prisons, which are notorious for torture, solely because they want to live by their religion. Many of those who fight for freedom and democracy for Turkestan are executed. Moreover, China’s assimilationist policies have prevented the majority Muslim population of East Turkestan from speaking their own language, living by their own culture, from going on the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), performing their daily ritual prayers and fasting, and even forbidden them to determine their family size. The Muslims of East Turkestan expect people of good conscience all over the world to help them wage a war of ideas to bring communist oppression there to an end and make a concerted effort to inform the whole world about their plight.

China has turned East Turkestan into a closed region by restricting all means of communication, preventing the true dimensions of their human drama from being heard by the outside world. Yet that is no excuse for forgetting and behaving as if nothing were going on. For this reason, it is most important that all possible means be taken to stop the silence that prevails in the whole world on the subject of East Turkestan. If the true dimension of the inhumanity going on behind closed doors is revealed, this will not only help the wronged people to have their voices heard, but will also attract the world’s attention to bring justice to East Turkestan.

The aim of this book is both to identify the basic causes of this communist oppression that has been going on all over China for more than half a century, and to make the voice of the wronged people of East Turkestan heard. Initiatives taken to allow the Muslims of East Turkestan to enjoy peace and security can only succeed if the fundamental causes of their oppression are documented and brought to the attention of the world.

This work documents that the fundamental reason behind the oppression in East Turkestan is the materialist philosophy and communist ideology that dominate the Chinese state. The violence caused by materialist philosophy, which regards life as a fight for survival (and suggests that progress is only possible by means of conflict) can only be eliminated if people turn to, and live by, the morality God commands. God has commanded people to live by justice, tolerance, love, compassion, respect, sacrifice, sharing, self-denial, and forgiveness. God has made it clear that ethnic differences are no justification for conflict, and that people must respect each others’ races, languages, and beliefs. The acceptance of that moral code world wide is the only way to secure peace and tolerance. An intellectual war must be waged against the materialist ideology that is the fundamental support behind those who have oppressed others. For this reason this is the most important area required for peace and justice to prevail.

To oppose the oppression and injustice in the world, efforts must be made to spread the morality of the Qur’an, which is the real solution to this problem. A new age will dawn with the spreading of the morality of the Qur’an, by the will of God, in which injustice and oppression will be replaced by peace, security, and justice. The Qur’an bears good tidings about that new age:

God has promised those of you who believe and do right actions that He will make them successors in the land as He made those before them successors, and will firmly establish for them their religion with which He is pleased and give them, in place of their fear, security… (Qur’an, 24:55)

The people of East Turkestan have been crushed by the repressive communist system for more than half a century. Muslims are prevented from living their religion, and are trying to survive under particularly difficult conditions.

Meeting Pakistan’s most feared militant

Baitullah Mehsud, who heads the loose grouping of militants known as the Pakistan Taleban, has given a rare press conference to invited journalists. They included the BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan.

Baitullah Mehsud ‘holds to ceasefire’ In pictures: The Taleban’s stronghold in Pakistan

“I hope your trip has been enjoyable so far,” our host asks us. Ordinary garden tea party talk except for two things – the venue and the host. We are in Pakistan’s tribal region of South Waziristan. Our host is the region’s top Islamic militant, Baitullah Mehsud. Commander Mehsud has recently been named in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Newsweek has labelled him “more dangerous than Osama bin Laden”. President Pervez Musharraf accused him last year of being responsible for dozens of suicide attacks which led Pakistan into emergency rule. The CIA says he was the brains behind the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto. With such a reputation, it is not surprising that there is a sense of awe as this short, plump, bearded man greets us.

Breakneck speed

We are part of a group of journalists invited by Mr Mehsud to his stronghold to see for ourselves “the atrocities committed by the Pakistan army in its recent campaign in the area”. Pakistan’s army and pro-Taleban militants led by Baitullah Mehsud have recently agreed to a ceasefire after being locked in battle for most of 2007.

Baitullah Mehsud is reluctant to be photographe

The ceasefire is part of attempts to secure a lasting peace in the area. Earlier this month the army brought in journalists to show their successes against the militants in January. Now it’s the militants’ turn to have their say. Our journey with the Taleban had begun with a long wait for them at a petrol station in the town of Mir Ali, just inside North Waziristan. A caravan with over half a dozen vehicles took off, travelling at breakneck speed through beautiful valleys and towering mountains. Our escorts were on their guard, the speed is as much for security as for safety. We saw very little of the heavy presence of troops in the area that the government talks about. We did see plenty of abandoned check posts and bunkers destroyed by the Taleban. In the town of Makeen in South Waziristan we switched to four-wheel drives. Our destination was the district of Sararogha, very much the heart of Taleban territory.

Havoc

It was dark when we finally arrived at a madrassa (religious school) high up on the mountains where we stayed in a nearby house for the night. The next morning we headed down to the valley below to be shown the damage caused by bombing raids carried out by military aircraft. The villages were a scene of havoc, with almost all the houses having suffered some damage. Some have been completely destroyed, leaving their owners homeless.

Buildings damaged by air force bombing

“I have no money left now,” says Ali Khan, a local of Golrama village in the Kotkai area. Mr Khan’s house was bombed by jets after he had fled the fighting with his family. “I worked in the UAE since 1980 to build this… all my life’s savings.” “There are no Taleban in my house, why did the government do this?” Many families who fled during the intense fighting have been coming home to similar scenes. Our last stop was Spinkai market which is now a mile long stretch of rubble. Angry shopkeepers and irate locals line up to express their anger. “The place they said was used to train suicide bombers is, in fact, a flour mill,” says Haji Khan, whose shop was also destroyed. “We were all traders here and now our means of earning a living is gone.” As he complains, a line of vehicles passes us on its way back to the nearby hamlets and villages. The ceasefire, it seems, is already starting to take effect.

No choice

But will it last, or go the way other deals have gone before?

The army says it has dismantled the Taleban’s capacity in the region

In our garden meeting, “Amir Sahib” (honoured leader) – as Baitullah Mehsud is affectionately called by his men – smiles and shakes his head when this query is raised. Around us, dozens of militants armed to the teeth listen intently to their leader. “The Taleban are committed to their word,” he says. “The onus is now on the government – whether they hold to their word, or remain in the alliance with the US.” If that persists, Commander Mehsud says, the militants will have no choice but return to their path of resistance. “We do not want to fight Pakistan or the army. But if they continue to be slaves to US demands, then we our hands will be forced. “There can be no deal with the US.”