The Holocaust is known to be one of the worst genocides in human history. The world recognizes it for the mass suffering of innocent people. The world said never again after the Holocaust, but it’s happening right now in 2020. Since 2017, China has established concentration camps in the Xinjiang area. An estimated amount of two million Uighers, a Muslim ethnic minority in China are being forcibly detained and persecuted for their beliefs. Human Rights Watch give detailed instances of torture, sexual abuse, organ harvesting, repressive surveillance measures, forcible eating of pork and drinking of alcohol (both which are forbidden for Muslims) and confiscation of Qurans. The amount of maltreatment the government surpressed is unbelievable shocking, but the reality is that the Nazis in Germany had used the same extreme measures to torture the Jews. In fact, the mass incarnation of the Muslim Uighers have surpassed the death rate of the Jewish Holocaust.

Despite the immorality and injustice enforced against these innocent lives, the Uighers have adamantly stood true to their faith. 29-year-old Mihrgul Tursan survived the excruciating tortures, and as a result, she is a living symbol of hope and strength as she spreads awareness of the genocide through her testimony. She may have escaped the camps, but the horror that she experienced will always be an integral part of her life. Tursan describes the treacherous acts against humanity: “Each time I was electrocuted my whole body would shake violently and I could feel the pain in my veins. I thought I would rather die than to go through this torture. I begged them to kill me.” Along with the physical pain, the government murdered her newborn infant. With her fragile hands, she held her lifeless baby as she could not wrap her mind around the situation. She was a mother who lost her innocent child in the face of brutal oppression. Along with many other testimonies, the Chinese government denied her testimony stating that she was lying. The suffering does not stop here, the Chinese state is separating parents from their children. Like Tursan, many mothers are stripped from their children and that detachment of the mother and child is nothing other than sadistic and cruel. Children as young as two are being taken into special brainwashing kindergartens. Many of the children call the staff at these facilities ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ which shows the psychological torment that they are going through. Since the children are young, many will grow up not remembering their parents, culture, or Islam. You may wonder, why is the Chinese government oppressing the Muslims? The goal is simple – eradicate Islam in an entire generation of Muslims. The government is against anything that “interferes” with their communistic values.

The Six Stages of Genocide: Uighers in China
1. Classification-Since 1949, the Chinese government-sponsored immigration of Han Chinese to Xinijang has diluted the Uighers population. By 2000, the population was 42% Uighurs and 40% Han; a stark contrast to what used to be 76% Han and only 6.2% Han Chinese

2. Discrimination– Men and women are prohibited from having long beards or hijabs. Uighurs are also forced to eat pork, and are prohibited to fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
3. Dehumanization- Forceful contraception and sterilization have been performed in concentration camps. Women have been sexually abused, harassed, drugged, and even given injections to stop them from having their period.
4. Organization- The minority group has been subject to invasive surveillance, violation of basic religious rights, and unethical detention centers at the hands of the government.
5.Extermination- Uighers are being wiped out systematically. The intentional targeting of their ethnic, religious, and cultural identity can not be denied.
6. Denial- The Chinese government claims it is simply “re education camps” and denies any wrongdoing. The imprisonment of Uighers in concentration camps has been justified as a counter-terrorism and national security measure.

Every Muslim in China wonders if they are going to be alive the next day, hoping that they would be saved from the torture, as the sounds of beatings and screams keep them wide awake at night. While China continues to deny the genocide against the Uigher Muslims, the international community has been slow to defend the rights of those being taken into what is being reported as the largest mass incarceration of peoples since the Holocaust itself.

Imagine daughters and mothers forcibly sterilized. Imagine children forced to sacrifice their bodies for operation. This is a reality for the Uigher Muslims taken into “detention camps.” We’re seeing a terrifying erosion of brainwashing and propaganda from the state of China, and if the world sits back, thousands of innocent lives will be sacrificed at the expense of silence. This is a breach of fundamental human rights. What happened to the many articles and declarations of rights that the West has written? What of the values of freedom and liberty? Do these not apply to all human beings? Why is there no freedom to practice religion in China? The human value is less than a dog in China. The camps are a slaughterhouse. We cannot praise our first amendment rights when we can’t acknowledge this calamity. As American citizens, it is our obligation to implement and protest against this injustice enacted against the innocent Uighurs. Boycott Chinese goods that support the genocide and let silence change into voices that transform the future of the Uighers for the protection of human rights.

Sources:
https://www.vox.com/2020/7/28/21333345/uighurs-china-internment-camps-forced-labor-xinjiang -Vox News
https://youtu.be/cMkHcZ5IwjU -Vox News Video
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/20/more-evidence-chinas-horrific-abuses-xinjiang# -Human Rights Watch