Here’s a story of Islamophobia and brutal state-oppression of Muslims.
The intellectual, Gheyret Niyaz, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for endangering state security, a vague charge that is often used by officials to lock up people they deem political threats. The sentence was especially severe given that Mr. Niyaz was not accused of taking part in the ethnic rioting. Other Chinese intellectuals have recently been slapped with the same sentence: Last December, Liu Xiaobo, a main author of a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08, was also sentenced to 15 years.
Mr. Niyaz, 51, holds what are considered moderate political views — he has not, for example, advocated for Xinjiang independence, a position held by some Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people that is the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang. Many of them resent the policies of the Chinese government, which is dominated by ethnic Han, saying that those policies are diluting the Uighur culture and leading to their economic disenfranchisement.
There is strong possibility that this is one story which will not be carried by Bob Pitt on Islamophobia-Watch nor will Gheyret Niyaz’s cause be supported by Andy Newman and his Trot friends at SocialistUnity. They will not be listed on NeoconEurope, a website run by a group of “academics” from Strathclyde University, for this omission nor for their support of the People’s Republic of China’s brutal crackdown of the Uighur in Xinjiang.
Their support of the PRC will preclude them from highlighting this story, from protesting this draconian sentence as a travesty of justice and from calling this form of Islamophobia, well, Islamophobia. This much we know.
Gheyret Niyaz
3 Comments
Even if they are listed on NeoconEurope one will be hard-pressed to read their entries as it appears Miller and his cronies have now made access to the site password protected.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islam, Hamas or Hizballah or any other far-right Islamist group have nothing to do with this story. Hence the lefties don’t have anyone to back – barring the PRC of course. That is why members of the far-left who have a putative record of upholding the rights of downtrodden Muslims (don’t believe the hype) couldn’t give a toss about a bunch of Uighurs being stamped into the ground in China.
I am a Chinese, and I support Gheyret Niyaz.