Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Washington committed genocide of Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, speakers said. The experts from UK, Pakistan and China on Friday have rejected the US and its allies allegations of Muslims genocide in the Muslim majority territory in northwest China.
Speaking at a webinar organised by the Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution, a Islamabad based think tank, a prominent British scholar Carlos Martinez said that living in London he is exposed to very intense media propaganda in relation to Xinjiang.
“The Uyghur population from 2010 to 2018 increased from 10.2 million to 12.7 million, an increase of 25%. In the same period, the Han Chinese population in Xinjiang increased by just 2 percent. [so] if there were a genocide taking place in Xinjiang, wouldn’t we expect to see a refugee crisis? Wouldn’t we expect to see refugee camps set up on the borders with Pakistan and Kazakhstan?,” he questioned.
He added that the US waged genocidal wars in Iraq and Libya, leading to the displacement of millions of people – to a refugee crisis that is still continuing today. “How is it possible that China is carrying out a genocide but not creating any refugees?,” he questioned while referring to the US and its allies allegations of Uyghurs genocide by Chinese government. Martinez, who visited Xinjiang in 2020 after US and its allies accused China for genocide in Muslim majority area, said he went there to sought any evidence but he could not found any reality and evidence to prove that Washington charges against China are true.
“I personally went to Ürümqi in January 2020, with a group of friends. We walked around freely and certainly didn’t see any evidence of religious or ethnic oppression. In fact we saw hundreds of Uyghur Muslims, wearing distinctive Uyghur clothing, going about their normal lives,” he said,“We ate in Uyghur restaurants, where we had halal food and where alcohol wasn’t available. We heard the Uyghur language being spoken freely everywhere. All road signs have both Uyghur and Chinese writing. Newspapers can be seen everywhere in the Uyghur language.”
Speaking the webinar, Maria Zeb, a Pakistani youth leader, who also visited the Xinjiang region, criticised western media for spreading fake news and said she spent good time with Uyghurs people.“Western media said that mosques have destroyed by Chinese government, Uyghurs are in jails and their culture has been eliminated, its all propaganda,” she said and adding she met with local people and all of them rejected the western media propaganda and termed it “fake news”. Currently there are more than 25,000 mosques, which are running by the local Muslim community while Chinese government providing them funds for renovation and other facilities of the mosques.
