Since reading Persepolis this week I became more aware of the social injustices many Muslims have faced in this country and also abroad, the main threat being xenophobia. What is currently happening in China is not something that is far removed from American and other Western civilizations. Currently in China there are internment camps for Uighers. Uighers are a religious minority in China and are being sent to these “transformation camps” in hopes of stopping the spread of what the Chinese government has deemed as religious extremism. Every interview urges outsiders to believe that it is a place where people go willingly to rid themselves of their “extremist” views. Government officials also claim that it is all for cohesiveness and for the sake of the country to denounce their faith, however, adults have been recorded as pledging their allegiance fully to the Communist party of China. Though officials who work in these camps deny all forms of mistreatment, they have admitted that many people can detain people because officials can witness acts of disobedience and can take people to these camps before they commit a crime. Officials may deny the mistreatment, however many who have left the camps have all told stories of torture and sterilization. The issue with this current systematic injustice is the fact that it is garnering global attention upon fears that it may be actual genocide, thus being a human rights issue.
What I believe this social injustice further explains in real time are three concepts happening simultaneously in time. First is the concept of Other as witnessed in the Chinese society and Muslims in that region of the world. Uighurs are seen as a people distrustful of the state and cast out with no hope of religious freedom. The second concept occurring is Ahmad’s Otherness that Western culture endlessly perpetuates. By being removed by distance and only having Europeans and telling the story of the disenfranchised biases are formed and true compassion is not had for people being put into camps. The last concept is the subaltern. The Uighers are what many Muslims who are aware of what is occurring are experiencing genocide and religious persecution. People are being taken to camps where they are not free to tell their stories. How will they be able to express what is happening and who can fight for them if they are continually silenced?
