Chinese City Bans the Burqa From Being Worn in Public

[JadeOwl]

It is deliberate policy of wiping them out as a distinct people in their native lands, through slow motion forced assimilation and swamping the region with Han Chinese.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/06/us-china-xinjiang-idUSKBN0G60AA20140806

China also recently made it illegal for Muslim men in Xianjiang with beards to use public transport. China wants the Uighurs as an ethnic group to cease existing .

What you describe is not genocide. It's called ethnocide, and it is its own thing.

 

[Sauron]

The real question is why are the Uighars so opposed to multi-culturism. Maybe if they stopped being xenophobic they would stop railing against Immigrants and make a decent go of things.

 

[Sauron]

Their culture is being deliberately suppressed with the intention being of wiping them out through forced/coerced assimilation. Cultural genocide is genocide. Slow motion genocide is still genocide.

Since Han control China and are swamping the area, the Uighurs will be sidelined and pushed into poverty.Poverty will slowly finish them off.

Genocide is a powerful word that most people identify with the mass killing of a sect / ethnic group.

What you are describing is not genocide as most people know it. It's disingenuous at worst, and an attempt to ascribe an extremely emotive word to something that is not the same. Slow-motion genocide in your words: otherwise known as mass-immigration.

 

[Sauron]

I don't agree with what the Chinese are doing to the Uighurs but if I look at this Burqa situation by itself then I can understand the reason to ban it. France banned the Burqa awhile back and there was discussion here about it, and I supported the ban , partly due to security issues.

Everyone knows why they banned the burqa, and it has nothing to do with 'security'. That's just the convenient justification that fits the bill, and doesn't single muslims out directly.

 

[dissolved]

In favour.

Chipping away at the problem of Islam.

 

[IDL]

What you describe is not genocide. It's called ethnocide, and it is its own thing.

It's a similar technique being used in most of Europe, although apparently the UN definition of Genocide includes non violent means as well so both may apply.

 

[MicroBrew]

Genocide is a powerful word that most people identify with the mass killing of a sect / ethnic group.

What you are describing is not genocide as most people know it. It's disingenuous at worst, and an attempt to ascribe an extremely emotive word to something that is not the same. Slow-motion genocide in your words: otherwise known as mass-immigration.

What China is doing is more accurately cultural genocide , the ultimate aim being to slowly wither away the Uighurs. Just because it isn't being done with immediacy like the Holocaust, does not mean it isn't genocide.

From Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC). Article II of the Convention defines genocide as

.any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Now you could argue the Chinese wouldn't care if the Uighurs just left en-masse but they can't ...

Colonization is a far more apt description than mass immigration because the Uighurs do not have control over who enters and lives in their territory.

 

[MicroBrew]

Everyone knows why they banned the burqa, and it has nothing to do with 'security'. That's just the convenient justification that fits the bill, and doesn't single muslims out directly.

Obviously .... but atleast with the Burqa they got a legit reason. There have been a few attacks by Uighurs against their Chinese overlords.

On the other hand, the excuse given by the Chinese about beards is just total BS.

 

[Orgasmo]

The Chinese got this backwards. The burka is just a symptom of Salafism, the root cause being Saudi funded mosques that are popping up all over Xinjiang. Since they're too chickenshit to ban those mosque, they went after the burka. Some of you might think the Chinese government gives no shit, but it's absolutely false. Anyone that had dealt with the Chinese in business will tell you that their officials are very keen on masking any trouble and painting a picture of stability, fearing it would hurt their career. They have no more stomach to impose tough measures against radical Islam than Western governments.

 

[GhostZ06]

The Chinese got this backwards. The burka is just a symptom of Salafism, the root cause being Saudi funded mosques that are popping up all over Xinjiang. Since they're too chickenshit to ban those mosque, they went after the burka. Some of you might think the Chinese government gives no shit, but it's absolutely false. Anyone that had dealt with the Chinese in business will tell you that their officials are very keen on masking any trouble and painting a picture of stability, fearing it would hurt their career. They have no more stomach to impose tough measures against radical Islam than Western governments.

Who's the terrorist group in Xinjiang? i imagine the Chinese military has a decent force deployed in that region

 

[Orgasmo]

Who's the terrorist group in Xinjiang? i imagine the Chinese military has a decent force deployed in that region

The Uyghur separatist groups mostly. There is a significant shift in the ideology of these groups compared to the 1980's and 1990's. Previously it was fueled by Turkic nationalism, and religion did not play a huge part. Since the 1990's, China was keen to please the Saudis as it wanted better access to oil and selling its missiles. It started allowing Pakistani preachers to teach in Xinjiang, funded by Saudi money. Basically in the past decade, Salafism became the dominant force behind the motivation of these groups. The Chinese are reaping what they sowed in the 1990's due to their shortsighted greed.

The same lesson should serve as a warning to Western societies too. Saudi oil and money might boost you now, but you're going to pay out of your ass down the road. Cheap Saudi oil comes with radical Islamic teachings.

 

[crazyjames1233]

I'm a little torn on this one. On the one hand it clearly curbs peoples right to free expression, in this case of religion (not that there is a whole lot of freedom in China)
On the other totally covering ones face and body totally on a regular basis can cause some security concerns.
I suspect some conservatives will just love it and forget about China being communist to congratulate them on stickin it to "TEH MUSLIMS!"

 

[InternetHero]

Everyone knows why they banned the burqa, and it has nothing to do with 'security'. That's just the convenient justification that fits the bill, and doesn't single muslims out directly.

They've done more to crush religious worship in Zhejiang province of late.

Obviously .... but atleast with the Burqa they got a legit reason. There have been a few attacks by Uighurs against their Chinese overlords.

On the other hand, the excuse given by the Chinese about beards is just total BS.

The attacks amounted to hacking people to death on subway cars or running them down with automobiles. It did not win any hearts and minds on the Mainland.

Let alone that despite the repression of some aspects of Uyghur culture (especially after the 09 uprising...) those tens of billions being poured into the desert would not be there without Beijing.

It is not fair, or a modern concept, but an ethnic group that turns on Beijing will be punished, old school style.

Also, whether we call it cultural genocide or hardline control of rival cultures, it is not going to change anytime soon. Every minute of every hour China's market power does more to trump the social activism.

The left long ago sold Tibet downriver, the right is slowly caving in on Taiwan.

Xinjiang does not have a prayer, and if they did have miracle Independence their poverty and corruption would keep donkey carts over cars for generations.

 

[ButterStoch]

Sure it can. It still doesn't justify abolishing or censoring an individual or group of individual's freedom of expression. I mean we're talking about rights here. You either believe individuals have them or you don't. You seem to be confused.

Lee, I agree that individual rights must be respected. This is China we are talking about though & as far as their human rights violations go, this is one f them that bothers me the least.

How many Muslim women(they have no choice, because you are born into Islam & Apostasy is death) would choose to walk around inside, what is essentially a bag, for their whole lives, if they had not been getting compelled to do it?

Probably, the same percentage as non-Muslim women which is tiny. This means 98%+ of them wouldnt wear cloth bags anyways. The origin is in the fault of this religious oppression of half the human race, not the Chinese government. Starting with the Cultural Revolution by the Communist Party is where you should look if you really want to be disturbed.

The closest analogy are Catholic Nuns, but they choose to do it & if one of them was forced against their will be some Bishop to do it, it would be a scandal & stain on the church. Imagine, if Christians did that to hundreds of millions of women. Everything that bag represents, in my feeling..evil.