On 18th April, BBC released a video of Ye Qingfang, a Chinese Muslim woman, describing the discrimination she’s received in China because of her religion. Though China is home to more than 23 million Muslims, she points out that Islamophobia is still a significant issue.
Almost the same time, Chinese authorities also rolled out a ban, prohibiting people in Xinjiang from using baby names like “Mohammad,” “Jihad,” and others with religious meanings that are widely used by Muslims, Radio Free Asia reported. And a few weeks ago, Chinese social media users spewed Islamophobic hate speech in opposition to a mosque that was planned to be built in the town of Nangang in the city of Hefei, where there’s a large concentration of the Hui minority, who are Muslim. A pig’s head was even buried in the ground of the future house of worship, the Independent reported.
Meanwhile, just recently held China’s Belt and Road Forum (BRF) on 15 May 2017, where Muslim leaders from Pakistan, Turkey, and Indonesia have enthusiastically attended this forum even though China promoted its colonialist policies for the Muslims lands and oceans by investing in rail, ports and power plants along the centuries-old silk routes. The Belt and Road Initiative comprises two large segments hegemony: the Silk Road Economic Belt, a land route from western China mainland that goes to Central Asia up to the Middle East, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a strategic and important sea-lane encircling Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf and touching the Horn of Africa.
Comment:
It is irrefutable that China is a greedy capitalist state also a colonialist that is oppressive to Muslims at home and abroad. Today China emerges as a new world power rivaling the US and other Western powers, clearly has a serious plan to dominance Muslims in their land and ocean.
To understand this situation, Muslims should not be politically blind, should not only limit themselves to understand merely issues on national or local politics, so that the Ummah cannot deceived by the traps of new imperialism as China does. They must also understand the betrayal of their leaders who prefer to serve the colonialists instead of serving the people, they allow them to rob and plunder their own country’s natural wealth, regardless of the people’s lives who are suffering and ensnared with poverty. They are the heads of apostasy, followers of lust and carnal desires.
It is imperative for Muslims to have a true political awareness that has unique view from Islam with international level of understanding, based on the meaning of politics (siyâsah) in Islam which is the regulation of the affairs of the Ummah at home and abroad. Politics is carried out by the state and the Ummah, because it is the state that directly implements this regulation practically, while the ummah oversees the State in the implementation. This definition is taken from the hadiths that indicate the activities of the rulers, the obligation to correct them, and the importance of looking after the affairs of the Ummah.
The book, Political Concepts of Hizb ut Tahrir, firmly stated that “Since it is the divine duty of the Muslim Ummah to spread Islam to all of mankind then it is an absolute must for the Muslims to be attentive on the world arena; with awareness of the world situation and problems, knowing the motives and incentives of the nations and following closely the political events of the world. It is equally important for the Muslims to observe the political plans of other countries and to comprehend how they are implemented. Similarly, it is important to keep a close watch over the relations between those countries and the political maneuvers they exercise. To draw a successful and feasible plan to establish the Islamic state and hence spread Islam, it is necessary for the Muslims to understand the reality of the situation in the Muslim world in the light of the international situation (world order).”
The Muslim Ummah is the best nation raised for mankind. As Allah (swt) said:
كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَوْ ءَامَنَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ مِنْهُمُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient.”
(Ali Imran: 110)
Fika Komara
Member of Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir