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What if the Uighurs were Christian Rather than Muslim?
According to The New York Times
this morning, violent clashes between Chinese government forces and
Muslim Uighurs -- that country's long-oppressed minority -- have left
at least 140 people dead and close to 1,000 injured. This incident in
Western China highlights an important fact about America's "War on
Terror."
Jul 06, 2009
According to The New York Times
this morning, violent clashes between Chinese government forces and
Muslim Uighurs -- that country's long-oppressed minority -- have left
at least 140 people dead and close to 1,000 injured. This incident in
Western China highlights an important fact about America's "War on
Terror."
Just imagine if the Uighurs were a Christian -- rather
than Muslim -- minority, battling against the tyrannical Communist
regime in Beijing, resisting various types of persecution, and
demanding religious freedom. They would be lionized by America's
Right, as similar Christian minorities, oppressed by tyrannical regimes, automatically are. Episodes
like these -- where a declared Tyranny like China violently acts
against citizens with whom we empathize -- are ones about which, in
general, the American political class loves to sermonize.
But the
Uighurs are Muslim, not Christian, and hostility towards them thus
easily outweighs the opportunity they present to undermine the Chinese
Government. Rather than support and venerate them, we instead spent
this decade declaring them to be "enemy combatants" and locking them up in Guantanamo
-- despite the fact that they have never evinced any interest in doing
anything other than resisting Chinese persecution, and have certainly
never taken actions against the U.S. (as even the Bush administration
ultimately admitted). Yet even now, both Congress and the administration actively block release into the U.S. even of those Uighurs we wrongfully imprisoned for years, while the Right screams with outrage -- and fear -- over the administration's commendable efforts to find a home for them elsewhere.
For
all the Serious analysis about the War on Terror, so much of it has
been driven by nothing more complex or noble than sheer hostility
towards Muslims. Muslims generally -- not just Al Qaeda --
replaced Communists as our New Enemy and became the new enabling force
for our endless state of War and never-ending expansions of executive
power. Rather obviously, the Uighurs were swept into the Enemy
category solely by virtue of their status as Muslims. What more
compelling evidence of that could be imagined than the fact that we
imprisoned -- and continue to imprison -- people at Guantanamo whose
only political interest is in resisting oppression by the Chinese
government?
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Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, constitutional lawyer, commentator, author of three New York Times best-selling books on politics and law, and a former staff writer and editor at First Look media. His fifth and latest book is, "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State," about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the Snowden documents around the world. Glenn's column was featured at Guardian US and Salon. His previous books include: "With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful," "Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics," and "A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency." He is the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, a George Polk Award, and was on The Guardian team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public interest journalism in 2014.
According to The New York Times
this morning, violent clashes between Chinese government forces and
Muslim Uighurs -- that country's long-oppressed minority -- have left
at least 140 people dead and close to 1,000 injured. This incident in
Western China highlights an important fact about America's "War on
Terror."
Just imagine if the Uighurs were a Christian -- rather
than Muslim -- minority, battling against the tyrannical Communist
regime in Beijing, resisting various types of persecution, and
demanding religious freedom. They would be lionized by America's
Right, as similar Christian minorities, oppressed by tyrannical regimes, automatically are. Episodes
like these -- where a declared Tyranny like China violently acts
against citizens with whom we empathize -- are ones about which, in
general, the American political class loves to sermonize.
But the
Uighurs are Muslim, not Christian, and hostility towards them thus
easily outweighs the opportunity they present to undermine the Chinese
Government. Rather than support and venerate them, we instead spent
this decade declaring them to be "enemy combatants" and locking them up in Guantanamo
-- despite the fact that they have never evinced any interest in doing
anything other than resisting Chinese persecution, and have certainly
never taken actions against the U.S. (as even the Bush administration
ultimately admitted). Yet even now, both Congress and the administration actively block release into the U.S. even of those Uighurs we wrongfully imprisoned for years, while the Right screams with outrage -- and fear -- over the administration's commendable efforts to find a home for them elsewhere.
For
all the Serious analysis about the War on Terror, so much of it has
been driven by nothing more complex or noble than sheer hostility
towards Muslims. Muslims generally -- not just Al Qaeda --
replaced Communists as our New Enemy and became the new enabling force
for our endless state of War and never-ending expansions of executive
power. Rather obviously, the Uighurs were swept into the Enemy
category solely by virtue of their status as Muslims. What more
compelling evidence of that could be imagined than the fact that we
imprisoned -- and continue to imprison -- people at Guantanamo whose
only political interest is in resisting oppression by the Chinese
government?
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, constitutional lawyer, commentator, author of three New York Times best-selling books on politics and law, and a former staff writer and editor at First Look media. His fifth and latest book is, "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State," about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the Snowden documents around the world. Glenn's column was featured at Guardian US and Salon. His previous books include: "With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful," "Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics," and "A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency." He is the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, a George Polk Award, and was on The Guardian team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public interest journalism in 2014.
According to The New York Times
this morning, violent clashes between Chinese government forces and
Muslim Uighurs -- that country's long-oppressed minority -- have left
at least 140 people dead and close to 1,000 injured. This incident in
Western China highlights an important fact about America's "War on
Terror."
Just imagine if the Uighurs were a Christian -- rather
than Muslim -- minority, battling against the tyrannical Communist
regime in Beijing, resisting various types of persecution, and
demanding religious freedom. They would be lionized by America's
Right, as similar Christian minorities, oppressed by tyrannical regimes, automatically are. Episodes
like these -- where a declared Tyranny like China violently acts
against citizens with whom we empathize -- are ones about which, in
general, the American political class loves to sermonize.
But the
Uighurs are Muslim, not Christian, and hostility towards them thus
easily outweighs the opportunity they present to undermine the Chinese
Government. Rather than support and venerate them, we instead spent
this decade declaring them to be "enemy combatants" and locking them up in Guantanamo
-- despite the fact that they have never evinced any interest in doing
anything other than resisting Chinese persecution, and have certainly
never taken actions against the U.S. (as even the Bush administration
ultimately admitted). Yet even now, both Congress and the administration actively block release into the U.S. even of those Uighurs we wrongfully imprisoned for years, while the Right screams with outrage -- and fear -- over the administration's commendable efforts to find a home for them elsewhere.
For
all the Serious analysis about the War on Terror, so much of it has
been driven by nothing more complex or noble than sheer hostility
towards Muslims. Muslims generally -- not just Al Qaeda --
replaced Communists as our New Enemy and became the new enabling force
for our endless state of War and never-ending expansions of executive
power. Rather obviously, the Uighurs were swept into the Enemy
category solely by virtue of their status as Muslims. What more
compelling evidence of that could be imagined than the fact that we
imprisoned -- and continue to imprison -- people at Guantanamo whose
only political interest is in resisting oppression by the Chinese
government?
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