Muslims in Hong Kong, 'the next Xinjiang,' silently support Uyghurs
Kowloon Mosque (Masjid) and Islamic Center in Hong Kong, China. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov.
HONG KONG— Amid the mass repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, Muslims in Hong Kong find themselves struggling to speak out or protest for their fellow Muslims as the autonomous city’s decades of religious freedom and free speech erode with China’s latest security law.
Muslims in the city number less than 4 percent, many on short-term visas for domestic work, and fear repercussions if they criticize the Chinese government over its treatment of the Uyghurs.
Nonetheless, there’s a widespread saying among pro-democracy protesters: "Hong Kong will become the next Xinjiang."
A movement to support the Uyghurs has picked up in Hong Kong since its anti-government, pro-democracy protests began last year in response to an extradition bill that would have allowed China rather than local authorities to prosecute detainees, including activists. The demands expanded to police accountability and amnesty for arrested protesters among others. Then China passed a new national security law this summer, which bans protests and criminalizes acts of secession, terrorism, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, with only vague definitions of those terms. Many have called the law the end of Hong Kong as the modern world has known it.
The Chinese Communist Party has detained an estimated one million Uyghurs across Xinjiang province in northwest China in reeducation camps where they undergo political indoctrination and often physical and psychological torture. In the name of "stability and security" and "striking against terrorism and extremism," the Chinese government has used arbitrary arrests and mass surveillance to threaten and punish the Turkic Muslims, including ethnic Uyghurs and Kazakhs and other minorities in Xinjiang, for years. Many have reported to human rights groups that their family members vanished. There are also reports of organ harvesting in the region.
Religious activities and expressions in Xinjiang’s schools are banned, and so is the circulation of documents like religious laws and regulations. Appearances that are thought to contain "religious fanaticism” and "extremist elements" like facial hair and clothing are prohibited.
Hong Kongers point out the parallels between the crackdown on the Uyghurs and themselves. Last winter, Hong Kong protesters held a rally to show solidarity with the Uyghurs, in which more than 1,000 attended, waving East Turkistan flags and holding signs that read "Free Uyghur."
About 300,000 people in Hong Kong practice Islam. But there has not been large-scale Muslim-led advocacy for the Uyghurs.
“Just because we aren’t making a voice, it doesn’t mean we have no feelings to support the Uyghur Muslims,” said Muhammad, a Hong Kong-born Pakistani Muslim who didn’t want to be identified by his real name for fear of his safety. “Prophet Muhammad said Muslims are like one body — if one part is hurt, the whole body should have a fever.”
Most of Hong Kong’s Muslim population is made of Indonesian domestic workers who come for temporary work and aren’t familiar with the persecution of Uyghurs. The rest who are Pakistanis and non-Chinese fear repercussions if they upset the authorities or feel disconnected from Hong Kong or Chinese affairs, said Phillip Khan, 58, a Pakistani-Hong Kong businessman and political activist whose family has settled in the city for a century. Khan thinks the silence of the Imams on the Uyghurs could lead to some apathy among their followers as well.
Muhammad said the Islamic charity awareness activities and projects he is involved in might face restrictions or be troubled by more protocols if he criticized the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs.
“We don’t want to stop the good we are able to do," he said. "We need to be careful how to make a stance against the rule [national security law]."
Feeling concerned and disturbed by the ill-treatment of the Uyghurs, Muhammad said he does share articles online and spreads awareness on social media. He was also in a partnership with a foreign charity to raise funds for Uyghur refugees in Turkey. He says Muslims talk about the Uyghurs privately among themselves.
"Those who are outside of the city [Hong Kong] and the country [China] will make more voice than those who are inside unless the laws are there to protect people's opinions and voice," Muhammad said.
Khan thinks Islam, as well as other religions, could be a target of suppression if China sees them as a threat to its communist regime. But he has not seen any substantial impact on religious freedom by the security law so far.
China has launched extensive campaigns to destroy mosques in Xinjiang and churches in provinces such as Shanxi and Zhejiang. Muhammad said he will not be surprised if China does the same to Hong Kong but does not think it will be imminent.
He thinks it’s vital to notice that Muslims in other parts of China are free to engage in Islamic practices, and China is not the only country persecuting Muslims.
The Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund has been the main body representing the Muslim community in Hong Kong, with its seven board members managing the five mosques and two Muslim cemeteries.
The Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre, the largest mosque in the city, was drenched with blue dye when police fired a water cannon during a protest last year. The liquid also hit and injured members of the mosque, bystanders and journalists standing outside, triggering criticism from Muslims, as well as non-Muslim Hong Kongers protesting excessive use of force by police.
Muslim community leaders accepted the in-person apology of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the explanation that it was "unintended" by the police.
"They should not have done that," said Muhammad, "but we were also making sure that our emotions were in check, meaning we are trying to respond with calmness. It is something God mentions in the Quran - repeal an evil with an act of goodness… We are a minority, and we will always be a minority. We want to basically work hard, live like other people, and make the most out of it."
Shuk Wa Cheng is a journalism student at Hong Kong Baptist University.