While Islamic Scholars Are Busy Declaring One Another Kafir, Muslim Governments Have Left 18 Million Muslim Refugees Living In Confinement or In Refugee Camps to Fend For Themselves
By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
29 March
2022
Political
and Religious Conflicts, Mostly Sectarian Clashes Are At the Root of the Muslim
Refugee Crisis
Main
Points:
1. Muslims of
Palestine and China live in open air prisons.
2. A big
population of Muslims of Myanmar, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan live as
refugees.
3. 24 million
Muslims live as refugees or prisoners in the world.
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Syrian refugees wait to enter Jordanian side of
the Hadalat border crossing, a military zone east of Amman.(Khalil Mazraawi /
AFP / Getty Images)
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There are
more than 50 Muslim majority countries in the world and there are other dozens
of countries where Muslims constitute a considerable part of the population.
The Muslim majority countries except the Asian and African countries are rich
with oil and minerals. But unfortunately, Muslims of the world both in the
Muslim majority and Muslim minority countries have not learnt to live in peace.
Political and religious or sectarian differences among them are so severe that
they often cause strife and bloodshed, massacre and civil war.
If we take
a look at the countries that have been ravaged by civil war, political war or
sectarian strife, we find that the Muslims of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya,
Afghanistan, Phillipines, Nigeria, Jordan, Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, China and
Pakistan have been suffering from religious and sectarian strife and this
strife has caused large scale displacement of the Muslim population.
This displacement
is of two kinds: Internal and external. There are millions of Muslims in Muslim
majority countries who are internally displaced. They have to leave their homes
to take shelter in comparatively safer places within the country as refugees.
Such internally displaced people are in millions in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq
and Libya. There are others who have left their countries in the wake of civil
strife or political instability and have taken asylum in another countries as
refugees.
Home to more than 85,000 people, the Zaatari
refugee camp has become a small city, with more than 3,000 shops and kiosks set
up mainly by Syrian refugees. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times )
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There is a
third category of hapless Muslims who live in confinement in their towns as the
entire area is turned into an open prison. Muslims living in these open prisons
are in millions. They are made prisoners by their own government or by an
occupying force. They have no freedom and no rights.
Now we come
to the details. During the protests as part of the Arab Spring, the autocratic
governments of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were overthrown by the violent
protesters. The protesters wanted democratic governments and human rights but
instead they got involved in civil war which was hijacked by the ISIS and Al
Qaida and the entire middle East became a battle field and the common
protesters soon became invisible. In the bloodshed that ensued, almost entire
Middle East was ravaged and millions of people, majority of them were Muslims
had to flee their homes and their countries and take shelter in neighbouring
countries or in European countries.
The number of Muslims internally displaced only in Syria is 7 million. The number of Syrians living as refugees in other countries is again 7 million. Refugees from Libya are 1 million who have taken refuge in different countries. There are 6 million refugees in Tunisia.
Photo:
DW Made for Minds
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These
Muslims were rich and wealthy and had been living a prosperous life until the
Arab Spring turned their life into a cold autumn. Entire towns of Syria today
present a deserted look. Their spatial houses and markets, hospitals, malls and
parks have turned into abodes of ghosts. And their inmates are living a life of
abject poverty and penury in refugee camps in African or European countries.
This is why Muslim religious scholars and imams of the Middle Ages discouraged
Muslims from revolting against the established governments. Now we realise the
wisdom behind it. But the religious scholars of today instigated such revolts
by terrorist organisations.
The same
situation is in Libya and Iraq where millions of Muslims are either internally
displaced or are living in refugee camps abroad where there is no freedom, no
jobs, no hygiene, no safety and there is hostility from the local population.
Certainly, this was not the life when they had revolted against their
governments.
The Muslims
of Myanmar called Rohingya Muslims who are persecuted by the majority Buddhists
and the military have to seek shelter in Bangladesh. Prior to 2017, some 200,00
Rohingyas had to leave Myanmar and take shelter in Bangladesh. In 2017, there
was a bigger crackdown by the military and extremist Buddhists against
Rohingyas and fearing ethnic cleansing, 8 lakh Rohingyas fled and took shelter
in Bangladesh. They live in refugee camps in Cox Bazar. Last year the
Bangladesh government forcibly shifted some Rohingyas to an island called
Bhasanchar which they say is an open prison.
There are
two open air prisons for Muslims. One is Palestine where two million live in
confinement and the prison guard is Israel. The other open air prison is
Xinjiang region in China where there are 1.1 million Uyghur Muslims and the
prison guard is China.
In
Palestine, the Gaza Strip is called the biggest open air prison in the world
because here 1.94 million Palestinians live in confinement. No one can go out
of it and enter it. Israel has restricted their movement and so they dont have
access to the other parts of Palestine and the world. They have been living in
confinement since 1948.
Even the
West Bank of Palestine is not free. Citizens have been confined by a 700
kilometre long separating wall apart from check points, gates, artificial
barriers and forbidden and segregated roads. Therefore, the inmates of West
Bank too live in virtual confinement.
The third
category of Muslims are more unfortunate. They are Muslims living in another
open air prison in Xingjian in China which is home to the Turkic Uyghur
community living in the region since the initial days of Islam. Senior Sahabi
of the prophet of Islam pbuh, Hadhrat Amro bin al Aas is said to have visited
China during the life of the prophet pbuh. During 2014, the emergence of ISIS
in Mosul gave China the reason to adopt the policy of persecution of Uyghur
Muslims in the name of fighting terrorism in the country. In 2017, finally
China confined about 1.1 million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps it
called re-education or vocational training camps. In these camps, rape of women,
sterilisation of young women, forceful abortion of pregnant women and torture
and death of men have been reported. They are forced to forego their religious
beliefs and learn Communist ideology. They are also forced to work as bonded
labour.
Rohingya Muslims / Photo: Iqna
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Another
category of refugees are stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh. They are Urdu
speaking Pakistanis left behind after the creation of Bangladesh. They want to
go to Pakistan but the Pakistan government has abandoned them. Their number is
about 2, 50, 000. They live a life of deprivation and misery but the outer
Muslim world does not care.
Two decades
of religious and political conflict in Afghanistan has caused irreparable
damage to the society and economy of Afghanistan. Many lives were lost and 2.7
million people had to leave the country and live in other countries as
refugees. Other 2.5 million people are internal refugees.
There are
another one million refugees from Somalia uprooted due to internal conflict.
Now we
guess the total number of refugees and inmates of open air prisons among
Muslims:
China: 1
million
Syria: 7
million
Palestine:
2 million
Bangladesh:
1 million
Tunisia: 6
million
Europe: 1
million
Afghanistan:
5 million
Somalia: 1
million
The total
number of refugees and confined Muslims is about 24 million while the total
population of Muslims in the world is about 2 billion and they are the second
largest religious community after the Christians who are 2.8 billion. The
Muslim countries have wealth and natural resources and some of them are even atomic
powers but practically they are paper tigers. They do nothing to emancipate
these 18 million people. Instead they support the persecution of these hapless
Muslims or at best ignore it. Sectarian differences among the Muslims,
terrorism and political immaturity of Muslim nations have brought the Muslims
to the position that they have to live in their own country or alien countries
as refugees or prisoners. And Muslim scholars are busy discussing the theory of
abrogation, or other sectarian issues and declaring one another Kafir.
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