On Islamophobia, Imran Khan is the problem, not the solution, says scholar

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is the problem when it comes to Islamophobia said a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in the wake of the letter written by Khan to his fellow Muslim leaders on "ridicule and mockery" of Prophet Muhammad and "increasing Islamophobia".

"Khan's hypocrisy is glaring, however, and ultimately diminishes the seriousness with which the international community can take Pakistan. For all his crocodile about disrespect for the prophet of Islam and his attempts to analogize the speech limitations he seeks to European laws against Holocaust denial, Khan ignores not only China's involvement in perhaps the greatest episode of ethnic cleansing since the Holocaust, but also that he and his government actively enable it," Michael Rubin, a resident scholar American Enterprise Institute wrote for The National Interest.

He pointed out that just a couple hundred miles across the Pakistan-China border lies Kashgar, once the cultural capital of Uighur Muslims. The US State Department estimates that China has imprisoned three million Muslims, some in camps within sight of the mountains of northern Pakistan.

"Chinese doctors forcibly sterilize Uighur women for the crime of being Muslim, rape others, and sell hair forcibly shaved from Uighurs to make wigs and other products, some of which are then transported via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to outside markets," the scholor wrote.

Rubin said that if Khan "truly cared about' Muslims and the honour of Islam, he would condemn the Chinese communist regime for its sustained campaign of cultural genocide.

"He does not. Perhaps diplomats could excuse Pakist silence on the eradication of a millennium-old Muslim community next door in realpolitik calculations. But Khan has gone farther than that and actually endorsed China's mass detention of Uighurs," the scholar wrote in his article.

The scholar goes on to accuse Khan of hypocrisy that runs even deeper, as he " laments the feelings of Muslims living in Europe, but presides over a system which destroys mosques belonging to the Ahmadi sect, kills Christians for alleged blasphemy against Islam, and celebrates murders of minorities in courthouses."

The article further argues that Khan not only ignored genocide against Muslims, but he has further "subordinated a Muslim community" inside Pakist in order to comply with Beijing's wishes.

"If Khan were a true leader, however, he would recognize that the best way to counter so-called Islamophobia would be first to condemn terror conducted in the name of religion, whether outside Paris or in Nice or in Pakist courtrooms," he said.

"He might also recognise that the greatest threat to Islam is not in the calls of a leader like Emmanuel Macron who demands that all citizens, regardless of their religion, must respect the law of the land as they practice their faiths freely... if Imran Khan truly wants to fight Islamophobia, he might look into the mirror because his own behavior endangers Islam far more than any European leader does," Rubin wrote.

Xinjiang region is home to around 10 million Uyghurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45 per cent of Xinjiang's population, has long accused China's authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.

About 7 per cent of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, has been incarcerated in an expanding network of "political re-education" camps, according to US officials and UN experts.

Classified documents known as the China Cables, accessed last year by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, threw light on how the Chinese government uses technology to control Uyghur Muslims worldwide.

However, China regularly denies such mistreatment and says the camps provide vocational training. People in the internment camps have described being subjected to forced political indoctrination, torture, beatings, and denial of food and medicine, and say they have been prohibited from practising their religion or speaking their language.

( With inputs from ANI )