LETTER: On this Genocide Memorial Day, organised annually by the Islamic Human Rights Commission every third Sunday of January, we express our strong protest on the on going demonisation of Muslim minorities in countries that have oppressive policies against the religion of Islam and its followers.
IHRC has chosen "Starting Genocide: Demonisation" as the theme for this year. MAPIM today releases this statement to participate in the event, coinciding with our virtual Malaysian Youth Training Workshop on Kashmir and GMD in Kuala Lumpur.
We recognise the correlation between the demonisation of peoples with the genocide crimes by oppresors. We regret that the process of demonisation is still prevalent in countries that subject people especially Muslim minorities to inhuman treatment of the weak.
Policies to dehumanise and demonise people is a prelude to genocide. The world today unfortunately is witnessing a surge of demonisation of ethnic, religious and other groups (refugees).
There is now a strong xenophobic sentiment under the pretext of national interest to hate assylum seekers and refugees, incited by extreme right wing politicians. Inhumanity and country first policy are blended together to divide people around the world, leading to genocide intend to decimate the other.
Exploiting the current economic fallout, social prejudices are being fed into the nationalistic agenda to fan hatred amongst society.
We affirm the following:
The genocide of the state of Palestine by British that gave full support to Jews to occupied the land is too glaring to ignore. The 7 decades of occupation and denial of rights of the Palestinians through propaganda of terrorism by Israel has been the campaign of demonising of the victims by the aggressor;
Under the RSS - BJP rule in India, the dominating Hindutva agenda has targeted Muslim minorities to be subjected to hate speeches by goverment leaders. Inciting violence is rampant leading to attacks on Muslim homes, lynching, destruction of mosques, banning of qurban;
It is also clearly demonstrated in China where the Uyghur Muslims especially in Xinjiang, are being demonised as terrorists. The Chinese government has been imposing policies and laws against Muslims on the account that they are extremists and prone to radical ideology. China's cultural genocide against the Uyghur ethnic minority has seen the incarcerating millions of them;
Myanmar in the 21st Century is the textbook for genocide. The extemist campaign Ma Ba Tha is the driving force for demonising Muslims.This is an agenda propagated by the nationalist Buddhist to reject the presence of Muslims in Myanmar; and
In Sri Lanka, the Singhale dominated goverment has targeted Muslims with hate campaigns as a national agenda. A strong Islamophobic sentiment is now propogated to the public against the Muslim minorities.
We believe that the demonising process is not only embraced by dictators but also the on going western system of globalisation.
Therefore, we call :
All nations in the world to comply with the principles of a harmonious co-existence amongst people of diverse races, creed and culture;
Stop the demonisation of people and build a sense of respect and love amongst people across the globe;
All governments to curb all campaigns of hate, xenophobic and Islamophobic through divisive politics and processess of divide and rule;
Western powers and Arab countries who have normalised with Israel to delink from supporting Israel which as the most genocidal state through its demonising campaign of Palestinians freedom fighters;
Muslim countries to voice their concern of the continuous suppression of Muslims in China, India, Kashmir under India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar; and
UN to be more assertive to act on genocidal crimes and to illegalise unilateral sanctions by one country against others without the due process of international law.
MALAYSIAN CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF ISLAMIC ORGANISATIONS ( MAPIM )
ALLIANCE OF WORLD MOSQUES IN DEFENCE OF AL AQSA
SECRETARIATE OF ULAMA ASSEMBLY ASIAM
CITIZENS INTERNATIONAL
SALIMAH, MALAYSIA
MALAYSIA WOMEN FOR KASHMIR
MALAYSIA KASHMIR YOUTH MOVEMENT
ASSOCIATION FOR MUSLIM MINORITY ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH
INTERNATIONAL RELIEF AND HUMANITARIAN OUTREACH
SOUTH EAST ASIA MUSLIM STUDENTS FEDERATION (PEPIAT)
NATIONAL UNION OF MALAYSIAN MUSLIM STUDENTS (PKPIM)
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times