The Chinese Claim The Uighurs Were Forced To Accept Islam — Are They Wrong? (Part 2)

17

The Chinese report on the Uighurs issued in late July claimed that the Turkic Uighur people “endured slavery” at the hands of “the Turks.” It is true that beginning in the mid-18th century there was a flourishing slave trade, within the Ottoman Empire,  and there were certainly Uighurs, as well as many other peoples, who supplied slaves to the Ottoman slave markets. And it appears that only the Turks — that is, the Ottomans — enslaved the Uighurs. History thus bears out the Chinese claim that the Uighur people “endured slavery’” at the hands of “the Turks.”

The Chinese report also claims that “Conversion to Islam was not a voluntary choice made by the common people, but a result of religious wars and imposition by the ruling class.” As for “imposition by the ruling class,” when Tughlugh Timur Khan in the mid-14th century converted to Islam, many of his subjects followed suit. The principle of “cuius regio, eius religio” — “the ruler’s religion becomes that of his realm”– as the Chinese maintain, applied to the Uighurs as to other peoples. The claim that conversion to Islam was also the result of religious wars — rather than the work of peaceful missionaries — is hardly surprising. War was the main way that the Arab tribes had spread their faith from the mid-seventh century on, and war — violent Jihad — remained the chief means of spreading the faith that came to dominate that vast expanse of territory from Islamic Spain through North Africa, the Middle East, Hindustan, and then to far western China.

The Chinese have certainly terribly mistreated the Uighurs. But that does not mean that their claims about the original islamization of the Uighurs are untrue. Uighurs were of many other faiths before they accepted Islam, not an indigenous faith but a foreign import. Islam was a late-comer to the area, and Uighurs  became Muslims in one of two ways: either through being conquered by Islamic peoples in “‘religious wars,” after which they would be  forcibly converted, or by having their rulers –such as Tughlugh Timur Khan in the mid-14 century — convert to Islam, which in turn led many of his subjects to follow suit  and peacefully accept the new faith (“imposition by the ruling class”). Some Uighurs were, like many other peoples, enslaved by the Ottomans (“the Turks”)’but here the Chinese claim is too sweeping, implying that all the Uighurs were treated thus  (“Uighurs were enslaved by the Turks”).
The Uighurs may speak a Turkic language, but they are not a purely Turkic people. They are  Sino-Turkic, distinct from either the Turks and the Chinese. Simply look at their photographs and you can see just how Chinese are many of their facial features, and how unlike the Turks in Turkey they look. They are a genetic blend, but it is the Chinese element that is more pronounced.
Horrific knife attack kills 29, injured 143 at a railway station in Kunming by Uyghur “separatist” jihadis.
When the Chinese claim that Islam was “not the sole belief system of the Uighur people” they are absolutely correct. The Uighurs were Tengiists, Manichaeans, Buddhists and Nestorian Christians long before they accepted Islam.
Were the Chinese wrong? They claimed that the Uighurs are not a ‘Turkic” people. True, they are a Sino-Turkic people. They claimed that Islam spread among the Uighurs through religious wars or the “imposition by the ruling class.” True; wars of religious conquest spread Islam throughout central Asia as they had in so many other places; sometimes a ruler’s conversion would lead to the conversion of his subjects; that was what was meant by the “imposition by the ruling class.” Islam was “not indigenous to the area” but was brought by Muslim warriors, just as the Chinese claim. Islam was “not the sole belief system of the Uighur people”; long before Islam arrived the Uighurs were of many different faiths– Tengists, Manichaeans, Buddhists, and Nestorian Chistians.
The Chinese often mislead, but when they happen to be telling the truth, or telling part of the truth, as  they do about the Uighurs and Islam, why not recognize that, rather than consign them permanently to the outer darkness, without examining the accuracy of what they are saying? And if they properly identify how Islam  spread — through wars, or a ruler’s whim — surely that is useful knowledge. Condemn the Chinese all you want for their methods of ‘re-education”  but don’t dismiss those of their remarks about the Uighurs, the Turks, and Islam that just happen to be true.
The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding. Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.

Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.

Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.

Follow Pamela Geller on
Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.

Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.

If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
17 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
gfmucci .
gfmucci .
4 years ago

The Chinese are doing what they believe needs to be done to minimize the spread of supremaicst and violent jihad-loving Islam within their national boundaries. I can’t fault them for that. The “disease” of Islam IS much worse than the “medicine” of Chinese reeducation.

Hans Wellington
Hans Wellington
4 years ago
Reply to  gfmucci .

China is just like Myanmar taking the correct actions in throwing the Islamic diseased out their countries. No civilized society should ever be expected to put up with the islamic pest.

ontheleftcoast
ontheleftcoast
4 years ago

The Chinese often mislead, but when they happen to be telling the truth, or telling part of the truth, as they do about the Uighurs and Islam, why not recognize that, rather than consign them permanently to the outer darkness, without examining the accuracy of what they are saying? And if they properly identify how Islam spread — through wars, or a ruler’s whim — surely that is useful knowledge.

Why not recognize it? As far as the Uighurs of today is concerned, it is irrelevant.

It is no surprise that the descendants of coerced converts can be sincere adherents to the religion however their ancestors came to adopt it. Witness the many Muslim inhabitants of the Middle East and North Africa whose ancestors were Christian and Jewish converts to Islam, the descendants of Jewish conversos who stayed in Spain and Portugal as faithful Catholics, and many, many other people whose ancestors encountered a militant proselytizing religion.

The question is what the Chinese are doing to Uighurs today, and what, if anything, we should do about it. We should certainly take this as another example of what the Chinese government will do to people it controls, but the situation does not require a really futile and stupid gesture. Like giving “credit where credit is due” to the CCP.

How the Uighurs became Muslim is only potentially “useful knowledge” because it is true. “True” and “the CCP says” are only the same when it is tactically or strategically useful for the Party, not because the Party has any commitment to telling the truth. The Party has no credibility, there is no obligation to give the CCP “credit” for having said it, and acknowledging that the Party has told the truth in this instance will not encourage it to do so in the future.

There is, however, an obligation for us to try not to be fools. If you plan to use something that comes from the mouth of a group whose principles include deliberately not having an allegiance to the truth for its own sake, you are a fool not to verify it independently, and you are equally a fool to give a systematic and deliberate liar credit for having told the truth in a particular instance unless doing so suits your long term goals as well as the liar’s.

Bill
Bill
4 years ago

Assimilate or die. Like the ‘Borg’. The Uighurs were probably forced into Islam, but they are Muslims now.
Also: The southern Philippines have autonomous zones for the Muslims there. It will almost certainly spread to other islands. There’s no co-existing with them, as we all know.

Cauc-Asian Patriot
Cauc-Asian Patriot
4 years ago

THE LEFT CAN’T TAKE THE TRUTH IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM BECAUSE ITS DOCTRINES ARE THEMSELVES LARGELY BASED ON UNTRUTHS! YOUR HISTORY LESSON MENTIONS THE POOR DEAD CIVILIZATION OF THE NESTORIANS WHO WERE CULTURALLY WIPED OUT AS A RELIGIOUS FAITH COMMUNITY/CIVILIZATION BY ISLAM! WHEN WILL THE WORLD WEEP FOR THEM?
THE NESTORIANS SENT AN EMISSARY ALL THE WAY FROM THE KHAN’S KINGDOM IN MONGOLIA TO ROME TO TRY TO BROKER AN AGREEMENT FOR AN ALLIANCE OF THE BUDDHISTS & CHRISTIANS AGAINST ISLAM THAT WOULD HAVE SAVED NOT JUST THE NESTORIANS BUT THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE EAST TOO! KUDOS TO ROBERT SPENCER WHO TRIES TO BRING THE NESTORIANS’ TRAGIC HISTORY TO LIGHT WHICH HAS BEEN VANQUISHED FROM OUR WESTERN HISTORY TEXT BOOKS FOR MANY YEARS!
THE REAL TRAGEDY IS THAT THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS SEEM TO BE THE ONLY FOLKS WHO CAN DEAL WITH THIS CREED THAT PUTS IT AT A DISADVANTAGE! THE ULTIMATE IRONY IS IF THERE WAS ANY FRAGMENT OF NESTORIANISM LEFT IN CHINA AS A FAITH COMMUNITY AMONG THIS SINO-TURKISH TRIBE, THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS MIGHT HAVE SAVED IT & ALLOWED IT TO GROW!

SchroedingersDog
SchroedingersDog
4 years ago

“Help, stop hitting me!”
—— Your CAPS key.

Cauc-Asian Patriot
Cauc-Asian Patriot
4 years ago

TAKE YOUR DOG FOR A WALK & DO SOME DEEP BREATHING EXERCISES UNTIL YOU CALM DOWN AND DON’T LOOK AT MY COMMENTARIES ANY MORE, OK? THEY ARE TOO ADULT FOR YOU! CHEERS!

SeveredSeclusiveIdiom
SeveredSeclusiveIdiom
4 years ago

We need Islam 2.0 without Quran without Sharia without Jihad (that sounds very christian to me)
Islam without the disease of Islam

dylan thomas
dylan thomas
4 years ago

i detest the chicoms, but their nipping in the bud of the muslim threat within their country is impressive

SchroedingersDog
SchroedingersDog
4 years ago

Where is part I? The link leads to a blank page.

GandalfsTrouserpress
GandalfsTrouserpress
4 years ago

It says Part 1 in orange at the top of the report in bold capital font.
I wonder where Part 2 starts?

Mr_Erik
Mr_Erik
4 years ago

Imposition by the ruling class, muslims, is what will happen
to Sweden in a near future!

Roma Mikhasev
Roma Mikhasev
4 years ago

i like it!!! FOR CHINA!!!

Badger
Badger
4 years ago

I don’t give a dam for what happens to muslims.

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago

What you do not see or hear is any protest by any majority Muslimnationaghainst the efforts of the ChiComs to stamp out Islam among millions of adherents. This clearly demonstrates that Islam is not a religion at all but an opportunistic criminal cult.

Murielle
Murielle
4 years ago

“…violent Jihad — remained the chief means of spreading the faith…” as it does today in the west.

Stephen Honig
Stephen Honig
4 years ago

Doesn’t the Uighurs get, slavery has ended.

Sponsored
Geller Report
Thanks for sharing!