Palestinian Authority chief backs China's forced 'reeducation camps' for Muslims
Palestinian leader Abbas ends China trip after backing Beijing’s crackdown on Muslim minorities
The above AP headline seems shocking to those unfamiliar with Mahmoud Abbas' background. As head of the PLO and its subsidiary, the Palestinian Authority, Abbas claims to represent millions of Muslims, yet supports the persecution of the Muslim Uyghurs and other followers of Islam living in China's north-western region of Xinjiang.
How bad is it for China's Muslims?
A BBC investigation revealed the extent of the abuse suffered by China's Muslim population:
Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the state calls "re-education camps", and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.
A series of police files obtained by the BBC in 2022 has revealed details of China's use of these camps and described the routine use of armed officers and the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape.
The US is among several countries to have previously accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang. The leading human rights groups Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have published reports accusing China of crimes against humanity.
According to VICE News correspondent Isobel Yeung, as quoted by CBS News, children are included in the re-education campaign:
Muslim children are taken from their parents and suspected to be placed in state-run institutions, which are disguised as kindergartens but double as live-in re-education facilities.
The persecution and surveillance of adults was detailed by CBS News:
A 2018 U.S. State Department Human Rights report detailed instances of torture, sexual abuse, repressive surveillance measures, forcible eating of pork and drinking of alcohol (both of which are forbidden for observant Muslims), confiscation of Qurans, and even deaths.
"This is the strictest surveillance state in the world right now," Yeung told CBSN. "Security cameras are absolutely everywhere, facial recognition everywhere, voice recognition, face scanning, iris scanning, body scanning, the phone is scanned as well to check for any content that might upset the Chinese Communist Party."
"This is absolute Orwellian style surveillance."
Betrayal
The mere fact that Muslims are not free to practice their religion in China would seem sufficient to warrant a protest by a leader of a Muslim group, even without the torture, sexual abuse, forcible eating of pork, etc. Yet, Abbas had quite the opposite reaction to the well-documented abuse, according to the AP report:
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wrapped up a trip to China Friday after seeking economic aid and voicing support for Beijing’s repressive policies toward Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
During his four-day visit, Abbas met with Chinese President and head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping. The leaders then issued a joint statement endorsing Beijing’s domestic and foreign policies and repudiating Western concepts of human rights.
In the statement, the Palestinian Authority said issues regarding China’s policy toward Muslims in Xinjiang have “nothing to do with human rights and are aimed at excising extremism and opposing terrorism and separatism.”
“Palestine resolutely opposes using the Xinjiang problem as a way of interfering in China’s internal affairs,” the joint statement said.
That echoes Chinese propaganda surrounding the detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities in prison-like detention centers on little or no legal grounds — often merely for having a relative studying abroad or downloading the Koran onto their phones. [Emphases added].
Loyalty
Within Abbas' betrayal of Islam lies his loyalty; a long-term faithfulness to those who trained him . . . in the Soviet Union. The New York Times covered his real allegiance in, “Soviet Document Suggests Mahmoud Abbas Was a K.G.B. Spy in the 1980s”:
The document naming Mr. Abbas was among thousands of pages of files spirited out of Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and turned over to British intelligence by a former K.G.B. archivist, Vasily Mitrokhin. Disillusioned by Soviet repression, Mr. Mitrokhin spent years painstakingly copying secret documents by hand, creating a treasure trove for Western analysts and historians that became known as the Mitrokhin archive . . .
Under a title listing people cultivated by the K.G.B. in 1983, the document names “Abbas, Mahmoud,” born 1935 in Palestine, as an agent in Damascus. It calls him “Krotov,” a variant of the word mole. Mr. Abbas was indeed born in 1935 in what was then known as Palestine, but after the creation of the State of Israel, in 1948, his family fled to Damascus, Syria, where he was raised and educated.
Abbas even received his doctorate in the Soviet Union. Likewise, Frontline News has covered PLO founder Yasir Arafat's selection as a representative in the Communist World Festival of Youth and his alleged violation of Islamic law in his personal life, which was initially reported by a member of the National Security Agency:
James J. Welsh, who in the early 1970s monitored communications for the NSA related to Arafat's Fatah movement, said, "One of the things we looked for when we were intercepting Fatah communications were messages about Ashbal [Lion cub] members who would be called to Beirut from bases outside of Beirut. The Ashbal were often orphaned or abandoned boys who were brought into the organization, ostensibly to train for later entry into Fedayeen fighter units.
"Arafat always had several of these 13-15 year old boys in his entourage. We figured out that he would often recall several of these boys to Beirut just before he would leave for a trip outside Lebanon. It proved to be a good indicator of Arafat's travel plans. While Arafat did have a regular security detail, many of those thought to be security personnel – the teenage boys – were actually there for other purposes." [Emphases added].
It comes as no surprise, then, that the largest party within the PLO, Fatah, which was headed by Arafat and then Abbas, is a “member party” of the Socialist International.
The goal
Once disabused of the notion that the PLO strives to better the lives of Arab Muslims, the actions of its leaders no longer appear inconsistent. Strategic analyst Bryan Ellison explained the real aim of Abbas and other PLO leaders:
Since at least 1931, international Communism has sought to conquer the Middle East through the “pan-Arab” movement. According to plans, individual Arab nations would be “liberated” from colonial rule, then fused into a united Arab regional government — a precursor to world government. Strategically, the Middle East contains such vital assets as the Suez Canal and oil reserves, and provides access to the Mediterranean Sea as well as to three continents.
Naturally, the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 began interfering with Communist plans. Thus the Communists quickly set about to destroy that Jewish nation. The pro-Soviet Nasser regime of Egypt created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, and placed in its leadership such recruits as Yasser Arafat, a veteran of the Communist revolution in Algeria. The PLO’s mission: sponsor revolutions to overthrow the non-Communist governments of Israel, Iran, Turkey, and the Arab nations. [Emphases added].
Liberate only from free countries
In light of the PLO's ideology and aims, Abbas has no choice but to foment a rebellion (a so-called war of “national liberation”) by Muslims in Israel, where the can worship freely, have a large representation in the Knesset and benefit from affirmative action programs in work places and universities while enjoying large taxpayer subsidies for programs to advance their standing. At the same time, Abbas does his best to suppress criticism of actual persecution of Muslims by Chinese communists as his interest is in keeping the communists in charge of majority Muslim provinces.
See our previous articles on socialist driven wars of national liberation:
