Muslims in northwest China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region
denounced the US soldiers' abusing of Iraqi prisoners as "an deadly
insult on the whole Muslim world."?
"I was shocked at the scene of American troops abusing some
Iraqi prisoners on TV," said Rahfu Abbas, executive vice director
of the autonomous regional Red Cross, "It's such a trample on
humanitarianism".
As early as last year, after learning about the abusing acts of
the US soldiers in Iraq prisons, the International Federation of
Red Cross had made propositions to the US army to stop the
anti-humanitarianism behavior but was refused by them.
According to Rahfu Abbas, a Muslim of the Tatar ethnic minority
living in Xinjiang for generations, Islam has many taboos on
sex.
"Such actions as nude before the same sex and exposing one's
sexual organs before others are considered serious rebellion
against orthodoxy of Islam," said Rhafu Abbas.
"In Islamism, women are forbidden to see the naked body of a
man. The scene that the American female soldier pointing at the
genital of a nude Iraqi prisoner with her fingers is such a
humiliation to the religious belief of the Islam," said Rhafu
Abbas.
"I couldn't even believe my eyes when I saw the photos on the
vice of the American soldiers at the Iraqi prison. We and the
Iraqis are all Muslims. We all have the same belief. The actions of
the US troops is such a humiliation to us Muslims that we all think
it's intolerable," said Rozi Memet, a young Uygur who is selling
dried fruits at the Xinjiang international bazaar.
"All my feeling is shock and anger," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji,
vice director of the Islamic Association of China.
"The Islamic teaching requires to give lenient treatment to
prisoners of the war and forbids corporal punishment, especially
injuries to the five sense organs which is highly admired in
Islamism," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji.
"It's a common sense that all non-Muslims working or living in
Islamic regions should respect the religion and belief of the local
people," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji.
"But the US troops, whose administration is still making
indiscreet criticisms to the human rights of other countries, have
done such evil conducts to the Iraqis by arresting people without
reason, shutting prisoners in black rooms, beating and torching
them with electricity, sending dogs to bite them and even
humiliating them by forcing them to perform homosexual behavior and
raping Islamic women. All are severe violation of the Islamic
canons," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji.
According to Abdurekefu Damaolaaji, who is also the deputy
president of the Institute of Islamic Theology, the prisoner abuse
scandal has so annoyed the students of the institute that many of
them think it a strong humiliation to all the Muslims around the
world.
As the largest region where China's ethnic minorities inhabit
and covering some one-sixth of the total territory of China, the
Xinjiang Autonomous Region boasts over ten million Muslims, who are
living harmoniously with other ethnic groups believing in various
religions in the region.
(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2004)