While Muslim leaders jostle for leadership, China is set to rewrite Quran

The recently concluded four-day Malaysian summit spear headed by the 93-year old Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed has inadvertently exposed the fault lines in the Muslim World. Referred to as the M5 Summit, this miniature version of Islamic coalition is a brain child of the Pakistan-Malaysia-Turkey axis which aimed to develop a regional forum to vociferously defend Islamic interests and burgeoning Islamophobia. Having met along the sidelines of the UNGA summit, the leaders of these countries who are united by their strong opposition to India’s move on revocation of special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir formally signalled the launch of a new religious coalition. Aside China, these three leaders raised Kashmir issue at the UNGA summit as well.

Needless to say, the trigger for this alternative Islamic forum has been the underwhelming response of Muslim community to India’s decision to abrogate article 370. Since 1969, the Muslim Ummah threw their weight behind Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a coalition of 57 Muslim countries to voice out their concerns. Headquartered in Jeddah and controlled by the Saudi, OIC has thus far been the flag bearer of Muslim World. Dismissing the abrogation of article 370 as India’s internal matter, both Saudi and the UAE subdued the issue.  Dissatisfied with this approach, the trio, laid foundation for this new coalition, to champion global Muslim causes.

Coming together of Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia which has nothing in common other than the religion has raised curious doubts among analysts. None of these countries lie in geographically contiguous area nor they are bound by a common agenda and face common threats. But leaders of these countries are known to be veritable religious zealots. Keen on resurrecting the glory of Ottoman Empire, Erdogan who stormed into power in 2003 recklessly trampled and rebuked secularist credentials integral to Turkish constitution. Intent on clinching the leadership of Sunni Muslim community toppling the Saudi Arabia from the coveted position, Erdogan is forging new ties and muscling to increase its heft and clout in the region. Nonagenarian Mahathir, the old race horse known for his aversion to the West defeated Najib Razak in elections on charges of steering country into Chinese orbit and corruption ascended the Prime Minister chair. Faced with the dauting challenge of taking a strong position amidst rising tide of Malay ethnocentrism, projecting himself as the champion of Malayan rights, Mahathir unabashedly embraced the religious zealotry with ease and turned down India’s repeated request to extradite religious hate-mongerer Zakir Naik. Even the persecution of Shias and Ahmediyas are reported to have increased under his regime. Imran Khan’s fascination for religious fundamentalism doesn’t need a fresh introduction, famous as Taliban Khan, he claimed that a game of cricket with India is jihad and married his spiritual mentor months ahead of Prime Ministerial elections. Clearly, political Islam or fostering Islamisation has been the top of the agenda these leaders and the new summit by consequence.

Having pledged to be more vocal on political Islam, in November, Prime Minister Mahathir announced soft launch of M5 Summit with a theme, “The role of development in achieving national sovereignty”. The five countries to lead the inaugural session included- Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia and Qatar. Qatar which has been battling the Saudi and the UAE led trade, economic and social blockade is an important addition to the new grouping. Though Qatar didn’t object India’s move on Kashmir, Qatar based Al Jazeera took up cudgels against India. Mahathir announced that 450 scholars, intellectuals and leaders from across the World will attend the meet to discuss the challenges faced by Muslim Ummah based on the seven pillars of development & sovereignty, culture & identity, justice & freedom, integrity & good governance, peace, security & defence, technology & internet governance, trade & investment.

Saudi Arabia which has been closely monitoring the situation summoned Imran Khan to Riyadh days before the summit. Under duress, Khan cancelled his visit to Kuala Lumpur at the eleventh hour. This together with Saudi King Salman’s telephonic conversation with Mahathir before the meet underscored Riyadh’s disapproval of the new coalition. Ever since the Yemen War, Saudi’s disposition took a downward spiral. Brewing crisis in the Middle East, burgeoning sectarian rivalry and security threat from Iran, loss of face due to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, receding global oil demands have slowly undercut its influence and reputation. Though it attempted to resurrect its leadership by creating an Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), which failed to emerge as cogent pan-Islamic force since it excluded Shia countries. Being the leader of a potent Islamic World, Saudi failed to address major issues beleaguering the Muslim countries- Yemen War, Rohingya Refugee crisis, religious persecutions, Syrian war, rising sectarian clashes and many more. So, when Saudi questioned plausibility of weakening the cause of Islam through multiple institutions, Mahathir chose to ignore the concerns and held the Malaysian Summit.

Notwithstanding the abstentions of Pakistan and Indonesia, hoisting himself as a strident vocal advocate of Muslim World, he targeted India for legislating CAA. After lashing out at India for “invading and occupying Kashmir” at UNGA, he drew attention of the Muslim world to the latest anti-CAA protests in India during the M5S. He said, “I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is taking action against some Muslims to deprive them of citizenship. If we do that here (Malaysia) you know what will happen, there will be chaos”.  Playing a second fiddle, OIC immediately issued a statement criticizing CAA. “The General Secretariat of OIC has been closely following the developments affecting Muslim minority in India. It expresses its concern over the recent developments pertaining to the issue of citizenship rights and the Babri Masjid case. It reiterates its call to ensure safety of the Muslim minority and the protection of Islamic places in India”. Out doing M5S, OIC had indeed raised the Babri Masjid issue, a case amicably resolved by Indian Judiciary. The spurious concerns raised by both the forum reeks of hypocrisy and poor comprehension of India’s democratic functioning. Additionally, reiterating its defiance, Mahathir warmly received and acknowledged the presence of controversial preacher Zakir Naik at the summit.

In their tearing hurry to pitch themselves as the saviours of the Muslim World with tough anti-India posturing, they gave free pass to China which is perpetrating the worst form of human rights violations against Muslim and preparing to rewrite Quran with Chinese characteristics. The outlandish criticisms of OIC and M5S against India reflect their churlishness. Criticisms of discrimination against minorities in India are purely fictional, for they are entitled with special privileges under the constitution of India. Rapid demographic dividend of the minorities vis-à-vis majority community in India vouch for the same. The fictitious allegations of Muslims being denied citizenship under CAA are simply motivated and stands no ground.

US state department’s annual report for the year 2019 blacklisted nine countries for religious freedom violations which includes-China, Pakistan, Eritrea, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Ironically, these black listed countries are casting aspersions on India which has asserted its position as beacon of democracy and secular values.  Front runner of the religious persecutions Pakistan unleashed this nefarious anti-India propaganda. Playing the Muslim card, it spurred both the organisations to slander India.

Antithetically, Khan feigned ignorance about the incarceration of over 1.5 million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps. Similarly, Turkey, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia which are contending for leadership of Muslim community turned a blind eye to unspeakable Chinese atrocities. Turkey became first nation to voice out concerns about the situation in Xinjiang fell silent after Erdogan’s state visit to China recently. Saudi Arabia also followed same trend. In what can be termed as brazen subjugation, the entire Muslim World, failed their fellow Uighur brethren by adopting a resolution at the 50^th Council of Foreign Ministers which read-“ the council welcomes the outcomes of the visit conducted by General Secretariat’s delegation upon invitation from People’s Republic of China (PRC); commends the efforts of PRC in providing care to its Muslim citizens; and looks forward to further cooperation between OIC and PRC”. A cache of leaked documents recovered by NYT, exposed the travails faced by Uighurs detained in the so called “re-education camps”. From cultural persecution to illegal organ harvesting and now bedding of Uighur women with Han men whose husbands are away in detention camps, China is committing inhuman crimes against the hapless Uighurs. Entire Western World, sham human rights organisations including the saviours of Muslim world have been silent over China’s massive crackdown. The vassal state of China, Pakistan’s Taliban Khan has even feigned ignorance about persecution of Uighurs in interviews with international media.

The summit participated by four Muslim leaders- Turkish President Erdogan, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid al Thani and Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammed is nothing more than virtue signalling to Riyadh. This convention is a fervent attempt to challenge the hegemony of Saudi Arabia and the move is more political than ideological. Else what explains their complete silence towards China’s religious persecution. The collective anti-India posturing is a motivated vitriolic aimed at maligning the nation which is attempting to reclaim its due place on global platform.

Emboldened by the global silence and empty rhetoric of Muslim countries, China is constituting an expert committee of 16 members to rewrite Quran and Bible with socialistic characteristics. Though the names find no mention, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last month called for, “comprehensive evaluation of existing religious classics aiming at the content which don’t conform to the progress of the times”. Religious censoring has been rampant in atheist China, Mosques are bulldozed, Churches are locked. PRC founder Mao Zedong, ordered destruction of religious monuments and wiping out every trace of religion during the cultural revolution. Religion has been an instrument for China. It is allowing the Chinese Buddhism to flourish only to buttress its soft power. CCP has always remained supreme and hence no wonder as Chairman of everything in China President Xi has ordered re-evaluation of religion to make people patriotic with Communist party ideals as its religion. The guardians of the Muslim World are better advised to better introspect their own record on religious persecutions and then take the countries which are worst offenders of religious persecution to task rather than bashing up a pluralistic nation which is an icon of syncretic culture, India to flaunt their religious chauvinism.

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