The live-action Disney Mulan Movie was long anticipated by avid Disney fans eager to watch their favorite animated film come to life.  Such excitement translated into the $5.9 million dollars the movie was able to rack up.

What these fans might not have noticed or possibly even ignored was the “special thanks” at the end of the movie dedicated to the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau in Turpan for providing a location for part of the film.

So what’s the big deal? Well, Disney’s Mulan internationally recognized and thanked the organization responsible for whisking away over one million Uighur Muslims to concentration camps in order to fulfill goals of ethnic and religious cleansing of China.

Shocking, right? However, mass persecution and ethnic cleansing of Muslim populations is not as implausible as it might sound.

Muslims in Central African Republic are undergoing ethnic cleansing as a result of the country’s ongoing Civil War.  Rohingya Muslims are being massacred and sent to detention camps by Myanmar’s Buddhist Military.  To add to the genocide sundae, the world’s most technologically sophisticated genocide of Uighur Muslims in China serves as the cherry on top.  

History is repeating itself, and the globe is still turning a blind eye.

The genocide happening in China right now is not breaking news, however.  In fact, it’s been an ongoing conflict since 2017 when China implemented “re-education” camps in the Xinjiang region.

There are an estimated 11 million people that make up the Uighur population in Xinjiang that is being targeted for assimilation into Han Chinese culture.  However, the motives are deeper than just cultural assimilation.

Islam has been perceived by the Chinese government as a mental illness since 2013.  How an entire religion can be identified as a mental health issue is incomprehensible, but then again, not a lot makes sense when it concerns the Chinese government.

The reasoning behind the anti-Islam ideology that has been spreading and enforced throughout China stems from the Communist Party’s fear of religious extremism that could undermine the supremacy of the party’s secular ideologies.  Under China’s leader Xi Jinping, goals of ensuring political and social conformity under the atheist Communist Party and Chinese Government has led to the war against Islam the nation has taken on.

The goal of these “re-education camps”, as a result, is to force Muslims out of their faith and cleanse China of the “illness”.  To do so, Muslims are being forced to partake in activities strictly forbidden within their faith such as eating pork, drinking alcohol, and idolizing the communist president Xi Jinping by chanting “Long Live Xi Jinping.”  

They are being raped, sterilized, skinned alive, tortured, and killed.  Uighur Muslims are living a modern day Holocaust.

Despite the horrifying characteristics of this human genocide, it is not receiving nearly the amount of media coverage it deserves, which is quite horrifying in itself.

Not even Muslim nations across the world are making efforts to raise awareness and stop the humanitarian crisis due to the fear of risking economic relationships with China and drawing attention to their country’s own human rights issues.

Within my own friend group, few have had any awareness or exposure to this human disaster.  The longer the world disregards the situation, the more damage will be done that could likely culminate in the loss of an entire group of people.

It is time to recognize the dangers of Islamophobia and understand that a human rights issue is being ignored before it is too late.

The United States government should be doing everything in its power to remove support from the Chinese government including ceasing the importation of products made by forced Uighur labor in addition to developing an international coalition to provide support to the Muslims if this nation truly stands for democracy and the principles of liberty and justice.  

As humans with any sense of compassion, do your part by signing petitions to condemn China’s actions and prevent Beijing from hosting the Olympics in 2022 as long as the camps are still open.  Contact local senators to advocate for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.  Use social media to spark the attention that the Uighur Muslims deserve but have not been paid.  

The Muslim Holocaust must be known.

Next time, maybe reconsider watching Mulan on Disney+.