It's Always About Religion

[FindersKeepers]

India just passed a law that will effectively ban Muslims from becoming citizens and rounding them up. China is rounding them up and trying to "reeducate" them away from Islam.

This isn't about race, this is about religion and how, after all these centuries, it can divide a nation.

What is the solution?

At first glance, the bill may seem like a laudable effort to protect persecuted minorities. It says Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians who came to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan won’t be treated as illegal. They’ll have a clear path to citizenship.
But one major group has been left out: Muslims.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2...ional-register

And -- they're rounding them up and putting them in detention camps.

This is the situation nearly 2 million people — most of them Muslims, some of them Hindus of Bengali origin — now find themselves in, because their names do not appear on India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC).

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2...etention-camps

Meanwhile, China has been doing something similar. Is this a red flag of human rights violations to come? Is it just growing pangs in a global society?

After bloody race riots rocked China’s far west a decade ago, the ruling Communist Party turned to a rare figure in their ranks to restore order: a Han Chinese official fluent in Uighur, the language of the local Turkic Muslim minority.


Now, newly revealed, confidential documents show that the official, Zhu Hailun, played a key role in planning and executing a campaign that has swept up a million or more Uighurs into detention camps.

https://apnews.com/62097e9dd2844aab8d64a2be2ebaa972

[Peter1469]

Not our problem.

[FindersKeepers]

Not our problem.

I don't expect us to do anything about it -- except discuss it.

[Mister D]

I think these are two very different situations. India is probably the most diverse society on Earth and the conflict in India is very old. We need to appreciate the historical circumstances. Much of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by Muslims in the Medieval era. This pitted a very ancient social and religious order against a menacing and domineering elite. Moreover, a significant number of Hindus converted to Islam and the antagonisms this created have lasted particularly after Islam lost power. I am simplifying things a bit but my point is that this is complex and deeply rooted. It's not a matter of "I believe this and you believe this so I'm going to kill you" (is it ever?).

In China, the communist party fears and despises all organized religion and perceives (as it should) its sovereignty as a threat to the state.

[Green Arrow]

It’s unacceptable. As to what we can do...*shrug* At most we could put diplomatic and economic pressure on these nations to stop, but China almost certainly wouldn’t give a $#@! and I’m not sure India would either.

[Standing Wolf]

This reinforces the truth that the United States, despite what some would have you believe, is still one of the freest places on Earth to practice one's religion, regardless of what that happens to be - as long as one isn't attempting to force others to accept or live by your religion's strictures and doctrines.

[Chris]

This reinforces the truth that the United States, despite what some would have you believe, is still one of the freest places on Earth to practice one's religion, regardless of what that happens to be - as long as one isn't attempting to force others to accept or live by your religion's strictures and doctrines.

Thank God, so to speak, for first amendment protections.


Seems to me, today, we see less of "attempting to force others to accept or live by your religion's strictures and doctrines" and much more of attempting to force others to accept or live by your secular statist strictures and doctrines.

[FindersKeepers]

I think these are two very different situations. India is probably the most diverse society on Earth and the conflict in India is very old. We need to appreciate the historical circumstances. Much of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by Muslims in the Medieval era. This pitted a very ancient social and religious order against a menacing and domineering elite. Moreover, a significant number of Hindus converted to Islam and the antagonisms this created have lasted particularly after Islam lost power. I am simplifying things a bit but my point is that this is complex and deeply rooted. It's not a matter of "I believe this and you believe this so I'm going to kill you" (is it ever?).

In China, the communist party fears and despises all organized religion and perceives (as it should) its sovereignty as a threat to the state.

Thank you for that explanation, it makes sense. I was unaware of India's history. I completely agree with the reason China is doing it as well.

[FindersKeepers]

It’s unacceptable. As to what we can do...*shrug* At most we could put diplomatic and economic pressure on these nations to stop, but China almost certainly wouldn’t give a $#@! and I’m not sure India would either.

Probably true.

[FindersKeepers]

This reinforces the truth that the United States, despite what some would have you believe, is still one of the freest places on Earth to practice one's religion, regardless of what that happens to be - as long as one isn't attempting to force others to accept or live by your religion's strictures and doctrines.

Absolutely!

Religion is dropping away in western nations, and I think that trend will continue.