Genocide – Demonising the oppressed

On this Genocide Memorial Day, organized annually by the Islamic Human Rights Commission every third sunday of January, we express our strong protest on the on going demonisation of Muslim minorities in countries that have oppressive policies against the religion of Islam and its followers.

IHRC has chosen “Starting Genocide : Demonization” as the theme for this year.

MAPIM, today January 17, 2021 releases this statement today to participate in the event, coinciding with our virtual Malaysian Youth Training Workshop on Kashmir and GMD in Kuala Lumpur. 

We recognise the correlation between the demonisation of peoples with the genocide crimes by oppresors.

We regret that the process of demonisation is still prevalent in countries that subject people especially Muslim minorities to inhuman treatment of the weak.

Policies to dehumanise and demonise  people is a prelude to genocide. The world today unfortunately is witnessing a surge of demonisation of ethnic, religious and other groups (refugees).

There is now a strong xenophobic sentiment under the pretext of national interest to hate assylum seekers and refugees, incited by extreme right wing politicians. 

Inhumanity and country first policy are blended together to divide people around the world, leading to genocide intend to decimate the other.

Exploiting the current economic fallout, social prejudices are being fed into the nationalistic agenda to fan hatred amongst society.

We affirm the following:

The genocide of the state of Palestine by British that gave full support to Jews to occupied the land is too glaring to ignore. The 7 decades of occupation and denial of rights of the Palestinians through propaganda of terrorism by israel has been the campaign of demonising of the victims by the aggressor. Genocide of religion, culture and decimation of the population of Palestine by israel who is now supported by UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and Saudi.

Under the RSS – BJP rule in India, the dominating Hindutva agenda has targeted Muslim minorities to be subjected to hate speeches by goverment leaders. Inciting violence against Muslims is rampant in India. Incidences of demonising Muslims are becoming a norm in India including the attacks on Muslim homes, lynching, destruction of mosques, banning of qurban. India has been instilling hatred towards Kashmiris as extremist population to justify its continuos 7 decades of occupation on the disputed territory.

It is also clearly demonstrated in China where the Uyghur Muslims especially in Xinjiang, are being demonised as terrorists. The Chinese government has been imposing policies and laws against Muslims on the account that they are extremists and prone to radical ideology. Demonising Islam and Muslims is justified by the communist ruling party as it is perceived as a threat to the ideology of communist.

China’s cultural genocide against the Uyghur ethnic minority has seen the incarcerating millions of them. The Uyghur are subjected to torture, rape, and de-Turkification, Hanification and de-Islamisation programmes.

Myanmar in the 21st Century is the textbook for genocide. The extemist campaign Ma Ba Tha is the driving force for demonising Muslims. This is an agenda propagated by the nationalist Buddhist to reject the presence of Muslims in Myanmar. Decades of discrimination and persecution of the predominantly Muslim ethnic Rohingya by the state, lead to the vicious genocide and ethnic cleansing operation under the pretext of crackdown of terrorist.

In Sri Lanka the Singhale dominated government has targeted Muslims with hate campaigns as a national agenda. A strong Islamophobic sentiment is now propogated to the public against the Muslim minorities.

We believe that the demonising process is not only embraced by dictators but also  y the on going western system of globalisation.

We call :

1. All nations in the world to comply with the principles of a harmonious co-existence amongst people of diverse races, creed and culture.

2. Stop the demonisation of people and to build a sense of respect and love amongst people across the globe.

3. All governments to curb all campaigns of hate, xenophobic and Islamophobic through divisive politics and processes of divide and rule.

4. Western powers and Arab countries who have normalised with israel to delink from supporting israel which as the most genocidal state through its demonising campaign of Palestinians freedom fighters.

5. Muslim countries to voice their concern of the continuous suppression of Muslims in China, India, Kashmir under India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

6. UN to be more assertive to act on genocidal crimes and to illegalise unilateral sanctions by one country against others without the due process of international law.

Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid
President Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations ( MAPIM )


Datuk Seri Syekh Ahmad Awang
Chair Alliance of World Mosques in Defence of Al Aqsa

Datuk Wira Syekh Abdul Ghani Samsudin
Chair Secretariate of Ulama Assembly of Asia

Mohideen Abdul Kader
Director Citizens International

Datin Ustazah Aminah Zakaria
SALIMAH , Malaysia

Datin Sri Ustazah Rosiah Salleh
Chair Malaysia Women For Kashmir

Mohd Fadhil Yusni
Chair Malaysia Kashmir Youth Movement

Dr Khairul Anwar Mustafa
President Association for Muslim Minority Advocacy and Research.

Johan Arif Ismail
Chairman International Relief and Humanitarian Outreach.

Ahmad Farhan Rosli,
Secretary General South East Asia Muslim Students Federation (PEPIAT)

Ahmad Amsyar Mohd Effendy
Vice President National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students (PKPIM)