Posted on 10/21/2019 1:00:37 PM PDT by Kaslin
After more than twenty weeks of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, no amount of government suppression seems to be able to send the demonstrators back home. But there was a slight crack in the armor of the city’s leadership this weekend when the powers that be made a very public apology. On Sunday, a water cannon was deployed in front of one of the city’s mosques and it sprayed down worshippers standing on the sidewalk in front of the building. For that, Carrie Lam and the police chief say, they are truly sorry. (Associated Press)
Hong Kong officials apologized to Muslim leaders Monday after riot police sprayed a mosque and bystanders with a water cannon while trying to contain pro-democracy demonstrations in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and its police chief visited the Kowloon Mosque to apologize to the chief imam and Muslim community leaders.
They left without commenting, but mosque leaders told reporters that the officials had apologized.
After the private apology at the mosque, police officials went on to offer a public apology at their daily press briefing. So all’s well that ends well, right?
Maybe, but there’s more going on here than the simple description provided by officials suggests. First of all, that water cannon was shooting more than just “water.” And the choice of targets and the timing of the deployment make this look like something far more dubious than normal police riot control protocol.
If you take a look at this Facebook video you can see the entire event play out.
The water from the cannon is mixed with a blue dye of some sort. It not only stains the walls of the mosque and the sidewalk but sends pedestrians scrambling to flush the substance out of their eyes. Many described a burning sensation.
Also, why was the cannon deployed in this case? If there are protesters (or even rioters) setting up roadblocks, shutting down traffic or breaking windows, you can almost understand a decision by the police to resort to some more strident riot control tactics. But none of that was happening in this case. The streets were clear, traffic was flowing normally and their targets were people standing on the sidewalk talking. At least one member of the press was also blasted with the blue dye.
It’s difficult to believe that the fact they were targeting a crowd in front of a mosque was just coincidence. While many of the residents of Hong Kong are clearly fighting for freedom and democracy, the government there still answers to Beijing. And Xi Jinping has a strict policy when it comes to religion. He’s been cracking down on Christians and Buddhists, but he’s really had it out for the Muslims, particularly the Uighurs.
The official position of the Communist Party is to stick to atheism, and they’re engaging in a policy that’s known as “sinicization.” Under this theory, the government insists that Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian leaders move to “fuse their religions with Chinese socialist thought.” Those who don’t comply are subject to official government repression. And since most of the religions have no interest in such ideology, they’re all targets, particularly the Muslims.
With all that in mind, this incident doesn’t look anything like riot control. It was an unprovoked attack on worshippers gathered on the sidewalk in front of a Mosque. Hong Kong’s leaders may have apologized, but it appears that their police are enforcing strict policies coming straight from the top in Beijing.
if the Islamic “house of worship” was targeted, it is because mosques are not religious centers, as most other religions understand the meaning of the term. Mosques are recruitment centers, barracks and armories for the subjugation of others not of the Muslim persuasion, and most of the “religious instruction” is directed at how to spread the influence of Islam, using every form of intimidation and the most opportune times to apply that intimidation.
There can be no doubt that the protesters are gonna lose this.It’s just a question of how many of them will die before they realize they’re defeated.
There is no chance that Communist China is going to let Hong Kong be free.
I understand and commend their passion for freedom, but it’s not going to happen without overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party.
Ohhhh.... the Chinese did the one think NOBODY is allowed to do. They made moslems feel sad.
THAT is the line apparently.
Could this have had a negative “Muslim” impact upon the Silk Road initiative. You can bet that Islamic bloc nations at the UN have been calling on China’s Ambassador’s and reading the riot act.
Why blue dye instead of ChiCom RED Dye No.2?
China can ill afford having all the port agreements and financial investments in Islamic nations end up in their citizens and soldiers being targeted by the FANATICS OF ISLAM.
I would bet an uptick in violence against Chinese, coupled with Ambassador visits are the reasons for China’s public humiliation over the Water Cannon.
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