> You are free to make the argument that Western reporters are hallucinating or lying about what is happening to the Uyghurs.
Again, that is not the point in dispute. My position is even more anti Chinese than the norm, that what is happening to the Uighurs is bad but just not unusual for China. Your argument against mine then is that things are actually better for the other groups, but you really don’t provide any evidence of that, and I can guarantee you that it’s not (other minorities, Tibetans especially, Christians, especially those outside the official church, Hui over the last decades, re education camps for everyone, etc…).
I read you as postulating these facts:
- 10-40ish years ago, Hui, Christians, Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Mongols, pro-reform Han, and various other groups were subject to various repressive measures.
- Today, Uyghurs, Falun Gong, and other ethnic Tibetan groups are still subject to similar measures.
- Hui and Christians are not, today, subject to similar measures.
These facts do not support the idea the the repression of Uyghurs and Tibetans is due to religion. They very much do support the idea that their repression is due to dissidence. Uyghurs and Hui avow the same religion, but the treatment of one of those groups diverged from the treatment of the other. Why? College professors may have avowed no religion at all, but were sent to reeducation camps en masse. (Granted, more than 40 years ago.) Why?
Reporting claims that (1) the Uyghurs are suffering under much more oppression than other Chinese groups, such as live-in minders and a legal ban on owning kitchen knives; and (2) this is because of their religion.
These two claims cannot both be true. Islam is one of the traditional religions of China, and it benefits from legal and social recognition not given to e.g. Christianity. You are free to make the argument that Western reporters are hallucinating or lying about what is happening to the Uyghurs. Or to make the argument that reports of the Uyghurs' oppression are accurate. But you can't make the argument that the reported oppression is due to religion, or that it's just another example of the same oppression that other groups experience.
If you asked the Chinese, they'd tell you that Uyghur oppression comes from the Chinese not wanting to have their schools bombed.