Muslims in northwest China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region denounced the US soldiers' abusing of Iraqi prisoners as "an deadly insult on the whole Muslim world."  

"I was shocked at the scene of American troops abusing some Iraqi prisoners on TV," said Rahfu Abbas, executive vice director of the autonomous regional Red Cross, "It's such a trample on humanitarianism".

As early as last year, after learning about the abusing acts of the US soldiers in Iraq prisons, the International Federation of Red Cross had made propositions to the US army to stop the anti-humanitarianism behavior but was refused by them.

According to Rahfu Abbas, a Muslim of the Tatar ethnic minority living in Xinjiang for generations, Islam has many taboos on sex.

"Such actions as nude before the same sex and exposing one's sexual organs before others are considered serious rebellion against orthodoxy of Islam," said Rhafu Abbas.

"In Islamism, women are forbidden to see the naked body of a man. The scene that the American female soldier pointing at the genital of a nude Iraqi prisoner with her fingers is such a humiliation to the religious belief of the Islam," said Rhafu Abbas.

"I couldn't even believe my eyes when I saw the photos on the vice of the American soldiers at the Iraqi prison. We and the Iraqis are all Muslims. We all have the same belief. The actions of the US troops is such a humiliation to us Muslims that we all think it's intolerable," said Rozi Memet, a young Uygur who is selling dried fruits at the Xinjiang international bazaar.

"All my feeling is shock and anger," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji, vice director of the Islamic Association of China.

"The Islamic teaching requires to give lenient treatment to prisoners of the war and forbids corporal punishment, especially injuries to the five sense organs which is highly admired in Islamism," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji.

"It's a common sense that all non-Muslims working or living in Islamic regions should respect the religion and belief of the local people," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji.

"But the US troops, whose administration is still making indiscreet criticisms to the human rights of other countries, have done such evil conducts to the Iraqis by arresting people without reason, shutting prisoners in black rooms, beating and torching them with electricity, sending dogs to bite them and even humiliating them by forcing them to perform homosexual behavior and raping Islamic women. All are severe violation of the Islamic canons," said Abdurekefu Damaolaaji.

According to Abdurekefu Damaolaaji, who is also the deputy president of the Institute of Islamic Theology, the prisoner abuse scandal has so annoyed the students of the institute that many of them think it a strong humiliation to all the Muslims around the world.

As the largest region where China's ethnic minorities inhabit and covering some one-sixth of the total territory of China, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region boasts over ten million Muslims, who are living harmoniously with other ethnic groups believing in various religions in the region.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2004)