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FEED THE POOR
Feeding the poor and needy is an act that draws us closer to Allah. We earn His forgiveness, mercies and blessings through this act of charity.
“Anyone who looks after and works for a widow and a poor person is like a warrior fighting for Allah?s cause, or like a person who fasts during the day and prays all night. (Bukhari)
Upon the release of the film on streaming service Disney+, it was found that the studio offers “special thanks” in the credits to eight government entities in Xinjiang – where about one million people, mostly Uighur Muslims, are thought to be detained. One agency credited at the end of the movie is the Turpan Municipal Bureau of Public Security, which has links to the notorious re-education camps in the province. Numerous detainees have alleged torture and abuse at the hands of the authorities there.
Disney claims to entertain, inform and inspire people around the world through unparalleled storytelling, so it is worrying that it is cooperating with those who allegedly systematically violate human rights to achieve its goal, especially when its target market is children worldwide.
The plot and the casting of the movie itself have also been criticised for distorting and denigrating the history of the Turks by preaching that the Huns are bad people and the Han-Chinese are peace lovers. The original Chinese folk story which the movie is based on, in which Mulan is the servant of a khan (emperor) of the Northern Wei dynasty, seems to have been repackaged into a Chinese nationalist drama.
The plot also somehow echoes the communist party’s claim that Uighur Muslim minorities in camps are extremists who pose a threat to the peace and stability in China and thus require “re-education”. The party has used these claims to justify its detaining millions of ethnic minorities, casting a Orwellian dragnet over the region.
The cooperation between Disney and the authorities suggests that the House of Mouse sees the Chinese market as essential for its business to expand. The potential box office revenue in China is huge compared to other countries and Disney has a long relationship with China, having worked closely with the authorities before to launch the Disneyland resort in Shanghai in 2016.
