The international community have been silent on the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims Photo Reuters/Middle East Eye
China – In recent years, the global spotlight has been focused on a myriad of pressing global concerns, ranging from geopolitical tensions to environmental emergencies. However, amidst these prominent issues, one distressing crisis often remains obscured from the world’s collective gaze: the dire situation facing the Uyghur Muslim community in China’s Xinjiang region. Despite mounting evidence of widespread human rights abuses against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, the international community has, for the most part, chosen to look away, feigning ignorance and indifference to the ongoing suffering in lieu of economic gains.
China’s President Xi Jinping has proclaimed that the Xinjiang region is experiencing social stability and moving towards unity, harmony, and prosperity. But what is the reality behind these claims? The truth is that since 2016, the Chinese government has waged a relentless campaign against the Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic Muslim communities in eastern Turkestan. Almost three million Uyghurs Muslims and other ethnic Muslims have been detained in internment concentration camps, said Gheyyur Qurban, World Uyghur Congress Director in Berlin.
“[In these camps] they are brainwashed daily, tortured and forced to eradicate their national, ethnical and religious identities. This policy has gained a lot of international attention. It is only recently that more than 11 national parliaments including France, Belgium and Canada recognised the ongoing Chinese policies as ongoing genocide. The focus of the Chinese policies is that they see the Uyghurs and other Turkic ethnic communities as a foreign body because of their religion, which is Islam, and the language they speak. This is seen as a foreign element from the Chinese government and it jeopardises their ideas of unity.”
So while Jinping claims there is unity in these regions, it is not such as they continue to either eradicate the Uyghur Muslims or force them to leave their religion, language and culture behind. The situation facing the Uyghur Muslims is not merely a collection of human rights abuses; it is, in essence, an ongoing genocide. These atrocities, documented by organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, form a disturbing pattern that is difficult to ignore.
Repression of Islam by China on Uyghur Muslims
The Chinese government has undertaken systematic efforts to erase all traces of Islam from the Xinjiang region. These efforts began as early as 1996 when the government labelled Islam as an “opium” and a “mental disease” to be eradicated. Since then, the government has only got harsher with their laws and have even gone as far as to use children against their own parents. Children are questioned on whether they are practising Islam or if their parents are teaching them Islam. Furthermore, the government subjects Uyghurs to loyalty tests during Ramadan, forcing them to participate in “drinking festivals” to prove their allegiance to the Communist Party.
“Since then the Chinese government has prohibited the local population, especially the younger population, from going to the mosques. I can still remember when I was in China in 1996, the Chinese government had begun to crush out Islam. They prohibited us from fasting. I can remember that every morning during the holy months of Ramadan, the Chinese teachers and also the local officials used to come into the classrooms and force us to eat and break our fasts. That has been happening since the late 1990s.”
In 2016, the Chinese government significantly escalated its campaign of repression. Anyone perceived as loyal to their religious beliefs and ethnic identity found themselves forcibly confined to concentration camps. This includes appointing homegrown imams who propagate the Chinese government’s message and even converting mosques into farms. Today, should you visit the region, you’d find that the rich Islamic history and distinctive Uyghur cultural traits have been systematically eradicated, as stated by Qurban.
According to various human rights organisations, China has demolished close to 16 000. With some having existed for more than 800 years. These acts of cultural obliteration aim to erase the Islamic heritage of the region entirely. As a result, the Islamic presence in Xinjiang has dwindled to symbolic locations, like the Grand Bazaar in Urumqi (also known as the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar). It is the largest bazaar in the world by scale, combining Islamic culture, architecture, ethnic commerce, tourism and entertainment. Such locations are used by the Chinese government to portray a false narrative that Islam is alive in China and Uyghur Muslims are not being targeted.
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Disappearance, family separation and high-teach repression
Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this crisis is the disappearances of individuals who are taken in the middle of the night and never heard from again. Neighbours cannot attend the funerals of their Muslim friends, and the fate of the detained remains a mystery. The Chinese government’s tight control over information and its surveillance apparatus have created a shroud of silence that makes it difficult to ascertain the true scale of this tragedy. With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the control China has only tightened.
“The Chinese government now has advanced AI powered technologies to recognise the Uyghurs and monitor them. In 2016, every five to six hundred metres from a police station, people were being stopped and physically searched and had their phones checked. Checking their identities and whether they are wearing Islamic symbols and the national symbols so that they can be immediately put into concentration camps. Those signs of repression have now vanished from the streets thanks to high-tech repression that the Chinese government is using.”
The Chinese government employs a sinister tactic by using Uyghurs’ family members as tools of coercion. Uyghurs living abroad are not only cut off from their families in Xinjiang but are also threatened with harm to their loved ones if they speak out against the government’s actions. This emotional warfare leaves Uighurs both inside and outside China living in constant fear and distress.
“The Chinese government is weaponizing parents. Threatening to harm them, putting them into concentration camps but also forcing them to cut every relationship and contact with us so that we have to feel disparity and anxiety about their safety and health everyday. This is another way of them torturing us. The Chinese government tries to kill us from the inside.”
International response to the ongoing genocide
Despite the horrific nature of the Uyghur crisis, international responses have been limited. While some Western countries have criticised China’s actions, the majority of Muslim-majority nations, unfortunately, have remained silent or have even sided with China.
At least six Arab governments – Egypt, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates – have detained or extradited an estimated 292 Uyghurs at China’s behest, according to a joint 2022 study by the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Oxus Society for Asian Affairs. During the BRICS 2023 Summit in South Africa, the topic of Uyghurs Muslims was not even spoken about. At a time when many Muslim-majority nations were all in one place, not a single voice raised this topic
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, expressed his endorsement of Beijing’s repressive measures against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, China’s northwestern region. This support followed his visit to China in June of this year, during which he sought economic assistance. The fact that a leader, whose own community is facing ongoing ethnic cleansing, aligns with the Chinese government’s stance on the treatment of Uyghur Muslims underscores the substantial economic influence wielded by China.
China is a global powerhouse. The Chinese economy expanded by 6.3% year-on-year in Q2 2023, showing faster growth compared to the 4.5% recorded in Q1. China is also the world’s leading manufacturer of chemical fertilisers, cement, steel, wheat and rice. They also produce the most automobiles, largest exporter and manufacturer of electric vehicles and will in no time be the leading innovators in new technology.
It seems as if governments across the world have chosen to look past the horrific human rights abuses for economic gain. The countries that have spoken out do not rely on China all that much. The question that should now be posed is, does the wealth of this world mean more than the lives of innocent humans? It appears that to many nations, it is.
The world is facing a severe moral crisis as it turns a blind eye to the ongoing atrocities against the Uyghur Muslims. Despite the mounting evidence of widespread human rights abuses and even genocide, the international response has been largely inadequate. China’s economic power and influence have created a reluctance among many nations to speak out against these horrors. Even leaders like Mahmoud Abbas, seeking economic support, have endorsed Beijing’s repressive policies. The global community’s prioritisation of economic interests over human lives raises profound ethical questions. While some countries have criticised China’s actions, the majority remain silent, and Muslim-majority nations, in particular, have failed to raise their voices effectively. The world must confront this moral dilemma and take meaningful action to address the ongoing genocide and repression faced by the Uyghur Muslims, for the lives of innocent humans should always hold greater value than economic gains.
