Human rights organizations reacted with outrage and disgust in the past week following a friendly visit to China by the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, in which he declared that his group would “continue to firmly support China” in its genocide of Muslims in occupied East Turkistan.
For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has oppressed the indigenous communities of East Turkistan, which it rebranded under the colonialist name “Xinjiang” as it attempted to contain the population. Since 2017, however, that oppression escalated dramatically into a full-scale genocide fueled by the imprisonment of as many as 3 million people in concentration camps, the mass sterilization of entire villages to destroy the local population, and the bulldozing of historic sites such as cemeteries and mosques to erase the heritage of the people. East Turkistan is home to a majority of ethnically Uyghur people and other Turkic groups such as the Kazakh and Kyrgyz people, all of whom are majority Muslim.
Journalists and human rights experts have proven that the genocide taking place in the region is occurring on the explicit orders of dictator Xi Jinping and not a local phenomenon. In 2018, Xi reportedly ordered the Communist Party to “break the lineages” and “break the origins” of the indigenous people of that area, including the destruction of the Islamic faith and its replacement with communist atheism and worship of Xi himself.
This reality has not stopped the OIC, a coalition of Muslim-majority countries that exists in part to defend the interests of Muslim populations around the world, from befriending China. Rather than condemning, or at least expressing concern about, the genocide, the OIC has explicitly supported China’s action in East Turkistan.
Taha confirmed his group’s support for the genocide in meetings last week with senior Communist Party officials. On January 26, he met with Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing and insisted the OIC would “firmly” support China on the issue of “Xinjiang.”
“Hissein Brahim Taha stated that the OIC sincerely appreciates President Xi Jinping’s great emphasis on and guidance in promoting the in-depth development of friendly relations between China and Islamic countries,” a readout of the meeting from China’s office at the United Nations explained. “The OIC is willing to deepen all-round practical cooperation with China and will continue to firmly support China on issues related to Taiwan and Xinjiang.”
Taiwan is a sovereign, democratic state off the coast of China. The Chinese Communist Party falsely claims it as a “province” rightfully belonging under communist rule and demands all nations and non-state actors seeking diplomatic relations with Beijing to echo this falsehood.
During the meeting with Han Zheng, the Chinese vice president reportedly pressured Taha to repeat that sentiment of loyalty to the Party, even in the face of a genocide of the people the OIC was founded to protect. The Chinese envoy reportedly insisted that the regime “hopes that Islamic countries will continue to firmly support the Chinese side on issues concerning China’s core interests, including Taiwan and Xinjiang.”
Taha also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who shared similar sentiments.
“As developing countries and important forces on the global stage, China and Islamic countries have consistently upheld mutual respect and support, pursued equality and mutual benefit, and achieved win-win cooperation,” Wang claimed, “contributing to each other’s development, revitalization, and the well-being of their peoples, and setting an example of solidarity and cooperation in the Global South.”
Wang used the opportunity to promote China’s predatory “Belt and Road” debt trap initiative and encourage Islamic countries to pursue a “security partnership” with China, a country currently engaging in genocide against Muslims.
“Hissein Brahim Taha said that Islamic civilization and Chinese civilization have long respected each other, with a time-honored history of friendly exchanges,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry noted. “Islamic countries and the OIC value their traditional friendship with China and express gratitude for the valuable support provided by China.”
“The OIC upholds the one-China principle, appreciates the significant development achievements in Xinjiang, and opposes external forces interfering in China’s internal affairs,” he added.
This display prompted widespread condemnation, particularly from groups representing the populations of East Turkistan. The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE), which represents the country colonized as “Xinjiang,” described responding to the OIC’s embrace of Beijing with “profound alarm and unequivocal condemnation.”
“The OIC, which holds itself as the ‘collective voice of the Muslim world’… has, in the case of Occupied East Turkistan, chosen not only public silence but also complicity and active diplomatic legitimization,” the ETGE observed. “This glaring inconsistency exposes profound hypocrisy and represents a betrayal of the sacred trust placed in it to defend oppressed Muslims everywhere.”
The ETGE recalled that the Chinese government has “demolished, damaged, or altered more than 16,000 mosques” and “confiscated and destroyed millions of Qur’ans and Islamic texts, prohibited core Islamic practices including fasting and prayer, and arbitrarily detained millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic Muslims, including imams, scholars, and community leaders.” The group also observed that the Quran commands Muslims to condemn the oppression of Muslims and offer “active aid to the oppressed.”
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) similarly issued a statement on Friday noting that Taha made “no reference to human rights, freedom of religious beliefs or Uyghur rights” during his visit to China.
“News of enhanced cooperation between the OIC and China leave a strong feeling of apprehension in the Uyghur and broader Muslim community. The Chinese government continues its policy of Uyghur genocide, with no significant policy changes in East Turkistan,” the WUC observed, demanding the OIC “do more” to oppose the genocide.
The leadership of the Centre for Uyghur Studies (CUS) offered its “serious concern” with the meeting, asserting that the violence facing East Turkistan’s Muslims was “part of a state-directed campaign aimed at erasing Uyghur religious and cultural identity.”
“The OIC was established to protect the rights, dignity, and interests of Muslim communities around the world. Therefore, ‘unwavering support for China on Xinjiang’ represents a betrayal of its founding mission,” CUS Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris said in a statement. “It effectively amounts to endorsing the eradication of the Uyghur Muslim faith through the Sinicisation of Islam. Portraying China as a friend of the Muslim world is blatant hypocrisy.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here