Islamic ‘Scholars’ Coalition Endorses Muslim Genocide in China

Student activists wear masks with the colors of the pro-independence East Turkistan flag d
AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana
Frances Martel

A delegation of dozens of alleged Islamic “scholars” representing 14 Muslim countries as part of the World Muslim Communities Council arrived in occupied East Turkistan on Sunday, and remain there at press time, for a Chinese regime-organized tour to endorse the Communist Party’s genocide of Muslims there.

Uyghur organizations and human rights activists condemned the visit on Tuesday as an attempt to whitewash egregious human rights crimes.

The Chinese Communist Party has been engaging in genocidal acts in East Turkistan, which it refers to using the Mandarin language name “Xinjiang,” since at least 2017. East Turkistan is home to the vast majority of the world’s ethnic Uyghur Muslims and substantial Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic, Muslim-majority groups.

Communist officials have attempted to erase any trace of Islam or Uyghur culture from the region not totally controlled by Beijing through the demolition of mosques, cemeteries, and other sites of cultural significance; the removal of children from their homes to study Mandarin in an attempt to erase the Uyghur language; and the mass imprisonment of millions of people in concentration camps. Camp survivors say they survived extreme torture, indoctrination, gang rape, forced sterilization, and slavery, among other atrocities. Several testified to being forced to renounce Islam and eat pork, which is forbidden in the religion.

More recently, Uyghur organizations have unearthed evidence that the Communist Party used mass Chinese coronavirus lockdowns to deprive entire cities in East Turkistan of food and basic medicine, prompting a wave of starvation and medical negligence deaths throughout the region.

Despite extensive evidence that China is engaging in genocide against Muslims, most of the world’s Muslim governments have not condemned China and retain significant economic ties to the Communist Party. Some, most prominently Saudi Arabia, have endorsed the genocide, parroting China’s claim that abuses against the indigenous people of East Turkistan are a necessary “anti-terrorism” campaign.

The World Muslim Communities Council (WMCC) describes itself as “an institutional entity that enhances the role of Muslims and elevates their practice in societies as well as international forums.” Its chairman, Ali Rashid Abudula Ali Alnuaimi, is leading a tour group around East Turkistan, under the auspices of the communist regime, representing “the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina,” among other countries.

In a report on the visit published on Monday, the Chinese government propaganda newspaper Global Times said the alleged scholars making up the delegation “praised” the Communist Party for allegedly eradicating “terrorism” in East Turkistan via genocide. The Global Times made clear Communist Party officials were guiding the tour and meticulously orchestrating what the delegation was allowed to see. Among their stops in East Turkistan was a government-organized “exhibition on the fight against terrorism and extremism” that omitted all evidence of the Chinese government’s genocidal acts.

The Times applauded the delegation for denying the genocide.

“Instead of following a few Western countries in using Xinjiang-related issues to interfere with China’s internal affairs, these people have affirmed the development of the Xinjiang region,” the Times said, citing the Xinjiang Communist Party chief, “exposed the political practices of the US and some Western countries, and defended international fairness and justice.” The Chinese newspaper claimed that American and other international actors condemning the Uyghur genocide were “spreading rumors [and] throwing mud at China.”

It then cited responses from delegation members to the propaganda exhibition.

“Saudi Arabia’s former Minister of Education Abdullah Saleh Al Obaid said they felt grieved to see the terrorist attacks in Xinjiang region,” the Global Times detailed. “Osama Elsayed Mahmoud Mohamed Saad, the Egyptian president’s advisor for religious affairs, said that the exhibition exposed the crimes of terrorists and also showed the efforts made by the Chinese government.”

The WMCC published its own reports on its delegation’s findings, celebrating the “efforts against terrorism and extremism” in the region. It also published videos of the alleged Islamic scholars touring the propaganda exhibition.

The WMCC chairman, Ali Rashid Abudula Ali Al Nuaimi, issued a formal statement “congratulating” the Chinese Communist Party on Monday.

“We congratulate China on the completion of the counter-terrorism plan in Xinjiang. The level of attention that we found in Xinjiang embodies the determination of the Chinese leadership to serve all components of the people in the region,” Ali Al Nuaimi wrote. “The relationship between Islamic civilization and China is historical and characterized by friendship, cooperation, and alliance. Reasonable people all over the world need a safe, stable, and prosperous China.”

On Tuesday, the chairman reportedly met with other members of the Chinese government and “hailed the efforts of the Chinese authorities in combating terrorism in Xinjiang and praised the interest and determination of the Chinese leadership to serve all people in the region.”

Uyghur organizations condemned the visit and the WMCC’s enthusiastic embrace of the Communist Party.

“We categorically reject the TWMCC’s shameless attempts to appease China and equate East Turkistan’s just struggle to reclaim its freedom, independence, and dignity with so-called ‘terrorism and extremism,'” the prime minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, Salih Hudayar, said in a statement on Monday. “We reiterate that East Turkistan is NOT a part of China; it is an occupied nation. Nor are the people of East Turkistan so-called ‘Muslims of China;’ they are Muslims of East Turkistan.”

“We demand that the TWMCC apologize and stop supporting China’s propaganda to demonize the national struggle of the Muslim-majority nation of East Turkistan,” the government in exile’s President Ghulam Yaghma said.

The World Uyghur Congress also issued a statement calling the visit and endorsement of the genocide “outrageous.”

“It is outrageous that the WMCC has participated in this propaganda visit and is now echoing the Chinese government’s narrative,” the group’s President Dolkun Isa said. “The WMCC is betraying millions of their Muslims brothers and sisters who have been suffering at the hands of the Chinese government, and is acting in direct contradiction of its own Basic Charter.”

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