The Muslim World Has Failed the Uyghur
Imams and scholars use Islam to legitimize genocide and faith-wash the horrors inflicted against Uyghur in China
The longstanding persecution of Uyghur Muslims devolved into a full-fledged genocide during the last several years. This indigenous Muslim and Turkic population, however, has not only been ignored by governments in Muslim-majority nations, but even more chillingly, Muslim leaders. Many state heads and politicians have backed the Communist government in China – the very entity that devised and is currently unleashing a genocide against their coreligionist sisters and brothers, Uyghur Muslims.
Even more nefariously, these leaders are using Islam to legitimize genocide and faith-wash the horrors inflicted against Uyghur men and women, children and elders.
A new low took place this week.
Dr. Ali Rashid-Al Nuaimi, chairman of the World Muslim Communities Council, organized a delegation of thirty imams and Islamic scholars from fourteen nations. This delegation visited occupied East Turkistan, called “Xinjiang” by China, for a dog and pony show wielded as propaganda by the Chinese government to endorse, and by way of symbolism, Islamically endorse the genocidal campaign against the Uyghur.
These imams and Islamic scholars were walking pawns on a propaganda chessboard, who willingly traded their reputations and names in exchange for material interests, it seems.
The delegation boasted figures from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Egypt and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who offered platitudes that sheepishly conflated genocide with “war on terror” policing. In turn, echoing the very Islamophobic lies and lines that western governments, including France and the United States, peddle to justify the strident policing and civil liberties crackdowns on Muslims.
Dr. Abdullah al-Obaid of Saudi Arabia endorsed the persecution of Uyghur under the bigoted war on terror logic, stating alongside Ma Xingrui (Communist Party Chief in Xinjiang), that, “The government has made a huge and consistent effort in eradicating violence, extremism and terrorism, but there are still extreme ideas inciting terror and violence.”
Shameful. But a prevailing geopolitical reality that positions China as a lead superpower is that Muslims-majority governments, like other states, will swiftly sacrifice their religious commitments in exchange for political and economic interests. While that is a sobering reality that we have come to expect, imams and Islamic scholars flattening our faith, Islam, into a political tool to endorse genocide, and justify the extermination of a proud and native Muslim people, is a step too far, and a step too deep into the infernos of hypocrisy and hubris.
But this is not fiction, a postmodern postscript to Dante’s Inferno or another case of geopolitics gone wrong.
This is, in short, an affront to Islam. An affront to a Muslim people struggling for dignity, self-determination, and basic survival.
That plight is why I showcased a young Uyghur refugee, Muslima, as the face of my forthcoming book on global Islamophobia, The New Crusades. Their plea, however, has been largely ignored by the Muslim World, and for leaders claiming the seats of governments and religious institutions, betrayed by siding with a genocidal enemy.
These leaders are not only on the wrong side of history. But when the black ink dries on the white pages, will be singled out for having the stain of red of blood on their hands. The blood of Muslims; Uyghur Muslims.
The East Turkistan government in exile, which represents the global Uyghur diaspora, sharply condemned the delegation and its theatre of shame.
So do I. So should you. All of you.
Khaled A. Beydoun is a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and the Berkman Center at Harvard. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims. You can find him on his socials at @khaledbeydoun.