Is the Muslim World Ignoring the Plight of the Uyghurs?

Islamic countries can’t afford to ignore the persecution of their fellow believers, but neither do they want to damage their relations with China.

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The plight of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang region, China, has gained an increasing amount of attention from the free world in recent months. Disney was castigated for thanking various Chinese government offices in the credits for Mulan, part of which was filmed in Xinjiang. Before leaving office, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that China was committing genocide against the Uyghurs. And, amid the ongoing genocide, there are growing calls to boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

In sharp contrast, those in Muslim-majority nations are silent on the persecution of Uyghurs. This might seem odd, given that Muslims have responded vocally and sometimes violently to lesser slights against their fellow believers: Violent protests broke out when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting Mohammed, for example. But citizens of those nations aren’t being hypocritical. They are just ignorant of what is going on: that more than 1 million Uyghurs have been forced into concentration camps, forced to engage in unpaid labor and subject to propaganda and “re-education.” Horrifying new reports detail systemic rape and abuse of Uyghur women. 

Surfing through Farsi media, there are plenty of mentions of the Uyghurs and their conditions, but they all come from sources based outside of Iran whose recipients are overwhelmingly anti-regime and secular. Within the media operating inside Iran, whose audience is overwhelmingly regime supporters, the story is very different.

Many of the media outlets have no coverage of the Uyghurs. Those that have coverage either underplay the catastrophe or try to excuse it. Fars News is an all-but-officially state-run news agency, most closely associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mentions of the Uyghurs are limited, and even then, the language used is conservative, noting that “approximate a million Uyghurs are detained in China.” (That description undervalues both the number of prisoners and the severity of the situation.) In a separate article, Fars News quotes Donald Trump in describing the situation in Xinjiang as “genocide,” attempting to reject the notion by associating it with Trump, a villain among its consumers. A separate article cites Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry’s chief propagandist, claiming that Uyghurs enjoy a “happy and prosperous” life.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Erlend N

    This Uighur genocide does seem to give the lie—at least among some extremist Islamist precincts—to the Obama era trope (which Biden has recently resuscitated) that Guantanamo Bay was a recruiting tool responsible for radicalizing and recruiting terrorists. Since we know that Salafist terror elements are as likely to be distrusting of official propaganda from Tehran or Riyadh as we in the West are, it does seem to buttress the theory that al Qaeda and ISIS would have it out for the US regardless of our footprint in the Islamic world, especially given that US troop levels are at all time lows in response to American war weariness.

    I would surmise that terror groups are well apprised of what is going on in Xinjiang given its proximity to Pakistan/Afghanistan but for reasons which are not altogether well understood, genocidal Chinese policy doesn’t engender the same fanatical rage that more innocuous US policies do. This was also the case regarding much of the relative indifference to the goings on in Bosnia or Chechnya when compared to the violent passion aroused by US troop deployments in Kabul or Baghdad.

    Perhaps this is a dual function of the sectarian makeup of the Islamic world (Uighurs represent a somewhat more heterodox version of Islam) and the amount of time that radical propaganda has been directed against the United States relative to China. Perhaps, to the author’s credit America is simply the devil they know whereas China is lesser known.

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    Narwhal

    “ Governments control the flow of information in most of the Middle East. The coverage of Uyghurs is dictated by those governments, both the kind of coverage and its amount.”

    The famed Arab street is driven to rage by non-rational propaganda employed by elites. Who knew? I’m shocked, shocked!

    “Uyghurs are a good case study to understand these governments better. They were founded by true believers upon Islamic legitimacy. The incumbent generation of their leaders, however, are performers who adhere to this legitimacy, but they don’t buy it themselves. It is they, the leaders, who are the hypocrites, not their followers. In engaging with them as a matter of U.S. foreign policy, it is important to remember that they rarely believe what they say.”

    Some here and elsewhere like to argue that the current ruling class of Iran are irrational, insane, suicidal, fundamentalist Muslims who cannot be negotiated with in good faith for those reasons. This article presents clear evidence that they are not as those people describe. However, whether they can be negotiated with in good faith for other reasons is still an open question IMO.

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  3. P Satter

    Is there a move by any who follow Islam in the West (and actually do hear the news reports) to speak out or pressure governments on behalf of the Uighurs, or is this too small of a group?
    One wonders how the many countries who defer to China for development money now will fare in the future when the "bill" comes due.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    It is because they do not have the guts to go up against China. That's all this is.

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      Paul Reichardt

      Not everyone’s in alignment with our latest grand moral crusade in supporting the Uighur cause against China. The Chinese government is now what we thought they were in 1989. Strategic and economic self-interest usually trumps everything else. Americans are no different.

      It wasn’t that long ago—2002-- when the US backed China’s request to label Uighur East Turkeman separatists as terrorist groups in exchange for their support for GWOT initiatives. Back then, radical Islamism was Global Bogeyman #1 and it was in our strategic interest to do so. Now that China is now Global Bogeyman #1, we’ve switched. The Trump administration took those groups of the terror list last year—not because their links to terrorism and grizzly knife attacks have changed that much (any separatist or national liberation movement will use and be associated with armed struggle or terrorism at some point) —but because their greater cause was a way to put political pressure on China.

      It’s certainly true that more has come to light about truly awfulness of the Chinese state suppression of the Uighurs in the last few years, but its not a coincidence that our popular sympathies and moral outrages tend to align and follow our ideological and strategic interests. I don't doubt that current American outrage at the CCP and sympathy for the Uighurs is genuine to people who read and follow; I just doubt our collective commitment to following through with that concern when it ceases to be geopolitically convenient.

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        Narwhal

        I’m afraid that our media and government do similar things to those described in the article. Not to the same degree, not with the same amount of government coordination and direction, but the pattern is there nonetheless. Our version may be a bit healthier because there are competing narratives at times due to competition for control of the government.

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        Paul Reichardt

        To clarify the first paragraph, I didn't mean to imply a moral equivalence between the US and China but rather a strategic comparison between the US government/ policymakers and those in the various majority Muslim countries who don't seem as outwardly sympathetic to the Uighur cause as we think they should be.

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          Victor Clairmont

          I would never think you would actually mean there is a moral equivalence between the two.

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            Paul Reichardt

            A lament for an #editbutton was all I meant.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      In Iran’s case I think it can largely be explained by the reality of their supply chain, trade, and investment opportunities. The more the West sanctions Iran the more Iran will look East to China.

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        Victor Clairmont

        Problem with this is that the majority of all their resources is used for the military and terrorism.

        84 million people live in Iran. 60 million live in poverty. Even John Kerry admitted the billions sent to Iran (it was not their's contrary to what the administration claimed, we took it because it was linked to terrorism, much like how the police seize the assets of Drug Lords when we raid their homes and never give them back if they ask) was going to mostly be used for terrorism.

        Following Heshmat Alvais work on this, here is the breakdown of the finances:

        "Over 60 mill of Iran's population of 84 mill live in poverty.

        Regime funds:

        Assad—$15 bn/yr
        Hezbollah—$700 mill/yr
        Houthis—at least $360 mill/yr
        Hamas—$360 mill/yr
        Iraqi militias—$150 mill/yr"

        https://twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi/status/1367847265390497797

        The link will show video's of Iranian's dumpster diving for things to sell and food, as well as the links to John Kerry admitting the money will not go to the Iranian people. Which is why, there was widespread protests against the regime a few years back, when it was found out 90% of it went to the regime and not the people. Iran had to send out the troops to crack down.

        Finally, don't forget there are theological reasons why they go after the West, especially America, The Great Satan, over China.

        So, sanctions or not, Iran would still hate us and work with China, because Iran's Government is a piece of crap and they have zero problems ignoring the Uighur's. After all, they ignore their own starving population.

        And they are scared of China.

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          Paul Reichardt

          I thought this polling study on the Iranian population from 2018-2019 was interesting. It seems most Iranians recognize "Great Satan" rhetoric and other government propaganda for what it is. It's not that the Iranians "hate" Americans per se, but rather that they don't trust us or other western powers. A lot of Iran's actions abroad--viewed as acts of defiance that appeals to their sense of national pride, like their nuclear program, is quite popular. However who they seem to blame the most for their woes is their own government, not US sanctions.

          https://cissm.umd.edu/sites/default/files/2019-10/Iranian%20PO%20under%20Maximum%20Pressure_101819_full.pdf

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            Victor Clairmont

            Nice find, I will steal this from you if you don't mind.

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    CynthiaW

    Very interesting piece.

    Jonah Goldberg asked Ayaan Hirsi Ali about this phenomenon. Ms. Ali mentioned the lack of reporting in countries with Islamist government, but she also mentioned that Islamic dictatorships often treat their own citizens just as badly as the Chinese are treating the Uyghurs, only for a variety of reasons.

    I've checked Ms. Ali's books out of the library. I'm more and more impressed by her.

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    Chris L

    Since much of the Middle East is profoundly hostile to anything that can be interpreted as foreign/imperialist incursion, it will be interesting to see if any headway can be made in exposing Belt and Road for the extortion-diplomacy that it is. This can then be leveraged to compel the Middle East's beneficiaries of the Chinese economy (such as those benefits are) to recognize how imperialist China also is, and then get them to turn their back on China.

    Of course, there would have to be an alternative ally, and they're sure not coming to the US directly. This seems like a way to flex the Israeli normalization started late in Trump's term so they can turn to other Middle Eastern allies; hopefully such open avenues of communication would then help to tamp down any sectarian and proxy violence among them.

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