Muslim organizations in the U.S., Canada, and the UK are becoming increasingly outspoken advocates for Uyghur Muslims, who are suffering genocide under the Chinese government, according to Axios (January 2). While the governments of many Muslim-majority countries have faced criticism for their non-involvement and silence about China’s repression of their co-religionists, Muslim laypeople have been organizing and speaking out loudly about the issue. Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports that last September, more than 40 Muslim organizations in the U.S. and abroad organized a boycott of Hilton, after reports that a planned hotel in Xinjiang would be built atop a demolished mosque. In December 2020, more than 70 Muslim student associations around the world along with Uyghur groups wrote an open letter to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), comprised of 57 member states, urging them to denounce China’s abuses. And the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the largest American Muslim advocacy groups, has been regularly publicizing reports on the Uyghur situation in China and demanding action by U.S. lawmakers and the international community. CAIR’s Robert McCaw says that Uyghur Americans have also been impacted by the genocide, making this an issue directly related to American Muslim communities.
Source: Claudia Himmelreich (Flickr)
