The US, on March 22, announced visa restrictions as part of sanctions on Chinese officials for their actions to repress ethnic and religious minorities both inside and outside the country. The US said China is continuing its “genocide and crimes against humanity” in their northwestern region of Xinjiang. More than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are said to be detained in re-education camps, where they are presumably taught Xi Jinping thought to wean them away from Islam and possible rebellious actions.

The government’s pogrom is not easy on the families. I saw it on the face of an Uighur student of mine crying as she narrated what her family was going through back home.

When H&M, the Swedish apparel retailer said it would no longer use fabrics with Xinjiang cotton out of concern for forced labor, they were subjected to coordinated attack in China. Social media went on a campaign to slander them, ecommerce sites dropped their products, even maps stopped showing their outlets. Other companies who had issued similar statements quickly tucked their tails and withdrew them. China is a big market and this is realpolitik.

OIC’s stand

On the same day as the US announcement, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was attending the meeting as a special guest.

Now, the OIC which consists of 57 Muslim-majority nations and frequently takes up cases in which it believes Muslims are mistreated, criticising Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories and, speaking on India’s Jammu and Kashmir. This goes in parallel while middle eastern nations are queuing up to normalise relations with Israel. Who will speak for the Palestinians?

Al Jazeera reports that in a March 2019 resolution, the OIC said it “commends the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens” after a delegation visit.

So, we have a situation where the US, with about 3.5 million Muslims accounting for about 1 per cent of its population, speaks up for a battered community while nations with close to 100 per cent of their population being Muslim, commend China. Realpolitik again, which means that practical needs guide foreign relations and not moral or even ideological concerns. In its 70-point final declaration, touching upon Muslim issues all around the world, the OIC did not mention Xinjiang, not even a request to China to please look into the charges, if you don’t mind.

Myanmar and Tibet

The US also bit the bullet and called the eviction of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar by the nation’s military government as a genocide. (It is, of course, a sad comment on the practitioners of religion in general if the communists who do not believe in any religion harass both Muslims and Buddhists in China, while Buddhists in turn harass Muslims in Myanmar!)

The US state department on its website regarding Tibet describes in fair detail the restrictions and human rights abuses in that region by China, none of which motivated the US to impose any sanctions. The Tibetans don’t really matter, do they?

So, who speaks for the Muslims? If the OIC is more concerned about its economic welfare and its wonderful economic relations with the Chinese government, it is left to disparate national groups to do something. Clearly, most Muslims wouldn’t want the Taliban or the ISIS to be their spokespersons.

Muslim groups in the US were brave enough to protest the treatment of the Uyghurs and have called upon the OIC to do so. Perhaps one needs more individuals like India’s Ishrat Jahan to speak up and act on their beliefs and be prepared to pay the price that comes with it. Meanwhile, can we at least pressure the Taliban government in Afghanistan to let the girls back into school?

The writer is an emeritus professor at Suffolk University, Boston