In the Middle East, Little Outcry Over China's Oppressed Uighurs

In the Middle East, Little Outcry Over China's Oppressed Uighurs
By Abigail Hauslohner / Cairo Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009


Armed Chinese paramilitary police in riot gear disembark a truck outside a mosque in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 13, 2009.
Armed Chinese paramilitary police in riot gear disembark a truck outside a mosque in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 13, 2009.
David Gray / REUTERS


The fatal stabbing of an Egyptian Muslim woman in a German courtroom two weeks ago sparked anger across the Muslim world and fueled demands for a formal apology from Germany. But while the region rages about the story of the "headscarf martyr," holding her up as a symbol of persecution, the plight of China's Muslim population has provoked a more muted response.

On July 5, riots broke out between China's minority Muslim Uighur population and the majority Han Chinese in the far western Xinjiang province. The government responded with a violent police crackdown and, in the end, at least 192 people were left dead. But, says Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst at the government-backed Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo: "There is not a lot of interest or attention paid to these events in the Arab and Muslim world." (See pictures of the unrest in Urumqi.)

Many Arabic news media covered the story only sporadically or failed to pick up on it until days after the riots began, and opinion writers — who were especially prolific in defense of the headscarf martyr — had very little to say about the Muslims in China. An article over the weekend in Saudi Arabia's Arab Times likened the struggle of their Uighur "co-religionists" to that of the Palestinians, and compared the Han Chinese to the Jews; and an editorial in Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper last week urged the international community to pay more attention to the crackdown. But calls for Muslim and Arab leaders to condemn the violence in China remains conspicuously absent from the regional press. (See pictures of the unrest in Urumqi.)

Which isn't necessarily surprising. Most of the region's governments — and what is largely a state-sponsored press — have several reasons to ignore China's ethnically and religiously charged clashes. To some Arab regimes, the bloody images of riot police clashing with Uighur protesters in Xinjiang's capital last week were strikingly familiar, because the same thing happens at home. "They make the same systematic separation of opponents, of Islamic groups, of opposition groups, and they arrest many and they kill many," says Essam el-Erian, a leader of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood, comparing Arab regimes to the Chinese government. "How could they criticize the Chinese? They are in the same boat." (Read "A Brief History of the Uighurs.")

Indeed, the Uighurs and the popular Islamist Muslim Brotherhood have much to commiserate over. The Uighurs complain of religious and cultural persecution and economic marginalization by China's Han-dominated government. Not unlike Egypt's heavy-handed treatment of the Brotherhood — which is banned from participating in politics, and whose members are frequently subject to arrests and interrogations — China also limits the Uighurs' international travel, and maintains a degree of control over the sermons they provide at local mosques.

So far, Turkey has been the only government in the region to offer strong condemnation of China's actions, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan likening the crackdown to "genocide." Turkey shares linguistic and cultural ties with China's Uighurs, and its leaders' criticism of the Chinese government is made easier, says Erian, because "they have a democratic system." (Read "China's War in the West.")

This week, some signs of protest were also evident in Jordan, where, according to U.S.-funded Arabic satellite network Al-Hura, 40 Jordanian lawmakers submitted a letter to the head of parliament calling on the government to formally condemn the events in Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the Jordanian Moderate Islamic Party encouraged Arab and Islamic governments to take a stance on the "practices against Muslims in Germany and China." But no formal government statements have followed.

A large factor in the regional silence, according to local analysts, is trade. "There are other political and economic interests and challenges," says Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of Egypt's government-affiliated Al-Ahram Quarterly Democracy Review. China has a significant economic presence in the Middle East, particularly where it fills the gaps left by U.S. sanctions. According to U.S. government statistics, China is both Iran and Sudan's biggest trade partner, and either the main or secondary source of imports for most of the other countries in the region. (Read: "How Iran Might Beat Future Sanctions: The China Card.")

There is also a potential double standard to consider. In the case of Egypt, "China is not involved in or critical about any of the political challenges in Egypt and it doesn't interfere on this level," says Mustafa. "That makes Egypt more reserved towards any clashes that Muslims are involved [with] in China."

Even so, some predict the official reaction will come — in time. "I think in the next days and weeks there will be more attention, because it just started in the Arab media," says political analyst Rashwan, adding that Muslim organizations in the Middle East will also start to publicly voice support for the Uighurs. In the most extreme case yet, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb this week called for attacks on Han Chinese in North Africa in retaliation for Muslim deaths. (See pictures of China after the riot deaths on LIFE.com.)

And while the Iranian government, which waged its own violent crackdown on opposition protesters last month, has remained relatively mute on the issue, several of the country's high-ranking Shi'ite clerics have also spoken out against China's actions. "Defending the oppressed is an Islamic and humanitarian duty," Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani said on Wednesday, according to the Tehran Times.

Still, the chances that the region's heads of states will follow suit seem unlikely.



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