Uyghurs throughout the world are denouncing a statement made by a delegation of thirty Islamic clerics and intellectuals led by Emirates scholar Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi on behalf of The World Muslim Communities Council (TWMCC), during a visit to Xinjiang this month, reported Bitter Winter, an Italy-based magazine on religious liberty and human rights.

Al Nuaimi said that in Chinese culture there is no concept of targeting Muslims or Islam, adding that it is their (TWMCC) responsibility to tell the world about China’s prosperity and development. “We are happy to see Muslims in Xinjiang lead a happy life. They fully enjoy the freedom of religious belief,” he said.

Giving examples of “Jyllands-Posten,” a Danish newspaper, which published twelve cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad and “The Charlie Hebdo” shooting on January 7, 2015, following the publication by the French magazine of cartoons offensive to Islam, the Uyghurs said, “We do not condone offenses to religion and to Islam. However, we ask the question: is the Uyghur genocide a less serious attack on Islam than the publication of offensive cartoons in Europe?” reported Bitter Winter.

However, this is a travesty of reality. That there is no religious freedom in East Turkistan is continuously confirmed by international reports, most recently by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

In a statement after TWMCC’s visit, the International Union of The East Turkistan Organizations wrote that “More than 16000 Religious places are destroyed, over half a million Muslim Uyghur Children had been victims of state-run apostasy agendas of China, millions of Muslims are sent to concentration camps, thousands of healthy Muslims are affected by China’s organ harvesting missions, millions of Islamic literature had been burned and entire Uyghur Muslims have been criminalized for their Islamic faith. This is what the Islamic leaders are praising, supporting, endorsing, and taking sides with China’s massacre and genocide policies against the Muslims of East Turkistan, and the act of the Delegation clearly demonstrates a total betrayal of the teaching of Islam.”  TWMCC’s actions discredit the entire mission and make it irrelevant to any positive or beneficial aid to the Uyghurs. It is a monstrous falsehood, an embarrassment and a millstone of shame for these individuals and their organizations, reported Bitter Winter.

But their testimony will be of use to some to promote the narrative put out by the Chinese Communist Party to the detriment and demoralization of the Uyghurs. TWMCC’s visit did not succeed in covering up the Uyghur genocide. It just exposed the corruption of Arab regimes and the brutality and cunning of the Chinese autocracy.

The Chinese Mission at the United Nations Human Rights Council stated, “Xinjiang-related issues are not human rights issues at all, but issues of counter-terrorism, de-radicalization, and anti-separatism. “China was very selective about who was invited to “tour” the region. There were no independent scholars or journalists, and all invitees were connected to governments that have never acknowledged the Uyghur genocide or any human rights violations in China.

This visit also comes after claims that Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia have been deporting Uyghur refugees back to China, despite obvious concerns over their safety if sent back, reported Bitter Winter.

TWMCC has not offended Muslims and Uyghurs only, but also the victims of CCP brutality in Tibet, Hong Kong, Southern Mongolia, and all those persecuted and jailed in China for their religious or political dissent. The thirty members of TWMCC delegations have sided with the persecutors and abandoned the victims.

• From Beijing News Net