Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security @mohmahfudmd repeats PRC talking points without qualification while recounting his meeting with Chinese Amb. Xiao Qian: cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20191…. These talking points are demonstrably false.
@mohmahfudmd 1) The 10 million Hui Muslims, who have no history of separatism or extremism, face significant persecution, as @gerryshih reported earlier this year: washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac…. Minarets destroyed, azan banned. Sale of Koran banned, publishers who print hadith jailed.
@mohmahfudmd @gerryshih 2) All Muslim public servants, not just Uighurs, are banned from praying or going on Hajj.
@mohmahfudmd @gerryshih 3) Some Uighurs have engaged in separatist or extremist activity, but the vast majority have not. The CCP's response has been to detain over a million of them. The rest live in a surveillance state and constant fear that they will be next. cfr.org/backgrounder/c….
@mohmahfudmd @gerryshih 4) These facts are well documented through victim accounts, satellite imagery, and even CCP's own public and leaked records: nytimes.com/interactive/20…. It is surprising, then, that @mohmahfudmd would take Amb. Xiao's remarks at face value.
5) I see this thread now being retweeted by some Indonesian extremists, seeking to embarrass Menko @mohmahfudmd and the government. Ironically, many of these extremists would deny political and social rights to non-Muslims and to ethnic Chinese Indonesians.
6) I would say to these people: You do not help Uighurs by advocating for the Indonesian government to persecute non-Muslims in Indonesia in the way that the CCP persecutes Muslims in China.
7) But I would say to the government: by repeating false Chinese talking points, you leave a void which these extremists will fill. The only solution is to speak openly and honestly about the persecution that Muslims in China face, as matter of human rights.
8) My role as an impartial analyst at an international organization is to offer facts and independent analysis, which all sides can draw upon, in pursuing a more peaceful region where everyone’s universal human rights are respected.
