Thread by @BethanyAllenEbr

This is why the question “why don’t Muslims care about what’s happening to the Uighurs” often bothers me. It depends who is asking and why. I’ve seen this question asked too many times by people whose implicit answer is “because Muslims are subhuman.”

https://twitter.com/tomscocca/status/1355969872065388545

(The answer to the question is that Muslims who know about Uighur repression do care! And those who live in countries with political freedoms show it through their speech and actions).

The useful question to be asking is, why doesn’t the Saudi government et al criticize China for its Muslim genocide? The answer is that autocratic governments of Muslim-majority populations pretty much all have close ties to the Chinese govt.

And the Chinese govt demands that these governments refrain from criticizing it in order to keep the loans and trade deals China has made with them.

Muslim-majority countries that fall somewhere on the spectrum of democracy, even if just barely (think Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia) have seen street protests and other forms of opposition to China’s Uighur genocide.

In addition, the question itself reveals a lack of familiarity with the basics of politics in Muslim-majority countries. Many governing factions/parties/leaders view rival Islamic factions as illegitimate or dangerous. Sunni vs Shia of course, but also more complex than that.

And so these autocratic rulers like the idea of being able to crush their own religious rivals. It’s convenient to have a big country like China speaking out for the “right” to declare inconvenient religious people terrorists so you can mercilessly crush them.

The Muslim populations of these countries aren’t necessarily on board with that, however, since they are like, normal human beings who don’t like to see their fellow Muslims put in concentration camps.

Which is why the important distinction to make is whether the country is democratic or not—NOT whether its govt claims to be Muslim or not. In Muslim-majority countries with some basic political rights, the people themselves have spoken out against the genocide.

So, just remember to take care and be specific with what you are asking. Muslim PEOPLE, when they know about the genocide, are upset about it. GOVERNMENTS of Muslim-majority countries are often silent. Criticize the governments without blaming the people.