Executive Director Speaks at U.S. Senate Roundtable on CCP’s War on Faith

Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris delivered this speech during an International Religious Freedom (IRF) roundtable discussion in the U.S. Senate on September 29, 2025.

Assalamualaikum,

Hi everyone,

My name is Abdulhakim Idris from the Center for Uyghur Studies.

Today, I want to give you an update on one of the greatest human rights tragedies of our time: the Chinese Communist Party’s escalating war on faith, particularly against the Uyghur people.

In recent weeks, Xi Jinping himself visited the Uyghur region. He once again glorified the ongoing genocide and instructed local officials to continue the “sinicization” of Islamic faith to conform to Communist Party ideology.

The Chinese Communist Party continues to criminalize every aspect of religion—destroying mosques, erasing Islamic education, and even banning the Uyghur language in schools—so that new generations grow up disconnected from their heritage, their faith, and their identity.

At the same time, the CCP works tirelessly to cover up these crimes. It sponsors “genocide tourism,” inviting delegations—often from Muslim-majority countries—to visit the region and repeat  Beijing’s propaganda.These staged tours are designed to deceive the world, silence the truth, and hide the genocide.

Tragically, most Muslim-majority countries, including the OIC and many in the Global South, are ignoring the plight of the Uyghurs and siding with Communist China.

The Uyghur people continue to face mass internment, forced labor, and the destruction of their culture. The Chinese Communist Party fears religious liberty because it fears truth itself. 

The Uyghurs in the diaspora face brutal transnational repression by the CCP. Recently, China appointed Chen Xiaojiang, a former deputy director of the Chinese United Front Work Department, as head of the Uyghur region. He is building a global network of concentration camps of fear for Uyghurs in diaspora. As the Uyghur community in the diaspora, we are facing China’s long arm, and we are being left to stand alone.

We must ensure that the Uyghur tragedy is not ignored. We cannot allow the cries of millions to be silenced. We must raise our voices louder. We must call on governments, organizations, and individuals everywhere to take meaningful action: by demanding transparency, challenging propaganda, and supporting the Uyghurs who still struggle for their freedom and dignity.

Today marks the 3,079th day since I last communicated with my beloved mother. To this day, I have no information about my family except for my father, who passed away in early 2023. I received news of his death seven months later.

The suffering is immense, but even small acts of solidarity can bring hope. Together, we can make the situation a little easier for the Uyghur people, and together, we can prove that justice and human dignity will always outlast oppression.

Thank you.