CUS Press Release
For Immediate Release
January 27, 2025
Contact@Uyghurstudy.org
Uyghurstudy.org
On January 26, 2026, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General met in Beijing with senior Chinese officials, including the Vice President and the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that the meetings focused on strengthening OIC – China relations and expanding dialogue and cooperation across political, economic, cultural, educational, and health sectors, with both sides emphasizing historical ties and mutual interests.
The Center for Uyghur Studies (CUS) expresses grave concern over this engagement, which takes place while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to carry out genocide and systematic violations of religious freedom against Uyghur Muslims and cracking down on other faith communities including Tibetans and Chinese Christians.. These crimes include mass arbitrary detention, forced labor transfers, pervasive digital and physical surveillance, family separation, the destruction and desecration of mosques, and the total criminalization of religious practices in East Turkistan (AKA Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).
CUS reiterates that these abuses are not isolated incidents but part of a state-led campaign to erase Uyghur religious and cultural identity. The Uyghur Muslims continue to be deprived of their freedom of religion. Since 2017, the CCP has punished the Uyghurs for basic religious practices such as prayer, fasting, wearing hijab, giving children Muslim names, or traveling to Muslim-majority countries. Many who were previously interned in camps have been funneled into coercive labor schemes across China, perpetuating crimes against humanity under another name.
Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris said, “The OIC was created to safeguard the rights, dignity, and interests of Muslim communities worldwide. So ‘unwavering support for China on Xinjiang’ is a betrayal of its founding principle. It effectively means supporting the elimination of the Uyghur Muslim faith through the Sinicization of Islam. Seeing China as a friend of the Muslim world is clear hypocrisy.”
China’s attempts to project a friendly image toward the Muslim world stand in stark contrast to realities on the ground, where Islam is treated as a threat to be neutralized through repression and forced assimilation. The CUS calls on the OIC and its Member States to uphold their founding mandate with moral clarity and principled action. Silence and uncritical engagement in the face of genocide only embolden perpetrators and deepen the suffering of Uyghur Muslims.
Copyright Center for Uyghur Studies - All Rights Reserved