Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting is being held in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on 22-23 March. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is attending this meeting as a special guest. Seeing China in this meeting of Muslim countries, Uighur organizations have expressed concern. The World Uighur Congress (WUC) has said regarding the matter that Wang Yi’s presence in the OIC undermines the credibility and international reputation of the OIC.
‘OIC cannot close its eyes to the suffering of Muslims’
WUC President Dolkun Isa has said that the presence of a Chinese government representative at the upcoming OIC meeting of foreign ministers reflects China’s tremendous influence among Muslim-majority governments. If the OIC tries to be the credible voice of the Muslim world, it cannot close its eyes to the suffering of the millions of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan.
‘China is destroying places of religious importance’
The WUC has said that the agenda of this meeting is Islamophobia, but surprisingly, there is no mention of ongoing Chinese atrocities on Uighur Muslims on the OIC website. Thousands of mosques, temples, cemeteries and other sites of religious importance have been destroyed or damaged in East Turkistan. The OIC has consistently distanced itself from the Uighur issue.
The world breaks silence on the Uyghur issue
The WUC urges the OIC to reject the coercive influence of the Chinese government and to break the OIC’s silence on the Uyghur genocide. The WUC has said that Wang Yi’s presence at the OIC meeting would be construed as tacit support of Chinese atrocities on Uighurs. The WUC has urged international organizations and governments of the world to take a strong stand against the human rights abuses of Uighurs by China.