Former British Chief Rabbi on China’s Treatment of Uighur Muslims a ‘Moral Outrage’ That ‘Must Be Challenged by the Global Community’

Former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote in a July 22 Facebook post that the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims needs to “be challenged by the global community.”

Sacks wrote that “the sight of people being shaven headed, lined up, boarded onto trains, and sent to concentration camps is particularly harrowing. That people in the 21st century are being murdered, terrorized, victimized, intimidated and robbed of their liberties because of the way they worship God is a moral outrage, a political scandal and a desecration of faith itself.”

He noted that Article 18 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights protects freedom of religion and that the international community needs to ensure that right is protected everywhere, including protecting minorities from being demonized.

“The Nazis called Jews vermin and lice,” Sacks wrote. “The Hutus of Rwanda called the Tutsis inyenzi, or cockroaches. When the world allows the dehumanization of the Other, evil follows, as night follows day.”

He concluded: “Today, this is happening to the Uighur population in China and it must be challenged by the global community in the strongest possible terms.”

https://www.facebook.com/rabbisacks/posts/3311288075588991

Sacks’ Facebook post comes after leaked drone footage from 2019 that recently resurfaced on social media showed Uighur Muslims that were blindfolded and shackled and were being led to trains in Xianjiang, which is located in northern China. Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl wrote in a July 20 letter to Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming, “China risks squandering its achievements and sabotaging its own legacy if it fails to learn the lessons of history. The World will neither forgive nor forget a genocide against the Uyghur people.”

Liu told the BBC that the video just showed “a transfer of prisoners … Uighur people enjoy peaceful, harmonious coexistence with other ethnic groups of people.”

International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky noted in a July 23 Newsweek op-ed that Europe and the United Nations have been silent on China’s treatments of the Uighurs, and that China is expected to be elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council soon.

“In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel warned us ‘there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest,’” Ostrovsky wrote. “Here, too, we cannot remain silent, thereby giving China impunity for its crimes. We must speak up for the Uyghur people.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted, “We can’t wait while [the] Muslim world remains largely silent, while PA’s [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas endorses [China President Xi [Jinping]’s torture of fellow Muslims, while European countries continue business as usual with #Beijing. Never again means never again.”

We cant wait while Muslim world remains largely silent, while PA's Abbas endorses Xi's torture of fellow Muslims, while European countries continue business as usual with #Beijing. Never again means never again. https://t.co/kMtWYmT9NJ

— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) July 23, 2020