Press  Release – For immediate Release
04 January 2024
Contact: World Uyghur Congress  www.uyghurcongress.org
+49 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The World Uyghur Congress condemns the continued cooperation between the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On January 3, the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) H.E. Mr. Hissein Brahim received a senior official of the Communist Party’s regional committee of Xinjiang, Mr. Ilzat Ahmatjan to discuss strengthening relations between the OIC and the People’s Republic of China, as well as discussing “the situation of the Muslim community in the People’s Republic of China”. 

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its officials are not only anti-religion but they also actively support policies that aim to stifle Islamic practices and values. In recent years, the CCP has enacted policies and laws such as the counter-terrorism law that prohibits basic Islamic teachings and practices and detained many religious figures. In the name of countering terrorism, the CCP has extrajudicially detained three million Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan.  

“The OIC continues to act in complete disregard to the ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslims in East Turkistan and willingly supports the CCP’s prohibition, criminalization and punishment of Islam,” said WUC President Dolkun Isa. “It is abhorrent that a CCP official visits a holy land and is offered an opportunity to whitewash its genocide.’’

The OIC has consistently failed to recognize the atrocity crimes committed against Uyghurs, which include the arbitrary detention of millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps, forced labour schemes, the banning of Islamic names, and the demolition of 8000 mosques and the destruction of another 8000 graveyards and other sites of religious significance in East Turkistan. In August 2023, an OIC delegation led by Ambassador Dya-Eddine Bamakhrama, visited China to meet with Vice Foreign Minister, Deng Li, and other CCP officials, while also visiting East Turkistan to “observe the living conditions of the Muslim community”. Whereas in March 2022 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers.

The World Uyghur Congress urges the OIC to stand firm in upholding its moral values and principles, emphasising the importance of not becoming an unwitting accomplice to the atrocity crimes perpetrated by the Chinese government. The WUC furthermore calls for OIC member states, and other Muslim-majority governments to denounce the systematic persecution faced by the Uyghur community and to support efforts to bring the human rights abuses to an end. By continuing to meet with CCP officials the OIC undermines its credibility and international standing.