India, China, East Turkestan and signs of life in the Islamic world

The absence of an objection or reaction at the desired level on the part of Muslim states in the face of hostile attitudes and attacks against Islam, Muslims and their sacred values in many parts of the world undoubtedly emboldens such attacks further.

Yet if the states representing Muslim peoples, whose populations approach 2 billion, were united among themselves and placed the protection of Muslims' human dignity, values and beliefs among their sensitivities and priorities, they could present a serious deterrent throughout the world against the humiliation of Muslim symbols and values and against Muslims being subjected to rights violations in places where they are minorities.

The reaction of the Muslim world most recently to the insulting statements against our Prophet and the Mother of the Believers, Aisha, by Nupur Sharma, the spokesperson of the ruling BJP in India, and Naveen Kumar Jindal, the New Delhi media head, has shown a typical example of this.

Qatar, Kuwait and Iran conveyed their discomfort to the Indian authorities at the official level; all three countries summoned the Indian ambassadors in their countries to their foreign ministries and expressed their discomfort with this Islamophobic rhetoric.

Undoubtedly, Sharma's and Jindal's hateful statements also triggered very heavy reactions at the civil level in the Muslim world. In many cases where states remain unresponsive, these initiatives displayed by civil elements are seen as a sign of vitality in the Muslim world.

IF THE ISLAMIC WORLD UNITES

Unfortunately, the absence of a political mechanism that represents the sensitivities of the Muslim world constitutes the core of the problem.

Yet such evil incidents can sometimes turn into occasions that pave the way for good. Indeed, in the face of all these reactions the ruling BJP gave a quite unexpected response, issuing a statement that the party respects all religions and is strongly opposed to any ideology that insults any sect or religion, and announcing that it had suspended Nupur Sharma's party spokesperson role and expelled the party's New Delhi social media head Naveen Kumar Jindal from the party.

Even if they had not stated their reactions beforehand, countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain also said they welcomed this removal from office. Thus, in the face of an Islamophobic attack, the Muslim world, with its peoples and, despite all the differences among them, its states, displayed an exceptional common stance and made India step back.

Truly, this incident should be an example for the possibility of forming a new political horizon for the Islamic world in approaching many other issues. Today the blood that is shed most easily in the world, so to speak the cheapest blood, is unfortunately Muslim blood. The rights that are violated most easily are Muslims' human rights. But unfortunately, those who violate Muslims' rights and shed Muslim blood more than others are again the Muslim countries themselves. In Syria, in Yemen, in Libya, in Iraq, Muslim blood is being shed not by the rulers of other countries but because of the disputes among Muslim countries themselves.

Above all, Muslim countries do not feel the slightest responsibility to adhere to any human rights principle toward their own peoples. Hundreds of thousands of people are being held arbitrarily in the dungeons of Muslim countries themselves, with no legal standards observed and human dignity trampled underfoot. Essentially, while Islamic countries treat their own Muslim peoples in this way, they have neither the face nor the concern to stand up for Muslims living as minorities in other countries. Yet it is possible to build a new world, and this world must begin, first of all, with an approach that observes human dignity, rights and law in the way Muslim countries treat their own peoples.

EAST TURKESTAN SYMPOSIUM IN ISTANBUL

An East Turkestan Symposium, which began on Friday and lasted three days, was held in Istanbul on the initiative of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. At this symposium, China's intense human rights violations against the Muslims in East Turkestan were addressed in all their dimensions.

But the most important dimension, in my view, was the indifference displayed by Muslim countries on this matter.

Muslim countries are in fact potentially very strong. China needs them far more than they need China. But they are either unaware of this or, because each acts on its own, they do not display a presence. Today, whether the Gulf countries or the Muslim countries in North Africa and Asia, they are indispensable target allies for China in its search to build a new world.

Yet in none of these relations do these countries, unfortunately, even consider raising the Uyghur question with China; indeed, many of them hand Uyghurs who have taken refuge in their countries over to China unconditionally upon request, and in some of them there are even private Uyghur detention centers operated on China's behalf.

China has its own theses on the Uyghur issue, but these theses do not change the fact that there are systematic human rights violations that can neither be denied nor concealed. Even if at the very least this were kept as a file item in relations, China would consider reviewing its policy on this matter.

Of course, first of all, a common will, sensitivity and cooperation on this matter must form within the Muslim world itself. Let the Muslim world remain in dispute on some matters, but when it is united on some matters it will form an axis with a sanctioning power that no one can ignore.

If they wish to follow the possible auspicious horizons of this axis, let them listen to the voice raised by the International Union of Muslim Scholars at the 1st International East Turkestan Symposium in Istanbul.