The question East Turkestan raises: what do the emirs listen to from the scholars they have made speak?

In recent days, a sensational statement made after a visit to China by a delegation called the "World Muslim Communities Council," which includes 30 scholars from 14 different Islamic countries, was reflected in the press. In the statement, China's practices against the Uyghurs in East Turkestan were described as a "fight against terror," and China's "successful" policies on this matter were characterized in terms of appreciation.

When the oppression the Uyghurs suffer in East Turkestan has reached a fever pitch and is reflected on the agenda of the whole world in dimensions and with a horror that can no longer be hidden, how could such a statement, and from a delegation in the guise of Muslims and scholars at that, fail to cause a sensation?

The statement of this 30-person delegation came as the result of a public diplomacy effort by China. Within the scope of such an effort, Chinese officials took these persons whom they hosted in their country on a tour of the "Museum of the Fight Against Terror and Extremism," which they had prepared entirely for propaganda purposes.

What is characterized here as "terror and extremism" is the Uyghur people's most passive resistance to assimilation, involving no violence whatsoever, their holding on to their culture and religion. In all these years, despite so many images of assimilation, torture and oppression reflected from East Turkestan, we have not even heard of any armed action or resistance movement against the Chinese administration. China's characterizing as "terrorist and extremist," in East Turkestan, where it is already present as an occupier, those who do not accept its assimilation policies shows how open to arbitrary use and abuse such labels are in the hands of authoritarian states.

For China, which claims that what is reflected from East Turkestan is really just the fabrication of Western propaganda, the ways to demonstrate the contrary are in fact not completely closed. It is not hard to guess that Westerners, and the USA above all, would never miss such an opportunity to weaken China. If China is truly sincere, it should not give an opening to these ill-intentioned propaganda efforts and, above all, should accept human rights standards and keep its practices toward the Uyghurs open to international observers. But unfortunately no such situation is in sight.

It is not possible for China to persuade Muslim peoples by taking official ulema, subject to some administrations with which it has good relations, on tours of the propaganda museums it has prepared and thus pulling the wool over their eyes. That official ulema has not the slightest contact with the people, nor any capacity to persuade. What is going on there is reflected day by day into the hearts, souls and minds of Muslims anyway, without any need for any media intermediary. The way for China to stop the counter-propaganda is first of all to stop these assimilation policies and to establish a ground for negotiation with the Uyghur people based more on acquaintance and respect. If it does so, it can even turn the East Turkestan question from a weapon that its enemies use against it into an opportunity to develop a healthier relationship with Islamic countries. But above all China must also free itself from its own ideological obsessions in this matter, and we do not know how possible that is.

Trying to get the job done only with museums that it has built and named itself, with the official ulema of the Islamic world, without doing this, is a waste of time for China as well.

In fact, the Islamic ulema had set out their position clearly long ago, and continue to do so. Just last June, at an East Turkestan Symposium organized in Istanbul by the World Muslim Scholars Union, respected scholars, civil and most trusted among the people, from every part of the Islamic world, who came together, called for an end to the oppression inflicted on the Uyghur Turks in East Turkestan.

It appears that the "World Muslim Communities Council" is an official ulema delegation that is being brought to the fore precisely against this civil-organic Muslim Scholars Union.

Unfortunately, because of its name, it set off some very ignorant and racist reactions against Islamic scholars even in Türkiye, particularly on social media.

Yet today those who keep the East Turkestan cause on the agenda the most are the world's Islamic scholars, and the language of the symposium gathered in Istanbul, which described the Uyghurs as a piece of their own souls, was also Arabic. Most probably the idea of making this official ulema material for propaganda in this way was conceived as a move against the Islamic scholars who are the most active defenders of this cause.

At exactly this point, the reaction from those same Islamic scholars was not late in coming. Yesterday in Istanbul, the actual world Islamic scholars and Islamic civil society organizations put forth their own reactions to the unfortunate statement of the "World Muslim Communities Council." They said that this 30-person delegation by no means carries the Muslim scholarly heritage and the dignity of scholars, and that, whatever their offices and positions, because they preferred to see and reflect the experiences of the oppressed people of East Turkestan through the eyes of their oppressors, they had above all betrayed their own scholarly acquisitions.

As a result of the meeting, at which many scholars, from Yemen to Palestine, from Iraq to Eritrea, from Lebanon to Egypt, put forth their reactions in speeches, a declaration was also issued restating what has been experienced in East Turkestan and condemning the statements of the delegation in question.

Let me conclude by repeating what I said earlier in another article on the subject.

"China, too, needs a serious dialogue on this matter. As is known, China complains a great deal that the East Turkestan issue is being used against it by the USA and the West with black propaganda. Yet, far beyond black propaganda, there is information based on direct testimonies about what is going on there, and if it does not want this issue to be used by the USA and the West, opening itself to negotiation with the Muslim world will be to its own benefit as well.

The initiative that the Union of Islamic Scholars has taken in this way is also worth dwelling on. They show very well that Islamic scholars have begun to play their historical role as it deserves, and that it is possible to give states the necessary advice, advice that will revive them, without making a clamor.

It is of course to the benefit of the rulers of Islamic countries in particular to heed these voices."

But unfortunately, so long as Islamic countries prefer, instead of listening to the voice of the real ulema, to produce their own official scholars and hear what they make them say, it means there is still a long way to go.