The Oppression of Uyghur Muslims in China

According to the US State Department, Chinese authorities have indefinitely detained at least 800,000 Uyghur, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities since April 2017. The estimates for the amount of individuals detained go as high as 2 million. This has been happening in the Xinjiang region of China, where many Muslim minorities (however especially the Uyghur), have been detained in what the Chinese government refers to as "re-education centers." According to the Chinese government, this is to teach them to read and write Mandarin, provide vocational training, and assimilate them into Chinese culture. While this attempt at eradicating this minority's culture and cultural identity would be bad enough on its own, it seems that what the government has been saying is not totally accurate, and largely propaganda. Reports from individuals such as Mihrigul Tursun have told a different story. Tursun grew up in China, but went to Egypt for more employment opportunities. Upon returning to China, she was detained. Tursun's 3 children were taken from her, and she was kept in a detention center for three months. After being released, she was told that one of her children (one of three triplets, under a year old) had died during a surgery, and her children had scars on their necks where she was told IV drips had to be used. She was however never told the reason her children had been admitted to the hospital in the first place. According to her reports of the camps, she was kept in a cell with 50 other people that was overcrowded to the point that people had to take turns standing and sleeping. She says she saw 9 people die during her stay there due to the poor conditions. This arrest of minority citizens without reason and subsequent imprisonment in these poor conditions is abhorrent. This can not be allowed to continue. The Chinese government's attempt to stamp out the Uyghur Muslims and eradicate their culture and cultural identity is nothing less than cultural genocide.

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