Umma, OIC and Muslim ethnic minorities

Introduction

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire Caliphate, Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation stepped out to position itself as an umma like organisation. It had
made itself quite vocal around the issues of Muslim welfare especially around
Palestine, religious and cultural identity expression. However, it is important to
consider how OIC has approached to resolving the persecution of ethnic minorities
like Rohingya and Uighurs. Unity and solidarity around Muslim people is stressed
not only according to Prophet Mohammad but under OIC owns Charter. Thus it
becomes imperative to take into consideration these case studies to determine if
OIC is what it claims to be.

Rohingya Crisis

The first case study focus on Rohingya people, Muslim minority group (Garrido,
2022)who were forced to flee from persecution by the Myanmar government since
1962 (p.55). After the government took over the anti-Rohingia sentiment overtook
Buddhist majority country. This persecution under religious purity begun as a failure
to recognise them as citizens and natives of the land they had lived for centuries.
The 2015 Health Care Bill (Bakali,2020) restriction reproductive rights only added to
Constitutional Amendments as well as Immigration (1974) and Citizenship (1982)
Act (p.7).This persecution has reached its peak in 2016 after militant group (ARSA)
(Bakali,2020) made an attack on military outpost which caused disproportionate
crackdown on Rohingya. The government has burnt over 300 villages and is
responsible for thousand of deaths, sexual assaults against women and girls as
well as over 1 million refugees(O’Brien,2020).

This crackdown by Myanmar government has caused more than a million refugees
to escape to the nearby countries such as Malaysia and Bangladesh. Although OIC
has not been silent on the issue the response was far less united, focusing on
condemnation rather than solutions (al-Ahsan 2017).Notably it has raised quite a bit
of publicity and awareness over the issue which has caused many UN humanitarian
agencies to respond. Gambia under OIC directives (Talukdar,2022) had also filed a
case against Myanmar in ICJ alleging genocide and ethnic cleansing. However,
Myanmar has ignored the case as well OIC attempts to put pressure for Rohingya
crisis. Some of the wealthier members like Saudi Arabia and Qatar raised financial
assistance (Jati,2017)to the cause but it was far less impactful had the entire
organisation decided to get involved (Rahman,2021). Overall the sentiment
surrounding OIC handling of Rohingya comes down to the idea that OIC (“Oh I
see”) is more reactive, focused on advocacy and condemnation rather than tangible
solutions.
Looking at OIC separate members Bangladesh had responded in a much more
active role compared to the policy it had since 1972 (Milton,2017). Historically,
Bangladesh was less considerate of the Rohingya crisis and mostly resorted to
repatriating them back to Myanmar(Hossain,2020). This changed in 2017 when
Bangladesh was ‘forced’ to take over a million Rohingya refugees and house them
within Cox Bazar(Faye, 2021). Although Bangladesh has taken those refugees the
reality of the situation is many consider those camps to be far worse than Myanmar.
The refugees live in substandard conditions without access to basic needs and
infrastructures(Bhatia,2020).Furthermore, governments reluctance to formally
accept as refugees has spurned lack of international support which negatively
affected Bangladesh especially public opinion (Wali, 2018). The rampart corruption,
violence and sexual abuse against women and girls is seen as necessary sacrifice
to deter future refugees to the country that has no means to support
them(Wali,2018). This once again shows that the so-called unity and solidarity of
OIC would have been integral to resolving these issues however OIC has taken far
more interest in Israel conflict.

Uighur, Umma and OIC

The second case study concerns the persecution of Uighur, a Turkic Muslim
minority persecuted by China’s government. Unlike the case of Rohingya the
persecution in this case bears a much more pronounced hatred on religious or
perhaps religious extremism(Maizland,2022). China saw Uighurs who did not wish
integrate like Hui did as an obstacle to creating united government under singular
ideology. The Chinese persecution of Uighurs carried firstly a restriction of their
religious and cultural identity expression. According to ASPI (2020) it was
responsible to destruction of over 8000 mosques and religious cites. The region of
Xinjiang which came under leadership of Quanguo in 2016 took heavy measures to
restrict any Islamic expression no matter how minor(Liusuan,2023). This
persecution which was carried under guise of fighting terrorism which while valid
took disproportional repose that bordered genocide. Far more than usual CCP had
directed full authoritarian control on controlling, suppressing and eradicating Islamic
expression within Xinjiang(Stern, 2021). However, social and economic persecution
supplemented by mass surveillance was a fraction of terror inflicted on those
subjected to ‘’reeducation facilities’.

Although China seek to deny their existence (Farooq, 2020) or what occurs there
many of these camps have been confirmed as cites of human rights violations.
Detainees (Stern,2021) are subjected to physical and sexual violence, forced
sterilisation, torture as well as political and ideological indoctrination(p.9). The OIC
response to violation of fellow Muslim by CCP was to turn blind eye and go along
with the narrative perpetuated by China (Rhodes, 2023). They had not only failed to
condemn China’s action but chose to praise it at every turn. Even OIC led visit in
2023 sought to focus on praising rather than condemning China. Despite
controversy OIC response to Uighur crisis predicates on the massive influence
China has both politically and economically. Instead of promoting Muslim unity and
solidarity many OIC members chose personal benefits such as BRI, loans and
investment offered by China(Wani, 2021).
Conclusion

This situation concerning both Rohingya and Uighurs highlights important

contradiction in OIC self perception. Although it has made clear to promote Muslim
rights and freedoms as united religious community as communities are far less
important. This contrasting policies towards the two crises show OIC hypocrisy and
contradiction to its own Charter and teachings of Prophet Mohammad. It is quite
clear than unity and solidarity claimed by OIC is misplaced especially when its
members care more for political and economic benefit over protection of umma.

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