NEWS//The Taliban, China, & the Uighurs

Shouldn't Muslims favor other Muslims over non-Muslims, especially non-Muslims who insist that Allah doesn't exist?

That seems a logical hypothesis. But that hypothesis is being tested in Afghanistan today.

Afghan Uighurs

Afghanistan shares a border with China. Specifically, a border with Xinjiang where China allegedly is committing acts of genocide against Uighur Muslims. Two thousand Uighur Muslims live in Afghanistan. China wants the Taliban to deport them. The Taliban seem ready to oblige.

Why? Money.

Dismantle ETIM

China is offering the Taliban humanitarian and other support, support Afghanistan desperately needs. In exchange, China has asked the Taliban to dismantle the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Afghanistan.

According to Voice of America (VOA), in August, when a Taliban delegation met with the Chinese foreign minister in Tianjin, the Taliban agreed to stand against ETIM. The Taliban assured China that "they would never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China."

ETIM is a U.N.-designated international terrorist organization linked to Uyghur militants outside China. The United States removed it from its terror list in 2020, citing "no credible evidence" that it continued to exist.

Uighur fears

The fear among Afghani Uighurs is that the Taliban and China will consider every Uighur a member of ETIM. Memet, a Uighur jewelry merchant from Kabul, told VOA, "I'm most fearful that the Taliban will eventually give us back to China, and China will just shoot us."

“The Uyghurs in Afghanistan are just so scared," said Mohammed Umar, the Pakistan-based chairman of the Umar Uighur Trust. “The Taliban are Muslim, and we are Muslim too, but right now everything is about money, and the Taliban gets money from China."

China has consistently denied allegations of forced labor, human rights abuses, and concentration camps in Xinjiang.

Sources: Republic World, New York Post, Voice of America, Bitter Winter, BBC