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Uyghurs, the Church, and Religious Freedom

About a week ago, Disney released its live-action Mulan for rent on Disney+. As people watched it, they noticed something: in the closing credits, Disney gives “special thanks” to eight government entities in Xinjiang, where parts of the movie were filmed.

This has led to calls to boycott the movie in the U.S.[fn1]

Why? It’s a long(ish) story, told better by others, but the short version: Xinjiang (in western China) is home to about 12 million indigenous Muslims. The largest of these groups are the Uyghurs.[fn2] Since at least 2017, the Chinese government has been aggressively detaining its Uyghur population in concentration camps (which it calls “re-education camps”). Today, an estimated 1 million Uyghurs (which represents more than 8% of the Muslim population in the region) are detained in these concentration camps. Moreover, Buzzfeed has determined that China has recently built 268 new compounds in which to detain its Uyghur population.

I’ll note here that there is long-running tension between the Chinese government and the Uyghur population. The government claims its crackdown is the result of terrorist actions by (some of) the Uyghur population.

True or not, its response has been a full-on suppression of Islam in the area. The government has limited the number of mosques and exercises strict control over religious schools. In 2014, some Xinjiang government departments banned Muslim government employees from fasting during Ramadan.

There are also reports that, as part of its crackdown on Islam, the Chinese government has forced Muslims in the Xinjiang province to eat pork and drink alcohol during the Lunar New Year, on threat of detention in its concentration camps if they don’t. (There are similar reports of forced alcohol and pork consumption in the concentration camps.[fn3]) The Chinese Communist Party has been working to “Sinicize religion, or shape all religions to conform to the officially atheist party’s doctrines and the majority Han-Chinese society’s customs.” (While there doesn’t appear to be the same level of repression of Christians, President Xi Jinping is attempting to curtail church growth in China and “bend Christian belief to party dictates.“)

The U.S. State Department has released a statement calling on the Chinese government to end its “repressive controls on the cultural and religious practices and identities of members of religious and ethnic minority groups.” Over 75 faith leaders have signed a statement calling on China to stop its crimes against the Uyghur popultation.

Notably absent from these condemnations? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This seems odd. The Church puts tremendous emphasis on religious liberty. We have a manual about religious freedom. President Oaks has asserted that “religious freedom is vital to God’s plan of salvation and … is so valuable to society at large that all citizens should support it.” The BYU School of Law (which is separate from the Church, of course, but reflects its values) hosts an annual International Law and Religion Symposium; this year’s topic is “Religious Freedom: Rights and Responsibilities.”

It is true that the Muslim population in Xinjiang is not our community; members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not being interned in concentration camps. But that it isn’t us isn’t relevant to our duties and responsibilities. In fact, the Church prominently declares that

Latter-day Saints believe in defending the religious freedom of others just as readily as their own. The Prophet Joseph Smith declared, “I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves” (History of the Church, 498–99 [discourse given by Joseph Smith on July 9, 1843, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Willard Richards]).

Would publicly condemning China’s oppression of its Uyghur population have consequences to the Church? Probably. The Church has plans for a temple in Shanghai (though it’s not clear whether Shanghai has agreed to those plans). I suspect that a vocal condemnation of human rights abuses by the Chinese government would impede whatever plans the Church has in that regard.

But what of it? I grew up singing, “Do what is right; let the consequence follow.” A temple in China would be a blessing for many Chinese members of the Church who can’t access it. But a temple purchased through complicity with human rights abuses and crushing silence on the violation of millions of Uyghurs’ religious liberty? That doesn’t sound like a worthy trade to me.

It’s time for the Church to do what is right. The consequences of not doing so are too dire to live with.


[fn1] Full disclosure: my family and I are participating in the boycott.

[fn2] Traditionally, the English spelling has been “Uighur”; my understanding is that Uyghurs themselves prefer the English spelling “Uyghur,” so that’s what I’ve chosen to use.

[fn3] It’s worth noting here that the United States has similar blood on its hands: there are reports that Muslims detained in immigration facilities have been forced to choose between eating expired and rotten Halal food or pork products. The chaplain at Krome reportedly dismissed detainees’ complaints, saying, “It is what it is.”


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