Western silence on Uighur atrocities a "great shame for many nations," says ethics expert

26 July 2020, 13:45

Clive Hamilton on Uighur atrocities

By Seán Hickey

This ethics expert says that the western world has a lot to answer for because of its silence on the "crimes against humanity" committed against Uighur Muslims.

Clive Hamilton is Professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, Canberra and is co-author of "Hidden Hand: Exposing how the Chinese Communist Party is reshaping the World."

Maajid Nawaz expressed his annoyance that "the ongoing genocide," against Uighur Muslims by the CCP "deserved more front page coverage and alarm than it did," which motivated him to go on hunger strike.

Maajid asked Professor Hamilton "how damaging to our moral fabric and framework is it that we're engaged in a large trading partner that is happening to currently be undergoing a genocide in East Turkistan."

"This great crime against humanity has been treated with such silence by western nations," said the China expert.

Professor Hamilton said that western silence on Uighur atrocities is a great shame on nations. Picture: PA

"We set ourselves up as the defenders of universal human rights and there is this most appalling violation of human rights which inevitably takes us back to the 1930s," said Professor Hamilton.

He compared the atrocities committed against the Uighur Muslims against the Holocaust in the sense that we are being passive and silent on the crimes being committed. As Europe and the USA turned a blind eye to the Nazi atrocities, "we're seeing the same in Xinjiang."

"The fact that so many people in the west are unwilling to call out Beijing for this crime," Professor Hamilton said that the repercussions will be "something that will be regarded historically as a great shame for many nations and many people."

You can watch Maajid's full conversation with Professor Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg below: