Muslim governments were not silent when Myanmar murdered Rohingya, its Muslim minority, and expelled 700,000 of them to Bangladesh. They were unanimous in their anger when the Trump administration moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But they are almost silent on China's attempt to suppress Islam in its far western province, Xinjiang.
It is the most brazen frontal assault on Muslims in modern history. Up to a million Chinese citizens have been sent to concentration camps in Xinjiang for being Muslim. They are also guilty of being a 10 million-strong ethnic minority, mostly Uighurs but including a million and a half Kazakhs, who do not feel sufficiently "Chinese," but Islam is the focus of the state's anger.
And in the face of this repression, the world's 49 Muslim-majority countries have said almost nothing. Malaysia refused to send a dozen Uighur refugees back to China last year, four members of Kuwait's parliament made a public protest in January and Turkey loudly condemned China's actions last month, but the other 46 governments have avoided the issue. It is very strange.