Uighur Muslims (pronounced: Wee-gur Muz-lims) in Xinjiang China should be allowed to believe in what they want without persecution. "Re-education" camps are being used to torture Uighurs because of their beliefs. These camps have violated articles number 4 Freedom From Slavery and number 5 Freedom From Torture.

The Uighurs currently being held captive should not be in captivity in the first place. There are now 12 million Uighurs imprisoned in these "re-education camps" in China just for their religion. Human beings should all be respected, no matter their religion, race, skin color, Etc. We have seen this before in history. Adolf Hitler, a.k.a, the leader of the Nazi party, partook in the genocide, which included putting people in re-education camps that became the concentration camps we are horrified by today. Jews were his primary target. He believed that they were insignificant and should be beaten, gassed, killed, murdered, not because they were criminals but because they did not meet his idea of the Pure Aryan Race. The similarities of what is happening to the Uigurs in China to Hitler's genocide against the Jewish people and others he saw as less than pure is alarming.  

China keeps denying the accusations against them for holding Muslims captive. They are looking more and more suspicious with each denial. There is photo evidence of Chinese militia punching, kicking, and overall treating the Uigurs in captivity in a way that violates fundamental human rights. A quote from the UN," 'China has nothing to hide on Xinjiang. Xinjiang is always open,' said Chinese diplomat Guo Jiakun. 'We welcome everyone to visit Xinjiang, but we oppose any kind of investigation based on lies and with the presumption of guilt." This quote states that they do not want anybody to know what is going on. They do not want anybody finding out the truth.

The Chinese government has maintained their behavior using lies to cover up their behavior or exaggerating what the Uigurs are arrested for. One of the lies used is that they have been trying to keep Muslims from spreading religious propaganda and spreading religious extremism. "Baqythan Myrzan, a 58-year-old state-approved imam from Hami prefecture, was also arrested for 'propagating extremism'" This quote is an example of how a man was put in cuffs and taken away for "propagating extremism." After looking at the facts, this was not the case, and he was simply targeted for being Muslim.  

China has a long history of Human Rights violations, so what they are doing to the Uigurs should not be surprising. What can be done to change China's actions against this group? Expanding UDHR and implementing it in more countries, including China, as well as getting representatives to support it in the UN would play an essential part in bringing awareness to this violation of human rights. Strong leaders who are not easily bullied by the Chinese government's denials are also needed. I believe that once we really find out what the Chinese government is doing to the Uigur population, we as a world are going to be horrified and ashamed that we did not do more to step in and stop it. I have often wondered why Hitler's concentration camps were allowed to exist for so long, but now it makes more sense if they were ignored like China's so-called re-education camps are being ignored today.