“They shackled our hands behind us, confiscated our clothes and possessions, and beat us. And they insulted the Koran, they trod on the Koran,” he told the BBC’s Arabic service.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7491422.stm

Some Arab voices try to be heard:

“In an August 6, 2008 column in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad, Dr. ‘Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of Islamic law at the University of Qatar and prominent liberal intellectual, attacked the Arab lawyers’ unions for defending oppressors like Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Iraqi president Saddam Hussein while ignoring their victims in Darfur and Halabja.

“The excuses and justifications offered today in defense of Al-Bashir and his policies are [the same as] those offered in defense of Saddam and his escapades, all of which were in vain. They repeat the same canned excuses, such as ‘the politicization of standards of justice,’ ‘judging by a double standard,’ ‘justice biased against the Arabs,’ ’selectivity,’ and ‘the service of American schemes.’ The most recent of these accusations was expressed by one reader in Al-Ittihad, who said: ‘What kind of international justice is this, that holds [Sudan] to account for a domestic crisis in Darfur that has lasted less than five years, while continuing its policy of turning a blind eye to the most heinous crimes in Palestine, which have lasted for 50 years?’

“It is their right to defend Al-Bashir as they defended Saddam. And it is their right to demand universal international criminal standards and that they be applied in the case of anyone suspected of perpetrating similar crimes, as Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim says. But what these people always try to ignore is the victims.

“We will not be hearing the voice of the Lawyers’ Union, which mobilized to defend accused presidents, [speaking out] for the weak and the marginalized. … It is the victims of Darfur and the millions of the crushed and pulverized who are most in need of the legal support of masses of lawyers.”

“… 300,000 people were killed in Darfur, and … two million fled their homes after their villages were destroyed by the Sudan-backed Arab Janjaweed militias. Who is for them? Who is for the widows? Who is for the orphans? Who is for the displaced?

“These victims are all Muslims, and their only offense is that they are not Arab, the ethnicity of their rulers! If they find no support among those who are supposed to defend rights and help the weak, then to whom can they turn for shelter and protection? Is the international community to be accused if it intervenes to extend a helping hand?

“For five bloody years, the people of Darfur have been ruined and expelled, and the satellite television channels have broadcast horrific scenes that tormented the hearts of the world and make their consciences bleed - except for the Arab conscience, which was on vacation, and except for their [Arab] League, which remained comatose, and except for their media, which neglected to cover and broadcast the facts. ”

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD203508

“The Arab world gets inflamed over the Palestinians but never over the Uighurs. Rebiya Kadeer [the Uighur leader who lives in exile in the U.S.] has an explanation: “In their eyes we are just Asians, and foremost, we are not oppressed by either the United States or Israel, therefore they are not interested.” Whereas 12 small Danish drawings sent shockwaves, the fact that Korans are burn by Chinese officials in Xinjang (information given by Rebiya Kadeer which I have not been able to verify) doesn’t give rise to the slightest of murmurs. When Uighur dissidents seek refuge in Muslims countries, they are immediately sent back to the Chinese authorities.”

“Le monde arabe s’enflamme pour les Palestiniens, mais jamais pour les Ouïgours. Rebiya Kadeer a son explication : “A leurs yeux, nous ne sommes que des Asiatiques, et puis, surtout, nous ne sommes pas opprimés par les Etats-Unis ou Israël, alors cela ne les intéresse pas.” Alors que douze petits dessins danois peuvent mettre en émoi, le fait que des corans puissent être brûlés par des officiers chinois au Xinjiang (une information donnée par Rebiya Kadeer que je n’ai toutefois pas pu recouper) ne donne pas même lieu à une rumeur. Lorsque des dissidents ouïgours tentent de se réfugier dans des pays musulmans, ils sont immédiatement renvoyés aux autorités chinoises.”

La cause oubliée des Ouïgours, par Caroline Fourest
http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/article/2009/07/10/la-cause-oubliee-des-ouigours-par-caroline-fourest_1217513_3232.html

As for the lack of response to Chinese repression of ethnic Uighurs on the part of Muslim states, it’s pure, cynical realpolitik. No surprise there.

“Second, I am made uneasy by the single-minded focus on Israel. Surely it is unseemly for Americans to discuss boycotts of another country on the other side of the world without posing related questions about American policies and actions that are not above moral scrutiny. Nor should we fail to investigate relevantly comparable cases concerning other nations. For example, one might consider possible responses to the genocide of Muslim civilians in the Indian state of Gujarat in the year 2002, a pogrom organized by the state government, carried out by its agents, and given aid and comfort by the national government of that time (no longer in power). I am disturbed by the world’s failure to consider such relevantly similar cases. I have heard not a whisper about boycotting Indian academic institutions and individuals, and I have also, more surprisingly, heard nothing about the case in favor of an international boycott of U.S. academic institutions and individuals. I am not sure that there is anything to be said in favor of a boycott of Israeli scholars and institutions that could not be said, and possibly with stronger justification, for similar actions toward the United States and especially India and/or the state of Gujarat.”

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=811

“The outrage of so many outraged people outrages me. On the scales of world opinion, some Muslim corpses are light as a feather, and others weigh tonnes. Two measures, two weights. The daily terrorist attacks on civilians in Baghdad, killing 50 people or more, are checked off in reports under the heading of miscellaneous, while the bomb that took 28 lives in Qana is denounced as a crime against humanity. Only a few intellectuals like Bernard-Henri Lévy or Magdi Allam, chief editor of the Corriere della Sera, find this surprising. Why do the 200,000 slaughtered Muslims of Darfur not arouse even half a quarter of the fury caused by 200-times fewer dead in Lebanon? Must we deduce that Muslims killed by other Muslims don’t count - whether in the eyes of Muslim authorities or viewed through the bad conscience of the west? This conclusion has its weak spots, because if the Russian Army - Christian, and blessed by their popes - razes the capital of Chechnian Muslims (Grosny, with 400,000 residents) killing tens of thousands of children in the process, this doesn’t count either. The Security Council does not hold meeting after meeting, and the Organization of Islamic States piously averts its eyes. From that we may conclude that the world is appalled only when a Muslim is killed by Israelis.”

http://www.signandsight.com/features/894.html