Islamophobia 'unacceptable,' says Trudeau minister who abstained from vote on Muslim genocide in China

Trudeau's Minister of Infrastructure Catherine McKenna recently commented on an Islamophobic incident that took place at Century Park in Edmonton last week, calling the incident "appalling."

The incident involved a black Muslim woman wearing a hijab, whose life was threatened while waiting for a train, according to police and the The National Council of Canadian Muslims.

"This is appalling," wrote McKenna. "It is unacceptable that we continue to hear about attacks targeting Muslim women. We will stand against Islamophobia, discrimination and hatred of all kinds," the tweet said.

One instance of Islamophobia McKenna would not speak out on, however, is the mass genocide of the ethnic minority Uyghur people in China's Xinjiang region.

McKenna, along with the entirety of the Trudeau cabinet, abstained from a House of Commons vote to acknowledge the atrocity as a genocide.

According to scholar and journalist Leta Hong Fincher, the Chinese government has incentivized Uyghurs to have less children, and according to the outreach coordinator for the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project Zubayra Shamseden, the Chinese government "wants to erase Uighur culture and identity by remaking its women."

Chinese government mouthpieces such as China Daily went so far as to tweet "studies" showing that the "process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent," attempting to show the genocide in a positive light.

Opposition MPs have been quick to call out the Trudeau government on its cowardice on the issue. Yesterday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis called for "concrete action" from the Liberals.

The Chinese government has tried to hide these and other egregious crimes against the Uyghurs. However, the recently leaked Karakax list, the operating manual for detention camps exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and other leaked secret internal memos have provided an unprecedented inside look at the crackdown on the predominantly Muslim minorities of the Xinjiang region.