The Witness

Why is global outrage about the Uyghur genocide muted? Human rights advocate Nury Turkel has some ideas.

If you were looking for proof that the American dream is still alive and well, then Nury Turkel is pretty much it. The chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was born in a detention center in China’s Xinjiang region in 1970 amid the Cultural Revolution, which saw millions of people killed and millions more persecuted. Turkel’s 19-year-old mother, Ayeshe, gave birth with her lower body encased in a cast. Weeks earlier, she had fallen down the stairs of the prison because she was so weak with hunger, fracturing her hip and leg. read more