CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16th, 2026 8:00 AM EDT
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
https://campaignforuyghurs.org/

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) strongly condemns the Malaysian government’s detention and forced expulsion of Uyghur American scholar Abdulhakim Idris on March 30, 2026. This brazen targeting of an American citizen underscores Beijing’s ongoing transnational repression and sends a clear message that no border is beyond its reach.

Abdulhakim Idris, Executive Director of the Center for Uyghur Studies (CUS) and husband of Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of CFU, traveled to Malaysia on an advocacy trip and to launch the Malay-language edition of his book Menace: China’s Colonization of the Islamic World & Uyghur Genocide, along with several new reports published by the CUS. Upon arrival, he was detained by the Royal Malaysia Police, held for 21 hours without justification or adequate food or water, and forcibly escorted onto a deportation flight by four police officers. His U.S. passport was confiscated during detention. In an interview with Freedom House, Idris stated that his partner in Kuala Lumpur confirmed his denial of entry was the result of direct pressure from Beijing.

“Beijing successfully weaponized a third country to detain and expel a U.S. citizen. This poses dangerous consequences far beyond the Uyghur community,“ said Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director of CFU. “What happened to Abdulhakim in Malaysia should be a wake-up call for the international community. China is escalating its efforts to harass citizens of sovereign nations engaged in lawful advocacy. If the CCP has nothing to hide, why is it so afraid of people like Abdulhakim speaking the truth?”

Idris, one of the foremost experts on Chinese influence in Muslim-majority countries, has become a direct target of the CCP. In 2024, during an advocacy trip to Indonesia, Chinese propaganda efforts and pressure on local actors disrupted his engagements, including immigration officials appearing at events to question his visa status. In 2025, he was detained at the airport in Indonesia for three hours before the U.S. government intervened to secure his entry.

24 of Idris’s family members are missing since 2017, and in August 2023, he learned, seven months after the fact, that his father had passed away. The last time he heard his father’s voice was in April 2017. Idris has also faced death threats and staged protests at previous book launch events.

Rushan Abbas’s sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, has been imprisoned since September 2018 on sham charges. She was taken by the CCP just days after Rushan’s public speech at the Hudson Institute. Now entering her eighth year of unjust detention, concerns for her health continue to grow, as she suffers from serious medical conditions. These cases reflects a documented and escalating pattern of China’s transnational repression targeting Uyghur scholars, advocates, and dissidents abroad.

CFU calls on the international community, including governments, human rights bodies, and civil society organizations, to formally recognize and condemn the CCP’s human rights abuses. The detention of Abdulhakim Idris underscores that no advocate, journalist, or researcher is beyond Beijing’s reach. Silence in the face of this escalation only emboldens further abuse. The international community must confront the ongoing Uyghur genocide and stand with those who continue to expose China’s crimes, including by enacting legislation to counter transnational repression and defend human rights and national sovereignty.