Bermuda's acceptance of four Chinese Muslim refugees sends a message to the world that locking them up in Guantánamo Bay was a grave mistake, according to an American expert on Uighurs.

Professor Sean Roberts said the Chinese government punished Uighurs after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in a 'quid pro quo' arrangement with the United States following a gross exaggeration of the ethnic group's connections with terrorism. Prof. Roberts had hoped the men would be relocated in the States after their release on acceptance of their innocence. However, he said that was thwarted with congressional opposition based on ignorance and political motivation.

He told The Royal Gazette: "For the last 250 years there's been a lot of tension between Uighurs and China. Culturally, they are quite a bit different. The biggest issue is that after 9/11 the US recognised a very little known group of them in Afghanistan as being a terrorist group.

"There was speculation that in 2002 there was a quid pro quo arrangement to get China to support the US global war on terror. My research shows that group probably assisted for a very brief time, and it was a handful of people. But they didn't accomplish anything and the whole thing was something of a ruse.

"I wouldn't say it categorically didn't exist, but it was really exaggerated and these people suffered from the accusation against them.

"Not only did they suffer from it, but the Uighurs in China generally suffered from it as the Chinese government has increasingly cracked down on Uighurs in north west China, with limitations on freedom of speech and their religious rights. The government was able to do this in the name of a war on terror. Whoever does give refuge to these people is doing something important by sending a message that there was a grave mistake and we have to get over some of these stereotypes that have developed about Muslims in the world.

"I was shocked when I heard there was a lot of opposition in congress to allowing them into the US. It was probably a combination of political motivation and ignorance. I was very hopeful that the US would let these people in the States. It would have been a way of saying: we made a mistake and can acknowledge that and try to make up for it.

"The main thing about these people is: why did the US end up putting them in Guantánamo to begin with after a review by the Pentagon came to a conclusion that they are not guilty?"

Prof. Roberts said he found Abdulla Abdulqadir, Salahidin Abdulahad, Ablikim Turahun and Khalil Mamut's claim that they had never heard of al Qaeda before 9/11 "completely believable".

"It's feasible they may have been briefly in some kind of training camp. If they were in some sort of camp — the idea they were going to train for war against the Chinese — it would not have been what you would think of in terms of al Qaeda," he said.

Prof. Roberts said many countries had turned down requests to take refugees because of the consequences of upsetting China. "The Chinese essentially blacklist people for their opinions," he said. "China is saying these people are enemies. By giving them political refuge, a country is basically saying: you are wrong.

"China have a lot of influence over a lot of issues. Most of these countries do not want to have the kind of negative consequences that something like this might create. Not a whole lot of good is going to come out of it in that respect, although it's the humane thing to do."

Premier Ewart Brown has previously announced plans to open a tourism office in China.

Asked if accepting the Chinese Muslims could jeopardise that proposal, Prof. Roberts said: "I don't know if it would hinder something like that, but what's often happened is that once China has developed a strong economic relationship with a country, it's been known to put pressure on that country.

"For example, Albania took five Uighurs in 2006. Apparently when the President of Albania visited China they did bring it up. They asked Albania if they would extradite them. But if China is interested in a country for whatever reason they wouldn't ruin their relationship for the sake of four or five refugees."

Prof. Roberts is an associate professor in the Practice of International Affairs at George Washington University and has spent years researching Uighur communities in Central Asia and China.

Today, he is due to testify on the subject before the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He offered some background on the Uighur culture, which he described as a tapestry from various periods.

He said: "They are Muslims now but they have a long history before that — they were a Christian community at one point.

"Influences from different civilisations come together to make up their culture; they have a long history of literature and art and in particular they are very proud of their musical traditions. They have a tradition of joke telling that tells you a lot about their temperament. It always reminds me of something in the African-American community; they laugh and joke about each other."

While pointing out their homeland is as far from an ocean as it's physically possible to be, he said they should be able to integrate fairly easily in Bermuda.