O you who believe! Take not as (your) Bitanah (advisors, consultants, protectors, helpers, friends) those outside your religion (pagans, Jews, Christians, and hypocrites) since they will not fail to do their best to corrupt you. They desire to harm you severely. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, but what their breasts conceal is far worse. Indeed We have made plain to you the Ayat (proofs, evidence, verses) if you understand.
( ???? ?? ????? , Aal-e-Imran, Chapter #3, Verse #118)

it seems to me that if muslims want to remain backwards and ignorant, the kuffar would not care. but there seems to be an insistence from the kuffar that muslims accept evolution

why?

to weaken the muslim mind in accepting Allah as the creator, thats why

to make muslims beholden to the kuffar for knowledge and science, thereby maintaining kuffar dominance over the minds of the muslims

if we have to turn to them for guidance, whether defining human rights, or human origins, they will do nothing but corrupt your deen