British soccer club Arsenal issued a statement Saturday distancing itself from a statement made by its Turkish-origin German star Mesut Özil on social media criticizing China’s systematic abuse of the country’s Uyghur Muslim minority.
The club released a statement on Weibo, a widely popular Chinese social media site, as well as other platforms in which it distanced itself from Özil’s views.
“Regarding the comments made by Mesut Özil on social media, Arsenal must make a clear statement,” it read. “The content published is Özil’s personal opinion. As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.”
On Friday, Özil had shared a heartfelt tweet asking “where are Muslims?”, in which he lamented the lack of outrage in the Muslims world toward the oppression faced by Uyghur minority in East Turkestan.
The tweet, which contained a Muslim Friday greeting and moving words written over a backdrop of the Uyghur flag, lamented the lack of unity among the Muslim Ummah towards the plight of Uyghurs who face persecution and torture at the hands of the Beijing government.
The player wondered why Western media seemed more concerned with what was going on in East Turkestan than publications and channels across the Muslim world that opted to remain silent.
Özil quoted the words of Imam Ali, saying that if one can’t stop injustice, then at least one must spread the word about it.
The star also called for more unity among Muslims and to stand up to China’s assimilation policy and so-called “reeducation camps” for Uyghurs.
Many refer to China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region -- home to many ethnic minorities, including the Turkic Uyghur people -- as East Turkestan.
Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group that make up 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang, accuse China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious, commercial and cultural activities.
As many as 1 million people, or about 7 percent of Xinjiang’s Muslim population, have been incarcerated in a sprawling network of "political re-education" camps, according to U.S. and UN studies. Beijing says that its camps in Xinjiang are "vocational training centers.”
Last September, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Beijing of a "systematic campaign of human rights violations" against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
