This archive report was first published on 14 December 2019.
On Saturday, Arsenal Football Club attempted to distance itself from comments made by its star midfielder Mesut Ozil on Twitter and Instagram, which criticized China's policies towards its Muslim Uighur minority.
According to Arsenal's official Weibo account, the club adheres to a principle of not being involved in politics, and Ozil's comments were his personal opinion.
Ozil's posts called Uighurs 'warriors who resist persecution' and criticized both China's crackdown and the silence of Muslims in response.
He stated, 'Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one. Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet.'
Replies to Arsenal's Weibo post were angry, with some demanding Ozil be expelled from the club.
China has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of Uighurs, despite estimates from the United Nations and human rights groups that between 1 million and 2 million people, mostly ethnic Uighur Muslims, have been detained in harsh conditions in Xinjiang.
