Chinese-Indonesians call on Muslim nations to help Uighur
Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 07/09/2009 10:28 PM
The Indonesian Chinese Muslim Association (PITI) has criticized China’s brutality against the Uighur Muslim minority, and regretted the silence of Muslim nations regarding the group’s decades of suffering discrimination and persecution.
“The Chinese Muslims are on the periphery [of the Muslim world]. They have long been persecuted, but they are neglected,” PITI spokesman Steven Indra Wijaya told The Jakarta Post.
“We are calling on all Muslims to cast aside their [ethnic] identities and help the Uighurs.”
More than 150 people were killed in the recent rioting and ethnic clashes involving Han Chinese and Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. The riots broke out after thousands of Uighurs rallied to protest the killing of two fellow Uighurs at a factory in Guangdong.
Tifatul Sembiring, chairman of the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), condemned the violence.
“As part of an international community, China has to stop all actions that lead to rights violations.,” he said.
“China can no longer act arbitrarily against its people who happen to embrace different faiths … [We] demand the Chinese government take action against those responsible for the killing.”
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