Stand with the Uyghurs

STAND WITH THE UYGHURS

As the world is watching the Olympic event in China, we want to bring awareness, deep listening, advocacy, and solidarity to stand with our Uyghur neighbors.

Join us on Sunday, February 20, 2022 during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics to hear stories from the Uyghurs, share a meal, and learn how we can advocate for human dignity.

Listening Event - February 20, 2022 at 5pm - Holy Trinity Edmonds, 657 Daley St, Edmonds WA 98020 Potluck meal - bring a dish to share.

For more information, contact The Practicing Church at www.thepracticingchurch.org or 425-770-6265.

As the 2022 Bejing Olympics began this past week, we are aware of the atrocities that are currently being whitewashed by much of the world. The Uyghurs, an ethnic and predominantly Muslim minority, are victims of a genocide perpetrated by the Chinese regime for their cultural and ethnic identity; and yet the International Olympic Committee has failed to acknowledge these horrific human rights abuses.

Bill and Julie Clark, members of The Practicing Church in Shoreline and Northwest Directors for Peace Catalyst International, have been advocating for justice for the Uyghurs over the past four years. In 2017, the Uyghur diaspora began to notice their relatives in China asking to limit their phone and texting communication, and, finally, stop altogether. The Clarks were greatly distressed to hear credible reports that the Chinese government was interning citizens in (what the government calls) “reeducation” camps.

As many as a million people have been detained in 300 to 400 facilities in Xinjiang province, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, including “political education” camps (part of a 70-year program of forced cultural assimilation), pretrial detention centers, and prisons. 

Detainees are subjected to torture, cultural and political indoctrination, and forced labor. The U.S. Holocaust Museum says this state-sponsored violence meets the threshold for genocide and crimes against humanity. Friends, family, and colleagues have disappeared.

A recent CNN article states, “The Chinese government's alleged actions in Xinjiang have violated every single provision in the United Nations' Genocide Convention, according to an independent report by more than 50 global experts in international law, genocide, and the China region.