Published 17:08 IST, December 15th 2019
Chinese TV pulls Arsenal match after star player Mesut Ozil's comments
Mesut Ozil's comments on atrocities committed by China on Uighurs have put Arsenal in a spot and the club is trying to avoid the situation from getting worse.
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fallback of Mesut Ozil's comments on atrocities suffered by Muslims in China have started to surface, with reports stating that China's State-run channel, China Central Television (CCTV) has decided to t broadcast Arsenal's match against Manchester City on Sunday evening.
According to reports, channel will instead broadcast a prerecorded match of Tottenham Hotspurs against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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Bubbling controversy
On December 13, Mesut Ozil, Arsenal's highest earner and star player posted a mess on his social media handles speaking about atrocities committed by China on Uighurs in Xinjiang and how Muslim countries have t done eugh to speak up.
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post on his social media read, "East Turkistan, bleeding wound of Ummah, resisting against persecutors trying to separate m from ir religion. y burn ir Qurans. y shut down ir mosques. y ban ir schools. y kill ir holy men. men are forced into camps and ir families are forced to live with Chinese men. women are forced to marry Chinese men. But Muslims are silent. y won’t make a ise. y have abandoned m. Don’t y kw that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”
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British football club, in order to avoid a fallout similar to NBA-China fallout, immediately released a statement on Chinese social media website Weibo to distance club from comments made by Ozil. As per reports in Britsh press, statement read, "Regarding comments made by Mesut Özil on social media, Arsenal must make a clear statement. content published is Özil’s personal opinion. As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to principle of t involving itself in politics."
China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang aimed at homogenising Uighur population to reflect China's majority Han culture. Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and people of or mostly Muslim ethnic mirities have been rounded up in camps in tightly-controlled region.
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15:55 IST, December 15th 2019