WORLD NEWS DECEMBER 14, 2019 / 4:43 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Arsenal distances itself from midfielder Ozil's comments on China, Uighurs

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - English soccer club Arsenal tried on Saturday to distance itself from the comments of its star midfielder Mesut Ozil after he posted messages on Twitter and Instagram critical of China’s policies toward its Muslim Uighur minority.

“The content he expressed is entirely Ozil’s personal opinion,” the official account of Arsenal Football Club said in a post on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform. “As a football club, Arsenal always adheres to the principle of not being involved in politics.”

Ozil’s posts called Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution” and criticized both China’s crackdown and the silence of Muslims in response.

“(In China) 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,” Ozil, who is a Muslim, said in his posts.

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