Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: January 30, 2021
‘This is why it is crucial for the voices of faith to be heard, proclaiming with clarity that they are not trying to defend any partial or exclusive vision but are speaking, protesting and praying for the good of all. That is why we are here today.’
The Rt Hon and Rt Rev Rowan Williams
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, shared these words at an event co-hosted by CSW this week, ‘Together for Uyghurs – a Holocaust memorial event’. The event gathered those of different faiths and beliefs to share.
Who are the Uyghur people?
Uyghurs are a mainly Muslim people living in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Chinese government has imprisoned between one and three million men and women in ‘re-education camps’ where they face torture, slave labour and forced sterilisation. Thousands of mosques have been demolished, along with hundreds of Muslim graveyards and shrines, as the Chinese government seeks to erase the Uyghur culture.
We’re more effective together
In the face of oppression on such a vast scale, we can only hope to prevail by joining together and acting from a place of shared purpose.
For example, CSW is part of a coalition of over 330 organisations working against Uyghur forced labour. As well as praying, you can also take action by adding your voice to CSW’s campaign.
In summary, please pray:
- For comfort for the hundreds of thousands of Uyghur families who have been torn apart, with parents sent to re-education camps and children sent to state orphanages.
- For the success of CSW’s campaign against Uyghur forced labour.
- Thanking God for the growing number of governments speaking out against the actions of the Chinese government – for example, the US recently imposed sanctions on products from the Uyghur region.