{"id":3823,"date":"2017-07-13T12:36:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T12:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2017\/07\/13\/more-uyghurs-detained-cairo-students-appeal-al-azhar-help\/"},"modified":"2017-07-13T12:36:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T12:36:53","slug":"more-uyghurs-detained-cairo-students-appeal-al-azhar-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/more-uyghurs-detained-cairo-students-appeal-al-azhar-help\/","title":{"rendered":"More Uyghurs Detained in Cairo as Students Appeal to Al-Azhar For Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFP<\/span><\/p>\n

Egyptian authorities continued this week to round up and deport ethnic Uyghurs studying at Cairo\u2019s Al-Azhar Islamic University, prompting some to appeal directly to the university\u2019s senior imam for his help in preventing their forced return to China, sources said.<\/span>

More than 200 Uyghurs, many of them religious students, have been detained since July 4, rounded up in restaurants or at their homes, with others seized at airports as they tried to flee to safer countries, sources told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service in earlier reports.<\/span>

As many as 80 others may now have been seized on Wednesday, according to a July 12 report in the Middle East Monitor, citing a source in the Egyptian security service.<\/span>

The Uyghurs were arrested for \u201calleged irregularities in their residency papers,\u201d the Monitor said in its report.<\/span>

With many Uyghur students now detained or on the run, others linked to Chinese government-controlled student associations have recently appeared at meetings held in Cairo to welcome an official delegation from northwestern China\u2019s Xinjiang region, Chinese diplomatic sources say.<\/span>

\u201cBut these Uyghur students are few in number,\u201d Ilshat Hassan, president of the U.S.-based Uyghur American Association, told RFA.<\/span>

\u201cAnd they are viewed as traitors by the majority of the Uyghur students who have been targeted [for removal],\u201d Hassan said.<\/span>

‘In league with China’<\/b>

Human rights and Uyghur exile groups have condemned China for violating the rights of the Uyghurs and breaking a UN treaty forbidding forced repatriations.<\/span>

\u201cThe actions of the [Egyptian] government are in violation of international conventions against torture,\u201d Sandra Jolley, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms, told RFA in an interview.<\/span>

\u201c[These] protect individuals who will face imprisonment, torture, and death should they be deported to their homes,\u201d Jolly said.<\/span>

\u201cEgypt, a Sunni nation, is in league with China, and that is not a good sign.\u201d<\/span>

\u201cI would like to call upon the Grand Imam. We met with him earlier this year,\u201d Jolley said.<\/span>

\u201cHe has a powerful voice. He leads Al-Azhar, and he should accept some role in protecting the students who attend this very prestigious university.\u201d<\/span>

Call for protection<\/b>

In a recent letter, a group of Uyghur students living in Cairo meanwhile appealed to Dr. Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, to intervene to block further deportations to China.<\/span>

\u201cOur only sin is that we want to learn and study religion,\u201d said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Arabic-language news outlet HuffPost Arabi.<\/span>

\u201cEgypt, where Al-Azhar is built, [should be] a safe haven for those who want to learn,\u201d the letter said.<\/span>

In a July 7 statement issued after a meeting the day before with a Xinjiang delegation arranged by China’s ambassador to Egypt, Al-Azhar said that no Uyghur students had been arrested “inside Al-Azhar campus or from any buildings associated with Al-Azhar.”<\/span>

“The institution is following up with authorities in the wake of reports on social media,” Al-Azhar said.<\/span>

Speaking to an RFA reporter, an assistant to the press officer in the Egyptian embassy in Washington said she was not in a position to comment.<\/span>

\u201cI can\u2019t say anything,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFP Egyptian authorities continued this week to round up and deport ethnic Uyghurs studying at Cairo\u2019s Al-Azhar Islamic University, prompting some to appeal directly to the university\u2019s senior imam for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3823"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}