Palestinian businessman Mr. Abd al Rahman Yamak
Uyghur Times
Dec 29, 2019
Written and contributed to Uighur Times English by Fatimah Abdulghafur
In response to China’s oppression and genocide of Uighurs and locking up more than 3 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the concentration camps in Chinese occupied land of East Turkistan, more and more Muslims are standing with Uighur Muslims and taking action to show their solidarity.
Earlier this month Mr. Tahir Imin, the founder of the Uighur Times, has spoken to the TRT World about the Uighur Cultural genocide in China and the silence of the Muslim world on this issue. Mr. Imin mentioned that when it was allowed to pray in occupied East Turkistan, Uighur Muslims have prayed for the sufferings of Muslims around the world and condemned the silence of the Muslim world. Mr. Imin expressed his hope to see prayers and measures from the Muslims in the face of the Uighur genocide. The video has been watched by many thousands and Muslims around the world started raising their voices and concerns on the issue.
One such voice comes from Palestine. Mr. Abd al Rahman Yamak, a local business owner in Nablus city who works in the construction industry, decided to stop importing construction materials, such as tiles, granite, and marble, etc., from China and turned to Turkey for the import. After hearing about the Uighurs, Mr. Yamak drew a parallel between the situation in the homeland of Uighurs, Chinese occupied land East Turkistan, and the situation in Palestine under the Israeli occupation. Feeling a similar sense of injustice, Mr. Yamak was rather sad about the forced detainment and killing of the Uighur Muslims in China to change their religious identity quite like the Palestinians who are captured and jailed in Gaza strip. As a victim of oppression himself, Mr. Yamak decided to boycott the Chinese products as he described the reason behind it is “the Palestinian way of protesting the illegal Israeli settlers’ products”, which he thought he should also be doing for the Uighur Muslims in China.
Mr. Yamak told the Uighur Times that he is not against any government, people, or organization but he always stands up to the injustice afflicted upon innocent people by any government. Mr. Yamak strongly feels that it is the responsibility of a human being to stop the unjust and unfair treatment of people.
Mr. Imin commented on the news by saying “citizens like Mr. Yamak can make a difference, we started seeing hope in the Muslim World, and we will continue to raise awareness on the Uyghur genocide.”
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