The video will start in 8 Cancel

Sign up to FREE email alerts from Mirror - Arsenal FC Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Arsenal have issued a statement distancing themselves from comments made by Mesut Ozil in which he criticised other Muslims for staying 'silent' on the persecution of the Uighurs in China.

Ozil took to social media to add his voice to the wave of international outrage about the treatment of the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority, in the north-western region of Xinjiang.

The Uighur population in the region has been subjected to a campaign of religious and ethnic persecution by the Chinese authorities, with claims that more than a million have been held in detention camps.

After Ozil spoke out on the issue on Instagram , there quickly followed a statement from Arsenal stressing that the club did not associate itself with the player's comments and sought to remain apolitical.

Ozil's message on Instagram read: “East Turkistan, the bleeding wound of the Ummah, resisting against the persecutors trying to separate them from their religion.

(Image: Getty Images)

"They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men."

"The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men. The women are forced to marry Chinese men.

“But Muslims are silent. They won’t make a noise. They have abandoned them. Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”

Arsenal have numerous business interests in China, including a chain of restaurants, and sought to limit any damage to its business by posting a statement on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

(Image: BBC)

“Regarding the comments made by Mesut Özil on social media, Arsenal must make a clear statement,” it read.

“The content published is Özil’s personal opinion. As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.”

Ozil was the second Arsenal player in as many days to air his political views on social media.

On Thursday, the day of the general election in the UK, Hector Bellerin tweeted: “Young people across the world have a chance to change what the future can be. Today’s the chance for all the British people to influence what your future and those living here holds. #F**kBoris #GoVote.”

Arsenal did not issue a statement in response to Bellerin's tweet.