Letter to the Editor
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Dear Editor:
Today’s piece by Peter Worthington about why the Canadian government should even care about the life of Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil is quite disturbing. Worthington argues that it is hard to see why the government should “feel responsible for Mr. Celil since his “allegiance appears to be elsewhere. In his article he implies, without any evidence, that Mr. Celil’s allegiance is not with Canada. His sweeping generalizations and quick jump to conclusions set a dangerous precedent with regard to the safety and release of any Canadian citizen held in an authoritarian country like China, if such a person’s allegiance is somehow questionable. Today, Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil’s life is at stake. And all Worthington is saying in his “curious article is, "Why should Canada care about him?"
Good question! But the better question to ask is, why shouldn’t Canada care about Mr. Celil being held by China? Canada is a constitutional democracy. The Canadian government has a constitutional duty to protect its citizens when they are held abroad without clear justification. If a government does not care about the welfare of its citizens held abroad, then how can it expect its citizens to have allegiance to it? The Canadian government should care deeply when a despotic country like China holds Mr. Celil by openly violating international law and denying consular access to Canadian officials for months.
But according to Worthington, Mr. Celil’s allegiance is not to Canada, because “he was up to something questionable in Uzbekistan... He asks “why should Canada give refuge to those with no allegiance to Canada who are bent on clandestine activities in other countries? Mr. Celil traveled to Uzbekistan with his wife to visit her parents. He did not get involved in anything questionable or take part in any clandestine activities there. He only believed that as a Canadian citizen, it was safe for him to travel to Uzbekistan. His only mistake was that he didn’t know that China could disregard all international laws under the sun when it came to hunting down and punishing Uyghur dissidents who have peacefully voiced their opposition to the half century-long repressive Chinese rule in their homeland of East Turkistan (aka: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).
Maybe for Worthington, China is right in persecuting the Uyghur people, and those Uyghurs who oppose such persecution are wrong and do not even deserve protection even after they become citizens of democratic states like Canada, especially when their life is at stake. Maybe the life and legitimately-acquired citizenship of Mr. Celil, as a Muslim imam and a non-native born Canadian, are not equal in worth to those of Worthington. Maybe Mr. Celil’s fault was that he didn’t prove his allegiance to Canada by forgetting the persecution of his people by the Chinese government, and by continuing to care about their lack of freedom. Maybe his fault was that he didn’t prove his allegiance by cutting all ties to his parents, family, relatives, friends, religion, culture, language, tradition and homeland. Absent all of these "faults", Worthington may then be satisfied of Mr. Celil's allegiance to Canada. The factual mistakes of his piece aside, Worthington simply does not have an accurate understanding of why a man like Mr. Celil spent prison time in China for his peaceful religious activity, and then fled to Turkey, was sentenced to death in absentia for a crime that took place in a country in which he was not present, and finally came to Canada, a country that gave him hope and freedom.
In fact, by providing refuge and care and carrying out its duties toward its citizens, especially in cases like those of Mr. Celil, the Canadian government will earn the respect and praise of not only those Uyghurs who are living in Canada, but all immigrants who came to your great country. They will then feel a strong allegiance to the country that gave them refuge, care, and protection when their life was at stake in those despotic countries from which they fled. The greatness of a democratic country like Canada lies not in its expectation of absolute allegiance from its immigrant population, which is unrealistic, but its unequivocal embrace of them all without regard to their race, religion or national origin. For that is what makes Canada, as well as the United States, a powerful multicultural and multi-ethnic country.
Alim A. Seytoff
General Secretary
Uyghur American Association
1700 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-321-2388
Fax: 202-349-1491
Email: aseytoff@uyghuramerican.org