Biden Sends Ramadan Greetings to Muslims worldwide

US President Joe Biden has sent his best wishes to the Muslims worldwide who begin the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

“Jill and I extend our best wishes to Muslim communities across the country and around the world as they begin the Islamic holy month of Ramadan — a time of fasting, renewal, charity, worship and growth,” Biden said.

“Together with our partners, the United States stands in solidarity with Muslims who continue to face oppression-including Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China, Rohingya in Burma, and other Muslim communities facing persecution around the world.”

In his message, the US president mentioned the suffering of the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria in early February, as well as the victims of the devastating floods that swept Pakistan last year.

"So today, let us join together across cultures and faiths and renew our commitment to creating a more equal, more just, more tolerant, and more compassionate nation,” the statement added. 

He concluded the statement with a message to Muslims around the world, "Ramadan Kareem, we wish you a blessed month."

Biden's message of solidarity to the Uighurs comes at a time when relations between the United States and China are experiencing increasing tensions.

Many European countries and human rights organizations accuse China of detaining at least a million people, most of them Uyghurs, in "concentration camps", and of forcibly subjecting members of this Turkic-speaking minority to sterilization and abortions and imposing "forced labour" on others.

However, Beijing denies these accusations, and asserts that the "camps" are now closed and were in fact "vocational training centers" aimed at combating religious extremism. 

 The Chinese government also denies the practice of any "forced sterilization", stressing that what it is doing is merely an implementation of the national policy to limit births.