88-year-old Uyghur scholar, Sheikh Abdul Ahad Mehsum was killed in a Chinese concentration camp in 2017.
Sheikh Abdul Ahad Mehsum was born in 1930 in Karakash County, East Turkestan and was a prominent Uyghur religious scholar and a well-respected figure in the Uyghur community. His father, Sheikh Barat Akhun was killed in Chinese police custody in 1937.
From 1950 to 1958, Sheikh Mehsum studied Islam in Kashgar and after finishing his studies, returned to Hotan to teach. Six months after his return he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in a Chinese labour camp.
After being released in 1974 and despite being forced underground, he continued teach Islam, though was arrested again in 1979 along with around 1,000 Islamic Scholars and was released after one year.
In 2001, he was re-arrested along with his son and was released after two months, but was officially banned from speaking in public.
In January 2004, he was arrested for the fourth time and served a five year sentence for teaching Islam, after which he spent the rest of his life under house arrest, until he was finally arrested by police at the beginning of November 2017 and sent to a concentration camp along with other family members.
The Chinese authorities deliberately delayed the news of his death for 6 months.
Despite being imprisoned and tortured many times, Sheikh Abdul Ahad Mehsum rahimuAllah remained steadfast and continued to preach and teach #Islam.
May Allah grant him Jannatul Firdous, Ameen!
#Stand4Uyghurs
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