In John Patkin’s opinion piece discussing the unpreparedness of Hong Kong police in dealing with civil protests (“ Have Hong Kong’s leaders been ‘too simple, too naive’ during the protests? ”, December 26), I was alarmed by a throwaway argument he uses. Patkin notes that the protests have revealed a security loophole in detecting foreign collaborations. At first, I thought this was in line with China’s accusations of foreign influences such as the CIA or Taiwan. However, the only example he gives is “returning Uygurs who fought with Islamic State and appear to have a common enemy in the Chinese government”. I found this example highly offensive and irresponsible. Patkin links the local democracy protests with Uygurs, Muslims and Isis without any evidence, and it strikes me as Islamophobia. On this bright & fine Sunday, hundreds of ppl have gathered at Edinburgh Place in Central to call for support for Uighurs in Xinjiang, expressing fear that Hong Kong will soon face similar oppression if Beijing tightens its grip on the city. #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/zAjc663UDv — Frances Sit (@frances_sit) December 22, 2019 First of all, the only overt linkage between the Hong Kong protests and Uygurs has been a vocal support and solidarity from protesters against Chinese oppression in the Xinjiang region, and the mass “re-education” camps the Uygurs have been confined to. Secondly, to portray the oppressed Uygurs as aggressors and terrorists seems highly irresponsible, and falls in line with the rhetoric China uses to justify the extensive control, oppression and imprisonment of these minorities. Thirdly, the link between Uygurs and Islamic State seems to be that they are both broadly Muslim groups. It took a deep dive of the (non-China state) news to even find brief mentions of any Chinese Muslims joining Isis in Syria and Iraq. To just casually link democracy protests with Islamic State terrorism is bafflingly Islamophobic: using Muslims to scare readers. I am alarmed that such a deeply offensive, unfair and unfounded accusation can be tossed off lightly as an aside. These insinuations are cruel and reprehensible to the Uygurs and Muslims. Kin-man Yu, Wan Chai