A pro-Uyghur demonstration in Hong Kong, Dec. 22, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Lucy Nicholson.

The umbrella body representing the main US Jewish advocacy groups on Tuesday added its voice to the growing revulsion among Jews worldwide at the repression of the Uyghur minority in northwestern China by the Communist regime in Beijing.

“We are appalled by the ongoing and egregious violations of human rights and religious freedom that are taking place around the world, often with tragic results,” the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations declared in a statement.

The statement continued: “It is unacceptable for any group to suffer state-sponsored discrimination for attempting to practice their faith…Recent reports about the brutal treatment and subjugation of Uyghurs are unfathomable and reprehensible.”

The Conference said it condemned “these abuses and calls on the international community to answer the desperate cries for help that are coming from the victims of religious persecution worldwide.”

According to human rights organizations, up to 1.8 million Uyghurs have been incarcerated in concentration camps during a campaign of persecution that has targeted their religious identity.

Reports from the region allege that the Chinese authorities have confiscated and destroyed Muslim religious books and forced Muslims to violate their religion by making them consume pork and alcohol.

Jewish organizations around the world have spoken out against the Chinese government’s campaign.

Last week, a former British chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, declared on Twitter: “That people in the 21st century are being murdered, terrorized, victimized, intimidated, and robbed of their liberties because of the way they worship God is a moral outrage, a political scandal, and a desecration of faith itself.”