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China Restrictions Stifle Uighurs’ Ramadan

OnIslam, 16 July 2013

BEIJING – Restricting the entry of Uighur Muslims to mosques and interfering with their requisite daytime fasting, Chinese restrictions during the holy month of Ramadan are inviting the outrage of human rights groups.

“Launched in the name of stability and security, Beijing’s campaigns of repression against Uighur Muslims include the targeting of peaceful private gatherings for religious study and devotion,” Dr Katrina Lantos Swett, of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), was quoted as saying by The Muslim Village on Monday, July 15.

“These abuses predictably have led to neither stability nor security, but rather instability and insecurity.”

Ahead of the start of Ramadan, Chinese authorities have imposed restrictions on Muslim prayers at mosques and interfered with their requisite daytime fasting.

According to World Uighur Congress spokesman Dilxadi Rexiti, the government officials have repeatedly entered Uighur homes to provide them with fruit and drinks during daylight hours to force them to break their Ramadan fast.

Rexiti accused the authorities of banning organized study of religious texts and placed religious venues under close watch, including an “around-the-clock” monitoring of mosques in the northern city of Karamay, the Karamay Daily reported.

The worrying restrictions were confirmed in the USCIRF’s annual report which said many Uighur Muslims served prison terms for engaging in independent religious activity.

Government employees, professors and students were also fined if they observe the fast.

Another report by the Washington-based Uighur American Association (UAA) in April cited a Muslim restaurant owner from Hotan as saying that any restaurant closing, even for repairs, during the holy fasting month, is fined.

“The extremely aggressive and intrusive religious restrictions even into the private lives of Uighurs by the Chinese state will only further provoke the anger of the Uighur people,” UAA president Alim Seytoff said.

“Violence may erupt again due to such systematic repressive measures.”

Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, started last Wednesday, July 10.

In Ramadan, adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

The sick and those traveling are exempt from fasting especially if it poses health risks.

Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds.

Identity Struggle

Struggling with the Chinese government to guarantee religious freedoms, Islamic practices were becoming a symbol of Uighur identity.

“These measures will only solidify the distance between the ethnicities in Xinjiang,” Dr Reza Hasmath, an Oxford researcher with a focus on China’s ethnic minorities, said.

Other experts warn that the situation in Xinjiang is more than a localized security issue.

“China needs to manage its minorities better,” said Ronan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

“At this point, threats to the government comes primarily from its ethnicities.”

By cracking down repeatedly on Uighur Muslim identity, China has entered a “vicious circle” that only created more resentment.

“Over the past few weeks, the central leadership has had only one idea – to use as much security as possible,” said Kerry Brown, director of Sydney University’s China Studies Centre.

“And it’s a very questionable strategy.

“The government has a paranoid mindset, but this is a real problem that has nothing to do with outsiders,” he said.

These measures were actually threatening mass uprising with potential to spill over on a regional, or even national, level.

“China could explode anywhere, but Xinjiang is at the forefront,” said Brown.

“It’s the perfect storm.”

Uighur Muslims are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

Xinjiang, which activists call East Turkestan, has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of massive security crackdowns by Chinese authorities.

Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of religious repression against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang in the name of counter terrorism.

Muslims accuse the government of settling millions of ethnic Han in their territory with the ultimate goal of obliterating its identity and culture.

Analysts say the policy of transferring Han Chinese to Xinjiang to consolidate Beijing’s authority has increased the proportion of Han in the region from five percent in the 1940s to more than 40 percent now.
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