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Weekly Brief May 11th

Weekly Brief May 11th

World Uyghur Congress, 11 May 2018

China Escalates Religious Persecution of Uyghurs Before Ramadan

As Uyghur Muslims prepare for the start of Ramadan next week, the Chinese government has been cracking down on freedom of religion, punishing Uyghurs for educating their children about religion & imprisoning those who share religious material on their phones.

It was reported this week by Radio Free Asia that a prominent Uyghur Imam was arrested an sentenced to 5 years in prison for taking his child to an unsanctioned religious school to meet other children. The younger generation in particular has been targeted and are not allowed to enter mosques or receive religious instructions from their parents. The Chinese government is trying to erode any religious sentiments among Uyghur children to ensure that future generations of Uyghurs have no ties to religion.

It was also reported this week that 11 Uyghurs have been arrested and detained for allegedly sharing ‘extremist’ content online. As is typical in these cases, the Chinese authorities have not specified the nature of this ‘extremist’ content. Restrictive legislation has given the Chinese authorities to label virtually any religious material as ‘extremist’ and Chinese police have used this to arrest and punish Uyghurs for peacefully practicing their religion.

Starting next Tuesday, the WUC will highlight the religious persecution of Uyghurs, by highlighting a different violation against the Uyghur people’s right to freedom of religion on each day of Ramadan.

Number of Uyghurs in Arbitrary Detention Swells, As Chinese Police Send More to Camps

The mass arbitrarily detention of Uyghurs in East Turkistan continues to increase as new reports come out each week of additional people who have been seized and detained in large detention camps (called ‘re-education’ camps by Chinese officials, but which function more like indoctrination camps or concentration camps).

This week it was reported that a 67 year old Uyghur man, Obulkasim Haji, who owned the Kasir Hotel in Kashgar and is father of five, was sent by Chinese police to a camp after being taken from the hospital in December 2017, where he was receiving medical treatment. It is unclear why he was specifically targeted, but is consistent with the Chinese government’s general policy of arresting and detaining Uyghurs who are prominent in the community.

WUC President Dolkun Isa was also interviewed by Sydney Criminal Lawyers for an article about the arbitrary detention of 1 million Uyghurs. Mr. Isa spoke about the nature of these camps and the impact on the Uyghur community. He discussed the WUC’s efforts to push for the international community to demand the release of all Uyghurs held in arbitrary detention, especially the recent ‘Uyghur March for Freedom’ held in Brussels on April 27th. Finally, another excellent article about the camps was published by the National Review, which describes the gravity of the situation and the deep concern that the situation could still get worse.