Xinjiang Court Sentences 22 to Prison for Illegal Religious Preaching
The Wall Street Journal, 11 November 2014
By William Kazer – BEIJING – A court in China’s far western region of Xinjiang sentenced 22 people to prison terms for illegal religious activities and other crimes, according to state media, in the latest sign of official unease over Muslim extremism there.
The sentences ranged from five to 16 years for a variety of crimes that included illegal religious activities and inciting ethnic hatred, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday. The People’s Court of Kashgar handed down the sentences on Monday, Xinhua said.
The website of the official China News Service posted a photograph that appeared to show the defendants standing under a banner that read “Strike Hard Campaign Against Terrorist Crimes” in the religious sphere. The Kashgar government couldn’t be reached for comment, but the city of Yili—also in the restive Xinjiang region—cited the China News Service report on its official Weibo social-media account.
The reports didn’t give the names of any of the defendants. China News Service said that they included “underground imams” or those who hadn’t been officially appointed to local mosques as well as those who continued to preach after being removed from their positions. In China, religious leaders must get official approval.
They added that some had used “superstitious beliefs” to break the law while others were guilty of “inciting quarrels,” a catchall crime that can cover a wide range of what is seen as antistate behavior. Xinhua said the crimes also included rape.
China has battled a sporadically violent separatist movement by some members of the Turkic-speaking and mainly Muslim ethnic group known as the Uighurs in the Xinjiang region.
Separatist activity has intensified in recent years. Xinhua quoted Kashgar Mayor Enwaer Tursun as saying that Xinjiang had been plagued by religious extremism, which had disrupted the social order and fed the ideology of terrorism.
Chinese officials have blamed Uighur activists for a spate of attacks both outside and inside Xinjiang. Last month a Chinese court sentenced 12 people to death and dozens more to lesser sentences for attacks on government buildings and vehicles that killed 37 people in the western border region of Xinjiang.
Another court handed a life sentence to a prominent Uighur scholar, Ilham Tohti, in September after convicting him on separatism charges. Mr. Tohti has been a fierce critic of Beijing’s ethnic policies but was seen by many rights activists as a moderate voice for China’s Uighur minority.