China bars Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang from observing Ramzan fast, puts them under surveillance system
The Uyghur Muslims in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang have been asked not to allow their children to fast during the holy month of Ramzan, while their children are being quizzed by the Chinese authorities over whether their parents are fasting or not, according to local officials and rights groups.
The first daily fast of the Islamic holy month of Ramzan began on March 23, as hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide enter a four-week period of worship.
However, Muslims in China are facing “fasting bans and their cultural and religious traditions are increasingly under attack,” Radio Free Asia reported.
“During Ramzan, the authorities are requiring 1,811 villages (in Xinjiang) to implement a round-the-clock monitoring system, including spot home inspections of Uyghur families,” the report quoted World Uyghur Congress spokesperson Dilshat Rishit as saying.
It further stated that local rights groups have warned that China’s 11.4 million Hui Muslims are in danger of being erased entirely under the Communist Party’s harsh religious rules.
The report has been prepared by a coalition of rights groups, including the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. It states that they have been identified by China as “a threat to be resolved through forcible assimilation”.
‘Islamophobic rhetoric’
While the situation was not the same earlier, the report stated that whatever is happening today is in stark contrast to the relative freedoms they enjoyed before “Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a renewed attack on religious worship, forcing Christians, Muslims and Buddhists alike to submit to party control and censorship of their religious lives under his ‘sinicization’ program”.
It added, “Hui community members were able to openly participate in mosque communities, Arabic schools, and private worship, albeit under restrictions facilitated by party liaisons. Hui entrepreneurs were encouraged to develop business and tourism connections with the wider Muslim world as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.”
However, ever since Xi Jinping took charge, the religious affairs have been “influenced by Islamophobic rhetoric that has pervaded global counterterrorism discourse,” making them targets of a “counterterrorism” campaign in Xinjiang, with more than 100,000 Hui sent to “re-education” camps alongside Uyghurs, Radio Free Asia reported.
US stands in ‘solidarity’ with Muslims
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden recently said that the country supports Muslim communities suffering hardship and oppression. “Today especially, we remember the universal human right to practice, pray, and preach our faiths peacefully and openly,” Biden said in a statement marking the start of Ramzan.
He added, “The United States stands in solidarity with Muslims who continue to face oppression – including Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China, Rohingya in Burma, and other Muslim communities facing persecution around the world”.
China ‘treats its own culture as supreme’
Welcoming US President Joe Biden’s statement on Ramzan, Turghunjan Alawudin, who chairs the religious committee at the World Uyghur Congress, said, “We can see from these congratulations that religious belief is deeply respected in democratic nations”.
He noted that “China neither respects the culture nor tolerates the religious beliefs of other peoples but treats its own culture as supreme.”
“Instead of congratulating Muslims for the arrival of Ramadan, China continues to restrict the Muslims from fasting and praying,” added Alawudin.
Further targeting the Xi Jinping government, the official stated, “China has exhibited extreme hostility towards the religious beliefs and fine traditions of Uyghurs by further restricting all aspects of Uyghur national and religious holidays. China continues its ongoing genocide against the Uyghur Muslims in its attempt to erase them”.
(With inputs from agencies)
