According to Daily Mail,
China has taken its crackdown on the ethnic Muslims of its border province of
Xinjiang to a whole new level, targeting now even the personal religious space
in the intimacy of their houses. The Xinjiang region, China's westernmost
province that borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, is home to some 11
million Uighur Muslims and other small groups of ethnic Muslims among Tajik,
Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Mongolian communities.
The Chinese authorities of
the province are forcing the Muslims to handover the copies of Quran, Islam's
central religious text, and any other related religious symbol the Daily Mail
report says.
What is more disturbing is
the fact that the order also includes to surrender even the prayer mats that
are used to offer Namaaz (prayer). The warnings are being issued in
neighbourhoods, in mosques and through social media platforms like WeChat and
non-compliance means harsh punishment.
Chinese authorities of the
region earlier this year started a campaign 'Three Illegals and One Item' to
confiscate illegal religious items. Quran copies more than five year old were
being seized as authorities blamed them of having extremist content. And now
this new order means a blanket ban on all Koran copies.
"Officials at village,
township and county level are confiscating all Quran and the special mats used
for Namaaz", the Radio Free Asia (RFA) wrote on which the Daily Mail
report based.
Dilxat Raxit, World Uighur
Congress' spokesman, told RFA that "reports have emerged from Kashgar,
Hotan and other regions of similar practices starting last week that every
single ethnic Uighur must hand in to authorities any Islam-related items from
their own home, including Qurans, prayer mats and anything else bearing the
symbols of religion otherwise there will be harsh punishment."
China has already banned its
civil servants in the region from taking part in religious activities, even if
it means fasting during Ramadan, a ban that was extended to students as well.
Muslim attire like veils and religious symbols like keeping beard are already
banned and authorities regularly come up with lists of overly religious and splittist
Muslim names for newborns to be banned.
In April this year,
authorities came up with a “List of Banned Ethnic Minority Names” that asked
the Muslim parents to desist from choosing names like Muhammad, Medina, Mecca,
Islam, Quran, Imam, Hajj, Jihad, Arafat and Mujahid. The directive banned over
two dozen such names which could be used to fan religious and divisive agenda.
The list further expanded the
one notified in 2015 which banned names like Saddam, Hussein, Laden, Fatima,
Amanet, Muslime among others. The directive didn’t stop at naming the newborns
only. It further said, “If your family has circumstances like this, you should
change your child’s name.”
The authorities at that time
had issued a warning that the Muslim families not complying with this directive
would not get ‘hukou’, the registration of their households that gives them
access to state benefits of childcare, health, education and employment.
Xinjiang, China’s
North-western province, that is also known as Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region, borders eight countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. It
came on the radar of the Chinese authorities, especially after the widespread
riots in its capital city Urumqi in July 2009 between the Uighur Muslims and
Han Chinese that saw around 200 dead and some 2000 injured. Ethnic Han Chinese
are around 40 percent of Xinxiang’s population.
China considers Islamic
terrorism emanating from Xinjiang destructive enough to become a full blown
separatist movement and does all to curb its spread, especially after reports
that the Islamic State (ISIS) is eyeing the region to recruit fighters and
expand its base.
According to Amnesty
International, mass arrests, arbitrary detentions, disappearances, shooting and
torture followed the Urumqi riots. China maintains a strong vigil in the region
with large rallies of security forces to intimidate the minds who dare to think
otherwise.
©SantoshChaubey
