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When Erkin Tuniyaz, chairman of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area (XUAR), visited the biggest mosque in Urumqi earlier than the Eid al-Fitr holy day marking the top of Ramadan, he used the chance to advertise Beijing’s coverage of assimilation of non-Chinese language individuals in its far western areas.
“In accordance with the preparations and invitation of the autonomous area occasion committee, we should maintain completely tight to the plan for Sinicizing the Islamic faith in Xinjiang and actively take the lead in becoming the Islamic faith into socialist society,” he mentioned on the Noghay Mosque, as quoted in an April 30 article by Xinjiang Every day.
Although the 19th-century mosque is technically open, the complicated is cordoned off with fences and barbed wire. In recent times, Chinese language authorities eliminated the Arabic shahada, or testomony of religion from above the doorway gate to the constructing — the biggest mosque in Urumqi (in Chinese language, Wulumuqi) — also referred to as the Tatar Mosque.
In addition they put in a safety checkpoint subsequent to the gate the place Muslim worshippers should go facial recognition scanners to confirm their identities as uniformed guards look on.
A couple of days earlier than Erkin made his assertion, XUAR Get together Secretary Ma Xingrui commented on China’s political technique within the area, reemphasizing the ideas of “the shared sense of belonging of the Chinese language nation” and “ethnic fusion” in an April article within the Folks’s Every day, the official newspaper of the Chinese language Communist Get together (CCP).
Ma proposed strengthening assimilative insurance policies within the XUAR together with the additional tightening of the CCP’s non secular coverage by Sinicizing Islam.
Sinification insurance policies and debates lengthy predate the 1949 Communist Get together seized of energy, mentioned a latest research within the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, which outlined it as “ the method by which all non-Han or non-Sinitic individuals who entered the Chinese language realm, regardless of whether or not as conquerors or conquered, ultimately have been inevitably assimilated as Chinese language.”
However below the decade-long rule of CCP chief Xi Jinping, coercive assimilation has picked up tempo — not solely in Xinjiang, but additionally in Tibet, Interior Mongolia and different areas populated by minorities.
The drive to erase variations among the many cultures is enforced in Xinjiang by an enormous high-tech mass surveillance system, heavy-handed grassroots policing and mass internment camps which have goal a major variety of the 12 million Uyghurs.
The Sinicization of faith within the XUAR takes goal on the Islamic features of the Uyghur identification—a coverage whose heavy-handed imposition that some Western governments say constitutes genocide below worldwide legislation.
U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will journey to Urumqi and Kashgar (Kashi), throughout a Could 23-28 go to to China, the primary by a U.N. human rights chief since 2005.
Her journey has raised questions on her freedom of motion via the area, with many Uyghur teams and rights consultants warning her that Beijing will placed on a staged tour and use it for propaganda in opposition to its critics.
Xi first put ahead the idea on the Communist Get together’s nineteenth Folks’s Congress on Oct. 18, 2017. On the time, Chen Quanguo, then occasion secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area, was stepping up what’s change into a well-documented marketing campaign of oppression in opposition to the Uyghurs as a part of a pressured assimilation effort.
Chen and his successor Ma Xingrui, who was appointed XUAR occasion secretary in late 2021, executed state insurance policies regarding the “Sinicization of faith” and “creating consciousness of the shared sense of belonging to the Chinese language nation.”
Throughout a latest inspection of the XUAR, Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CCP and chairman of the Nationwide Committee of the Chinese language Folks’s Political Consultative Convention, issued a particular directive concerning the “resolute development of the Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang.”
The Chinese language authorities has vigorously applied its coverage not just for Muslims in Xinjiang, but additionally for Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Protestants and others all through the nation, demanding that the non secular teams adhere to and assist the CCP’s rule and beliefs.
For Muslims, the coverage means being pressured to surrender their Islamic religion, in line with testimony given by Uyghur survivors of detention camps in Xinjiang. Authorities have pressured Uyghurs to eat pork, which is forbidden in Islam, have gathered and burned copies of the Quran, and have restricted the sporting of beards for males and of lengthy clothes and headscarves for girls.
Uyghur names comparable to “Muhammad,” “Ayishe,” and “Muhajid” have been forbidden and, in instances the place these names have been given to youngsters, the authorities have applied very strict insurance policies to alter them. Making use of for passports and touring overseas have been causes for detention in camps, which implies that Uyghurs have misplaced their proper to go on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every one Muslims are anticipated to make not less than as soon as throughout their lifetime.
Whereas China’s authorized assure of non secular freedom are touted in propaganda, and mentioned to be composed in line with Western requirements, “it exists merely on paper,” mentioned Nury Turkel, vice chair of the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF).
“This can be a technique of deceiving individuals, of [China] making an attempt to painting its personal system as good.”
‘Eradication of Islam’
Chinese language authorities have detained greater than 1,000 imams and clerics for his or her affiliation with non secular educating and neighborhood management since 2014, in line with a Could 2021 report titled “Islam Dispossessed: China’s Persecution of Uyghur Imams and Spiritual Figures” issued by the U.S.-based Uyghur Human Rights Challenge (UHRP).
“The Sinicization of Islam is the eradication of Islam,” Turghanjan Alawudun, vice chair of the manager committee of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a Uyghur faith scholar, mentioned.
In 2016, Chinese language authorities started demolishing mosques and outdated cemeteries within the XUAR, with the destruction reaching a climax in 2018.
Since about 2017, as much as 16,000 mosques, or roughly 65%, of all mosques have been destroyed or broken because of authorities insurance policies, in line with the UHRP. About 30% of Islamic sacred websites comparable to shrines, cemeteries and pilgrimage routes have been demolished and one other 28% broken or altered.
Spiritual leaders and unusual Uyghurs alike who practiced their religion privately of their properties have been detained on accusation of varied crimes. Kids will not be allowed to find out about their faith from mother and father or neighborhood non secular leaders.
Upon his appointment as XUAR occasion secretary in August 2016, Chen Quanguo mentioned “the work of eliminating extremism is a significant factor within the social stability and everlasting safety of Xinjiang, and of nationwide safety.”
In 2017, authorities started illegally detaining hundreds of Uyghurs and different Turkic minorities in “re-education” camps in an effort, they mentioned, to forestall non secular extremism and radicalism, later calling the amenities “closed coaching facilities” or “transformation via schooling coaching facilities” or “vocational coaching facilities.” Proof shortly emerged that inmates had been disadvantaged of their freedom below the pretense of political schooling.
It’s believed that authorities have held as much as 1.8 million Uyghurs and others accused of harboring “robust non secular” and “politically incorrect” views in an enormous community of internment camps in Xinjiang since 2017 and have jailed or detained a whole lot of Islamic clergy members in recent times.
The U.S. and the parliaments of a number of Western governments have declared that China’s rights abuses in Xinjiang represent genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity.
Muhammad Salih Hajim, the primary individual to have translated the Quran into the Uyghur language, is among the many Uyghur non secular elite to have been detained. He was in his 80s when he was positioned in an internment camp in Urumqi (Wulumuqi) in December 2017. He died there about 40 days later.
Chinese language propaganda has sought to painting the detained Uyghurs and others as individuals “contaminated with non secular extremism and concepts about brutal terrorism and thus in want of remedy,” suggesting that they have been ideologically “sick.” To deal with the so-called “sicknesses” in a well timed method, authorities deemed it vital to construct “coaching facilities” in every prefecture, county, metropolis, and district, to supply free “remedy.”
“There’s a widespread view within the insurance policies being applied in China that non secular apply is an indication of religious illness,” Turkel mentioned. “They are saying that non secular apply is an expression of a virus within the thoughts.”
“If we might flip the query round, we must always ask them whether or not believing within the ideology of communism, as they do, is an expression of religious illness, or if working towards faith, which varieties a set of morals that train individuals to be good, benevolent, form, trustworthy, and giving members of society, is a religious illness,” he mentioned. “We should ask this query.”
The XUAR Laws on De-extremification, accredited by the Standing Committee of the Folks’s Congress of the XUAR in March 2017, and formally applied on April 1 of the identical yr, forbade sure non secular practices. Beards and hijabs have been prohibited, non secular practices have been restricted, and the studying of nikah or Islamic wedding ceremony rites was banned.
One other 15 restrictions have been added to the checklist, together with the usage of the phrase “halal” in promoting meals and drinks, deliberately mutilating ID playing cards and inspiring non secular curiosity in youngsters.
“The laws are a typical instance of Beijing and native authorities’ plans to erase the identification of Uyghur Muslims and separate them from their faith, tradition, language and conventional customs,” Tina Mufford, former deputy director of coverage and analysis at USCIRF, mentioned in an interview with RFA in March 2017, proper earlier than the internment camp program was launched.
Within the camps and different political schooling facilities, the Chinese language authorities has sought to switch non secular religion with devotion to the communist authorities and Chinese language chief Xi. That is the second time in Chinese language historical past, following Mao Zedong, that such a reward has been demanded.
Whereas Muslims around the globe fasted, prayed and recited the Quran through the holy month of Ramadan from April 1-Could 1 this yr, the Chinese language authorities used the interval to inculcate communist ideology in Uyghur Muslims, because it has been doing for the previous 5 years, mentioned WUC’s Turghunjan Alawudun.
They intensified actions for women and men in cities and villages all through the area, together with alcohol-drinking contests, vogue competitions and political schooling actions meant to unfold communist ideology, he mentioned.
“China’s primary intention in its insistence on Sinicizing Islam is to get rid of the non secular apply of the Uyghurs,” mentioned Alawudan. “As soon as their non secular beliefs are gone, Uyghurs would be the identical as Chinese language individuals. For that reason, in addition they wish to get rid of their language and lifeways, and power them to make use of Chinese language. Thus, making Uyghurs right into a individuals with out faith can be a manner of eliminating the group by genocide.”
‘Islam as a propaganda device’
Ma Ju, an ethnic Hui and unbiased political commentator based mostly in New York, who runs a well-liked YouTube channel, mentioned the Chinese language authorities’s intention to get rid of Uyghurs is evident.
In its annual report on human rights, the U.S. State Division repeatedly has accused China of attacking non secular freedom, allegation that the federal government vehemently denies.
At a press convention on Nov. 18, 2021, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese language Overseas Ministry, responded the report, saying the “Chinese language authorities protects residents’ freedom of non secular perception in accordance with legislation.”
Xu Guixiang, a spokesman for the XUAR authorities, echoed the assertion throughout an April 2021 press convention in Beijing, saying there have been no points with human rights in China, and that not one of the nation’s minority teams expertise ethnic, regional, gender or non secular discrimination.
USCIRF launched its annual report on international non secular freedom days after Xu’s remark, noting that non secular freedom situations in China deteriorated in 2021.
“The federal government continued to vigorously implement its ‘sinicization of faith’ coverage and demand that non secular teams and adherents assist the Chinese language Communist Get together’s (CCP) rule and beliefs,” the report mentioned.
Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, a political observer and vice chairman of WUC’s Govt Committee, mentioned Chinese language officers are Sinicizing Islam within the XUAR via further measures. In recent times, they’ve pressured Uyghurs to boost Chinese language flags inside or outdoors mosques, promote state insurance policies via sermons throughout Friday prayers, and pray to Xi Jinping when doing zikr or dua, prayers of invocation, he mentioned.
Chinese language authorities even have collected copies of the Quran within the Uyghur language, retranslated them into each Chinese language and Uyghur languages with numerous modifications and printed them, Kokbore mentioned.
“The Chinese language authorities is utilizing Islam as a propaganda device of the Chinese language Communist Get together,” he advised RFA. “That is an affront to and trampling upon the Muslim world, of the ummah, or physique of believers.”
Kokbore pointed to China’s focusing on of all Uyghur elites, not simply non secular figures, to get rid of leaders from Uyghur society to hasten the assimilation of Uyghurs.
“By eliminating cultural leaders, they wish to put all Uyghurs right into a silly state, from which they intend to get rid of the group,” he mentioned.
Outstanding Uyghur detainees embrace Minzu College professor Ilham Tohti, Xinjiang College president Tashpolat Teyip, Xinjiang Medical College president Halmurat Ghopur, Xinjiang College folklore institute director Arslan Abdulla, well-known folklore professor Rahile Dawut, editor-in-chief of Xinjiang Civilization journal Qurban Mamut, and well-known literary critic Yalkun Rozi, mentioned distinguished Chinese language human rights lawyer Teng Biao.
“The Chinese language authorities has deliberately persecuted the Uyghur elite, together with tutorial elites, cultural elites and industrial elites,” Teng mentioned. “They detained the students, the imams, college presidents and different intellectuals, and Uyghur entrepreneurs and businesspeople. That’s a part of their plan, to get rid of or to restrict the affect of Uyghur tradition and Islamic tradition.”
“They wish to make it such that Uyghurs will probably be unable to [recognize] their very own tradition after the federal government has eradicated the Uyghurs’ ethnic and non secular identities,” he mentioned.
Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
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