{"id":1022,"date":"2014-08-09T03:18:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T03:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2014\/08\/09\/chinese-city-bans-people-islamic-clothing-and-big-beards-using-buses\/"},"modified":"2014-08-09T03:18:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-09T03:18:23","slug":"chinese-city-bans-people-islamic-clothing-and-big-beards-using-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/chinese-city-bans-people-islamic-clothing-and-big-beards-using-buses\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese city bans people with Islamic clothing and \u2018big beards\u2019 from using buses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The measures in Xinjiang province come after hundreds of deaths due to ongoing unrest, which Chinese officials blame on Muslim separatists<\/p>\n<p>Adam Withnall<br \/>Thursday 07 August 2014<\/p>\n<p>A Chinese city has banned people with Islamic clothing or big beards from boarding buses, in what has been criticised as \u201can openly racist and discriminatory policy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The measures have been brought in across the north-western city of Karamay in the Xinjiang province, where hundreds have died in unrest over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>According to Chinese state media reports, officials intend to use the rules to help \u201cstrengthen security\u201d ahead of and during a major athletics event scheduled for the 20 August.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said the ban will apply to five \u201ctypes\u201d of passengers: those who wear veils, head scarves, a loose-fitting garment called a jilbab, clothing with the crescent moon and star, and those with long beards.<\/p>\n<p>The crescent moon and star are used by groups that China says want to set up an independent state in north-west China called East Turkestan, while bus bombings have been a longstanding concern in the region.<\/p>\n<p>In July, authorities in Xinjiang&#8217;s capital Urumqi banned all bus passengers from carrying items ranging from cigarette lighters to yogurt and water, in a bid to prevent violent attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Around 45 per cent of the population of Xinjiang is Muslim, and the Turkic-speaking Uighur minority say that the government&#8217;s repressive policies and controls on Islam are to blame for provoking the unrest.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of July, schools and government departments in the province caused controversy by banning students and civil servants from fasting for the holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Chinese paramilitary police man a checkpoint on the road to the riot-affected Uighur town of Lukqun, Xinjiang province, on June 28, 2013, after a flare-up of violence\" src=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/incoming\/article9580636.ece\/alternates\/w460\/china-uighur-ramadan-3.jpg\" style=\"height: 345px; width: 460px; margin: 4px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; float: left;\" title=\"Chinese paramilitary police man a checkpoint on the road to the riot-affected Uighur town of Lukqun, Xinjiang province, on June 28, 2013, after a flare-up of violence\"> Speaking about the latest bans, Alim Seytoff, the president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, said: \u201cOfficials in Karamay city are endorsing an openly racist and discriminatory policy aimed at ordinary Uighur people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the high number of deaths in recent months in Xinjiang, tight security makes it almost impossible for journalists to make independent assessments of the violence.<\/p>\n<p>About 100 people were killed when knife-wielding attackers staged assaults in two towns in the region&#8217;s south in late July, state media said, including 59 \u201cterrorists\u201d shot dead by police. A suicide bombing killed 39 people at a market in Urumqi in May.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The measures in Xinjiang province come after hundreds of deaths due to ongoing unrest, which Chinese officials blame on Muslim separatists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}