The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns the life sentence handed down to respected Uighur Muslim scholar Ilham Tohti for \u201cseparatism.\u201d <\/p>\n
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns the life sentence handed down to respected Uighur Muslim scholar Ilham Tohti for \u201cseparatism.\u201d The conditions of his detention and trial as well as his sentence clearly violate international law and call into question China\u2019s claim to be a country based on the rule of law.<\/p>\n \u201cUSCIRF calls on the Chinese government to immediately and unconditionally release Ilham Tohti. This prisoner of conscience\u2019s sentence of life imprisonment is yet another example of the Chinese government\u2019s attempts to suppress Uighur Muslims and others who peacefully advocate within the system for human rights and the rule of law. USCIRF also calls on the Chinese government to unconditionally release the seven students who were detained with Tohti,\u201d said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett.<\/p>\n Known for his advocacy of Uighur rights and autonomy for Xinjiang, the Uighur homeland, Professor Tohti was an economics professor in Beijing until his arrest in January 2014. His sentence reflects the Chinese government\u2019s hardline stance against Uighur Muslims and those it perceives as critical of its policies in the autonomous region of Xinjiang. Since 2009, the Chinese government has instituted sweeping security measures that, among other goals, have sought to weaken Uighur Muslims\u2019 religious adherence and eradicate so-called \u201cillegal\u201d religious gatherings and activities. Uighur Muslims have expressed deep resentment at Beijing\u2019s oversight of Xinjiang and the restrictions on their religious practices and activities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese government\u2019s targeting of Uighur Muslim\u2019s peaceful private gatherings predictably has led to instability and insecurity, and fueled resentment and the very extremism it seeks to quell. For the sake of security and stability as well as religious freedom, the Chinese government should lift restrictions on all peaceful religious activities. Professor Tohti\u2019s sentencing also underscores the harsh nature of the Chinese government\u2019s crackdown in Xinjiang and elsewhere. I recently met with family members of Chinese prisoners of conscience whose stories about their loved ones highlight the urgent need for China to join the community of nations in recognizing for all its citizens genuine and meaningful respect for human rights and religious freedom in law, regulation and practice\u201d said Lantos Swett. <\/p>\n USCIRF\u2019s 2014 Annual Report chapter<\/a> on China highlights the religious freedom abuses and violence that have resulted from the government\u2019s policies in Xinjiang and throughout the country. USCIRF has recommended \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d (CPC) status for China for its systematic, egregious and ongoing violations of religious freedom or belief since the Commissions first made CPC recommendations in 2000. The U.S. government has designated China a CPC since 1999. <\/p>\n To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at <\/em>media@uscirf.gov<\/a> or 202-786-0613<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns the life sentence handed down to respected Uighur Muslim scholar Ilham Tohti for \u201cseparatism.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1216","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\/1216","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=1216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
September 25, 2014 | USCIRF<\/strong><\/p>\n