The former imam with a history of conflicts with authorities spoke \u2018out of line\u2019 with government policies.<\/p>\n
2015-04-08<\/p>\n
A court in northwestern China\u2019s restive Xinjiang region has sentenced a prominent ethnic Uyghur Muslim religious scholar to nine years behind bars for \u201crefusing to cooperate\u201d with Chinese authorities, according to police and local officials.<\/p>\n
According to reports on Uyghur social media, Qamber Amber was handed nine years in prison following a March 21 public trial at the Hanerik township high school in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture\u2019s Hotan county.<\/p>\n
Amber was among 17 people charged with \u201cvarious crimes related to state security,\u201d the reports said, without providing details of the verdicts for the other 16 defendants.<\/p>\n
Chief of the Hanerik police station Abdugheni Zakir said Amber, who had been stripped of his role as imam of Hanerik Mosque in 2004 for using \u201cironic and critical terms\u201d against state policy in his speeches, had been offered reinstatement last year, but refused the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, when the government began a campaign against religious extremism, the authorities gave him a chance to go back to the mosque as imam, but he rejected the offer because of health problems,\u201d he told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cLater, we found that he had been traveling everywhere in Hotan to participate in public events, including weddings and burial ceremonies, and he has never refused to preach in public if requested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zakir said Amber had most recently given a speech at a Muslim marriage ceremony, despite restrictions on religious speeches without permits.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough he didn\u2019t criticize state policy or instigate anything, his speech was not in line with what the government encourages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When asked what law in the Chinese constitution Amber had broken, Zakir was unable to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, as in many cases, the charge doesn\u2019t fit with the law, but it syncs very well with several key regulations about maintaining stability, issued by prefectural and regional authorities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a footnote to every law which [informs local authorities]: \u2018You can implement this law as needed according to your specific situation.\u2019 In our area, stability is the primary goal\u2014that is how we are following the regulations and have not contradicted any law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Criminal background\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Zakir defended Amber\u2019s sentence, saying the scholar\u2019s refusal to accept the position of imam \u201cwas not the only reason for his jailing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe has a criminal background and has not stopped teaching and discussing controversial religious topics, despite warnings from the local police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never learned his lesson from the situation in Hotan, where many bloody incidents and trials against illegal religious activity have occurred, and he has continued to preach his so-called \u2018true Islam\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Zakir also referred to Amber\u2019s composition of a poem in 2002 titled \u201cIt is Hard to be Muslim in Hotan,\u201d which he had since recited several times in public forums in the prefecture.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was supposed to get at least three years in jail for that, but we detained him for only 15 days [at the time], taking into consideration his wealth of religious knowledge and popularity among the public in Hotan,\u201d Zakir said.<\/p>\n Hotan prefecture in southwestern Xinjiang has been a hotbed of violent stabbing and shooting incidents between ethnic, mostly Muslim Uyghurs and Chinese security forces, with attacks coming amid a string of assaults and bombings across the region, formally called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.<\/p>\n In recent years, China has launched a series of \u201cstrike hard\u201d campaigns in Xinjiang in the name of fighting separatism, religious extremism and terrorism.<\/p>\n The targets of these campaigns, the minority Turkic-speaking, Muslim Uyghurs, complain of pervasive ethnic discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression by China\u2019s communist government.<\/p>\n \u2018Instigated nationalism, separatism\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Memtimin Abdulla, the police officer in charge of Hanerik\u2019s No. 12 village, called Amber \u201cclever,\u201d and said that while he would receive frequent reports about the illegality of his speeches, the former imam would always claim innocence when summoned for questioning.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I remember from the trial is that he said, \u2018You cannot be a good Muslim simply by praying five times a day, you must also do something good for your land and your people\u2019,\u201d Abdulla said.<\/p>\n \u201cI had interrogated him before about this quote, which he said was meant to refer to China and the Chinese people \u2026 and I believed it, because he did not refer to specific names and, according to him, it was unnecessary to explain it, as everyone holds a Chinese ID card and lives in China.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdulla cited the court as saying the quote \u201cinstigated nationalism and separatism.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe court authorities said that while the reference to \u2018land and people\u2019 in the quote was used ambiguously, the speech received more applause than usual\u2014especially by young people\u2014indicating that the reference meant [the former short-lived republic of] East Turkistan and East Turkistanis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said the quote had a negative effect on the youth in terms of the unity of the country and its ethnicities.\u201d<\/p>\n Authorities \u2018scared\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n A resident of Hotan, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said authorities had become frightened of Amber\u2019s popularity, noting that wherever he went to pray, preach or join a ceremony, \u201cthe number of attendees doubled\u2014especially young people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur government has an allergic reaction to public gatherings\u2014they don\u2019t like it and are even scared of it if it occurs outside of the control of the authorities,\u201d the resident said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is why [Amber] has been hated by officials and under constant watch by the police.\u201d<\/p>\n A teacher from Hotan, who also declined to give his name, said the government had two areas of focus in its most recent \u201cstrike hard\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the one hand, they are targeting young people who are viewed as \u2018potential troublemakers\u2019 simply because of their independent behavior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, they are targeting religious and public figures that hold independent views or thinking toward regional issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The teacher said that with no one permitted to challenge poorly conceived policies implemented by the government, ethnic unrest is likely to continue in the Xinjiang region.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our land, the authorities\u2014especially the Han Chinese\u2014don\u2019t know what the Uyghur people are thinking and feeling, despite living together for more than 50 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMeanwhile, Uyghur [officials] have no courage to speak reality, because they were chosen only according to their loyalty to the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf one of these officials could better understand the problems and voice their concerns\u2014even if they can\u2019t solve them on their own\u2014it could help decrease tension in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n Reported and translated by Shohret Hoshur for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The former imam with a history of conflicts with authorities spoke \u2018out of line\u2019 with government policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1767","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\/1767","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=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}