Locals dismiss police claims that low turnout a sign of radicalism, say it reflects normal frosty community relations with the ruling party.<\/p>\n
2016-03-24<\/p>\n
More than 40 Uyghurs were detained last week because they failed to show up for a prominent Communist Party member\u2019s funeral in northwestern China\u2019s Xinjiang region, RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service has learned.<\/p>\n
Included among the 41 people detained by authorities are local religious leaders from Oymanbaytoqay village of Ghulja (In Chinese, Yining) County including the Imam Enver Hesen and the Muezzin Ekber Nesirdin, local residents told RFA.<\/p>\n
While local law-enforcement officials acknowledged they detained the Uyghurs, they said it was because they are religious extremists.<\/p>\n
Tursun Bilal, a police officer of Araosteng Township who oversees Oymanbaytoqay village, told RFA that failure to show up at the funeral for a teacher a Chinese Communisst Party member surnamed Harun is a sure sign the 41 men are radicals.<\/p>\n
A ‘clear sign’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThey refused to attend the funeral ceremony of Mr. Harun despite being called and invited several times by Mr. Harun\u2019s family,\u201d Tursun Bilal told RFA. \u201cThat fact, obviously indicates their anger toward Mr. Harun and a lack of loyalty to the government. More importantly, it is a clear sign of religious extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n Harun, 70, who died in the first week of February, was a retired teacher from Oymanbaytoqay Primary School, but he was known for his loyalty to the government and membership in the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n Abdushukur Abdurazaq, Chief of Police Station of Araosteng Township, said the group was transferred to the county\u2019s state security department.<\/p>\n He told RFA \u201cthe investigation is still continuing,\u201d and cited Enver Hesen\u2019s education and background as reasons for suspicion. Enver Hesen was born and went to school in Kashgar (Kashi), the westernmost city in China that lies near the border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government appointed him as Imam as our old Imam passed away, but we have closely watched his life because of his educational background,\u201d Abdushukur Abdurazaq said.<\/p>\n Local support<\/strong><\/p>\n Locals defended the men, saying they didn\u2019t have anything against the late Harun.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that the Imam Enver Hesen didn\u2019t say anything bad about Mr. Harun,\u201d said Oymanbaytoqay Village Chief Niyaz Emet. \u201cHe just simply went about his business as he was invited to the funeral, but the absence of the other people, who are usually socially active members of our village community, was seen as result of Enver Hesen\u2019s provocation.\u201d<\/p>\n Memet Eli, a veterinary surgeon in Araosteng Township, told RFA the men weren\u2019t known to be radical.<\/p>\n \u201cI know the 41 men as normal Muslim people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just practiced their religious beliefs by praying five times a day, but I have not seen and don\u2019t believe they showed signs of extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n Memet Eli said Enver Hesen called him several times about his sick cow.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did the treatment of his cow by fully following my diagnosis,\u201d he explained. \u201cI know that someone who is influenced by extremism is not calling a doctor about their cow.\u201d<\/p>\n Village Chief Niyaz Emet said he doubts there’s a link between the light turnout at the funeral and extremism.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe that there is link between participation at Mr. Harun\u2019s funeral ceremony and the advocacy of Imam Enver Hesen to the community,” he said. “That was regular course for the relationship between the party members of Chinese Communist Party and our community.”<\/p>\n Reported and translated <\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/strong>by Shohret Hoshur for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by <\/strong><\/em>Brooks Boliek.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Locals dismiss police claims that low turnout a sign of radicalism, say it reflects normal frosty community relations with the ruling party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2561","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\/2561","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=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}