Government workers pass out water bottles, force others to eat and drink in front of them.<\/p>\n
2016-06-09<\/p>\n
In spite of assurances by Beijing that ethnic Uyghurs living in China\u2019s mostly Muslim Xinjiang region enjoy full religious freedom, government workers routinely block their right to fast during Islam\u2019s holy month of Ramadan, sources in the region say.<\/p>\n
On June 2, China issued a white paper lauding \u201cunprecedented\u201d levels of religious freedom in Xinjiang, adding that \u201cno citizen suffers discrimination or unfair treatment for believing in, or not believing in, any religion,\u201d according to official media.<\/p>\n
However, several local government departments and middle or high schools in the Uyghur region have posted notices online in recent days ordering restrictions on the Muslim duty to fast during Ramadan, local sources told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have forbidden [ruling Chinese Communist] Party members, cadres, civil servants, and village officials, in fact anyone drawing a salary from the state, from praying or fasting during Ramadan,\u201d one local official in Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also do not allow students or anyone under the age of 18 to enter the mosques to pray,\u201d the official\u2014Alim Abdurahman, a \u201cstability worker\u201d in Yengieriq township in Aksu\u2019s Awat (Awati) county\u2014said.<\/p>\n
Stability cadres regularly undertake \u201cfocused inspections\u201d of individuals and families regarded by local authorities as suspicious, sometimes including other cadres or local officials coming from a religious background, Abdurahman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we think that someone may be fasting, we will invite them to the village office to \u2018drink tea\u2019 with us to see if they are fasting or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also use other methods to get information on villagers\u2019 religious activities through our \u2018secret eyes and ears\u2019 or through our \u2018neighbor watch\u2019 program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Forbidden to believe<\/strong><\/p>\n Schoolchildren too are barred from religious observance, according to a letter posted online by administrators of High School 46 in the regional capital Urumqi and addressed to the parents of pupils at the school.<\/p>\n \u201c[Children] are forbidden from any kind of religious belief,\u201d said the letter, which appeared on the social medial platforms WeChat and Facebook beginning June 4, the day before Ramadan began.<\/p>\n \u201cParents should follow the Party\u2019s rules of education and bar their children from illegal religious activities such as praying, fasting, going to mosques, wearing religious dress, studying religion, and so on,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n Speaking to RFA, school director Hao Jiangli denied all knowledge of the letter, claiming he no longer works in the office whose phone he had just picked up to take a reporter\u2019s call.<\/p>\n \u201cI have already moved from my post at High School 46,\u201d Hao said.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t tell you who posted this letter on the website. Actually, I have no information about it at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis information is incorrect,\u201d another school official, Rozi Abla, head of the high school\u2019s office of political and moral education, said. \u201cWe never sent any letter like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Students forced to eat<\/strong><\/p>\n A young Uyghur studying at Kashgar University in western Xinjiang\u2019s Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture said that administrators at his school now \u201cregularly check each classroom and force Uyghur students to drink water or eat something in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur university administration distributes a bottle of water for every Uyghur student during school hours,\u201d the student said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n Students\u2019 bags are checked during the day to see if they contain meals meant to be eaten when the day\u2019s fast ends at sundown, and if any are found, the students must eat them right away, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe university administration always warns us that if students fast or pray, they will be expelled from the university or will not receive a diploma or certificate when they graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials in southwestern Xinjiang\u2019s Hotan City have meanwhile ordered restaurants and stores selling food and drink to remain open during fasting hours, with fines imposed on owners who fail to comply, the owner of a traditional medicine store in Hotan named Obulqasim said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have heard from friends working in government departments that water bottles are being distributed to civil servants and other cadres, and that they must drink these in front of others,\u201d Obulqasim said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese kinds of absurdities happen every year in Hotan during Ramadan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Reported and translated by Eset Sulaiman for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Government workers pass out water bottles, force others to eat and drink in front of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2756","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\/2756","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=2756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}