The move appears aimed at further weakening Uyghur cultural identity and promoting identification with the Chinese state.<\/p>\n
2016-12-13<\/p>\n
Uyghur farmers in northwestern China\u2019s troubled Xinjiang region are being forced to attend evening classes in a new drive aimed at bringing them in line with official views on religion and government policy, sources in the mostly-Muslim ethnic area say.<\/p>\n
The plan aims to educate farmers and herdsmen, many of them already elderly, in poverty eradication and China\u2019s \u201cbenevolent policies” in the region, official sources say. But many who attend the classes say they are being instructed instead in topics meant to counter religious extremism.<\/p>\n
Two course tracks are offered, one presenting general information and the other aimed primarily at Uyghur families with relatives in jail, a farmer in western Xinjiang\u2019s Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, the courses have already begun, and four or five people from our family are taking part,\u201d the woman said, adding that though she and her husband are both already over 60 years of age, they are being made to participate along with her son and daughter-in-law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is another course for people who have family members in jail, and my name is on that list, so I have to go to that one too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe study how to watch our children carefully, so that they don\u2019t get involved in extremism. We also learn about politics,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore each class begins, we raise the Chinese flag,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now understand what extremism means and what is right and wrong,\u201d another Aksu farmer said. \u201cAll of this has been poured into our brains.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know now that it is wrong to send our children to religious schools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey also told us that we can no longer pray outside in the fields. We can only pray in government-designated mosques.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heavy-handed rule<\/strong><\/p>\n Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, including violent police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people.<\/p>\n China regularly vows to crack down on what it calls the \u201cthree evils\u201d of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n But experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from Uyghur separatists, and that domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence that has left hundreds dead since 2012.<\/p>\n Speaking to RFA, Munich-based World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit described China\u2019s new political education drive in Xinjiang as an effort to \u201cput the farmers under full control and monitor their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis will only increase tensions in the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201c[Farmers] should have their own lives after they have finished their day\u2019s work in the fields,\u201d Raxit said. \u201cThere will be an adverse effect if things continue like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Reported by Jilil Kashgary for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The move appears aimed at further weakening Uyghur cultural identity and promoting identification with the Chinese state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3244","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\/3244","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=3244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3244"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}