{"id":4069,"date":"2018-09-28T19:56:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T19:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2018\/09\/28\/muslims-china-say-they-are-being-told-hand-over-qurans-or-face-harsh-punishments\/"},"modified":"2018-09-28T19:56:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T19:56:39","slug":"muslims-china-say-they-are-being-told-hand-over-qurans-or-face-harsh-punishments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/muslims-china-say-they-are-being-told-hand-over-qurans-or-face-harsh-punishments\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslims in China say they are being told to hand over Qurans or face ‘harsh punishments’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese authorities are ordering Muslims in the country to hand over their prayer mats and copies of the Quran or else face punishment, it has been reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials in Xinjiang province have warned members of the Uyghur ethnic minority they must surrender religious items on pain of “harsh punishments”, according to an exile leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“We received a notification saying that every single ethnic Uyghur must hand in any Islam-related items from their own home, including Qurans, prayers and anything else bearing the symbols of religion,” Dilxat Raxit, of the exile World Uyghur Congress, told Radio Free Asia<\/a> <\/em>(RFA), which is operated by the US government.<\/span><\/p>\n

The directive also applies to ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz Muslims, RFA said. It was reportedly announced via the WeChat social network.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In its update on China in 2016 and 2017, Amnesty International said the communist Beijing government “continued to violate the right to freedom of religion, and crack down on all <\/span>unauthorised<\/span> religious gatherings” in the region, and to detain Uyghur writers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tension<\/span> between Uighurs and Han Chinese boiled over in 2009<\/a>, leading to violence that left scores dead.<\/span><\/p>\n