{"id":4071,"date":"2018-09-28T20:14:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T20:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2018\/09\/28\/china-bans-islamic-baby-names-muslim-majority-xinjiang-province\/"},"modified":"2018-09-28T20:14:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T20:14:21","slug":"china-bans-islamic-baby-names-muslim-majority-xinjiang-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/china-bans-islamic-baby-names-muslim-majority-xinjiang-province\/","title":{"rendered":"China bans Islamic baby names in Muslim majority Xinjiang province"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese<\/a> authorities have banned Islamic baby names in the country\u2019s largest Muslim<\/a> province, as part of a crackdown on alleged \u201cextremism\u201d that monitors say restricts fundamental rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

A document entitled \u201cNaming Rules for Ethnic Minorities\u201d prohibits names used by Muslim parents around the world including Imam, Hajj, Islam<\/a>, Quran, Saddam, Medina and Islam, Radio Free Asia<\/a> (RFA) reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

It applies to the Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang<\/a>, where the Communist Party has been imposing ever tighter restrictions on religion in what it claims is a battle against \u201cextremism\u201d, amid a separatist uprising by Uyghur rebels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to give names with a strong religious <\/span>flavour<\/span>, such as Jihad or names like that,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing here is the connotations of the name… [It mustn\u2019t have] connotations of holy war or of separatism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese policies are blatant violations of domestic and international protections on the rights to freedom of belief<\/a> and expression,\u201d said Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch\u2019s director for China.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cViolent incidents and ethnic tensions in Xinjiang have been on the rise in recent years, but the government\u2019s farcically repressive policies and punishments are hardly solutions. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

\u201cInstead, they are only going to deepen resentment among Uyghurs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The reported list of names emerged less than a month after authorities in Xinjiang imposed new rules prohibiting the wearing of \u201cabnormal\u201d beards<\/a> or burqas in public places, and imposing punishments for refusing to watch state television or radio programmes. <\/span><\/p>\n

It included a ban on \u201cnaming of children to exaggerate religious <\/span>fervour<\/span>\u201d, but did not immediately give specifics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rules published in state-controlled media continued: \u201cParents should use good moral conduct to influence their children, educate them to revere science, pursue culture, uphold ethnic unity and refuse and oppose extremism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Punishments also appear to be increasing for officials deemed to be too lenient over the growing restrictions. <\/span><\/p>\n

In January, a government employee who criticised policies in messages to his wife received a \u201cserious warning\u201d and in March, <\/span>a Uyghur<\/span> official was reportedly removed from her job for holding her wedding ceremony at home instead of at a government-approved venue. <\/span><\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch said a further 97 officials in Hotan prefecture were reprimanded earlier this month, including one who was demoted for \u201cnot daring\u201d to smoke in front of religious figures <\/a>and showing an inadequately \u201cresolute political stance\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

Successive bans on select \u201dextremist <\/span>behaviours<\/span>\u201c have previously been introduced <\/span>in in<\/span> areas of Xinjiang, including stopping people with headscarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses in at least one city.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have died in the ongoing conflict between separatists and the Chinese government in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which sits on China\u2019s far north-western border.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beijing has blamed the unrest on Islamist militants, though rights groups say the violence is a reaction to repressive Chinese policies and rebels claim the region has been illegally occupied since 1949.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peaceful protests have taken place alongside bombings and other violent attacks on Chinese security forces and institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government strongly denies committing any abuses in Xinjiang and insists the legal, cultural and religious rights of Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group, are fully protected.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: INDEPENDENT<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese authorities have banned Islamic baby names in the country\u2019s largest Muslim province, as part of a crackdown on alleged \u201cextremism\u201d that monitors say restricts fundamental rights. A document entitled \u201cNaming Rules for Ethnic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-4071","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\/4071","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4071"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=4071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}