Protestors call for the Uyghur people to be freed Photo Mcall
Xinjiang – While the rest of the world is enjoying the blessed month of Ramadan, Uyghur Muslims have been banned from fasting. According to local officials, parents have been told to not make their children fast while their children are being quizzed by the Chinese authorities over whether their parents are fasting or not.
Authorities are requiring 1,811 villages in Xinjiang to implement a round-the-clock monitoring system to ensure that no one is observing the month of Ramadan. According to Dolkun Isa, President of the Uyghur Congress, this isn’t something new. Since 2014 China’s president, Xi Jinping, has implemented harsher laws against Islam, what he calls extremism.
“Under the [anti-terror] act mass arrests started in 2016. The concentration camps started where 3 million Muslim Uyghur are currently suffering. All mosques were closed, they collected and burnt Qurans and the forced sterilisation of women happened. There is zero tolerance for religious beliefs.”
Methods used to make sure Uyghur Muslims are not fasting
The Chinese authorities have implemented various methods to ensure Muslims are not fasting. Besides having police monitor the houses at Sehri time (the meal before sunrise), they also send people to live with Muslim families to ensure they are not participating in Ramadan.
“These methods are used even outside of Ramadan. In 2018/19 two million communist party members were sent to Uyghur families to stay with them for weeks and months on end. Staying in the same bed, same house 24/7. To see what you eat, what you think, what is your daily life like. During that time, many rape cases happened because most of the men are in the concentration camps. Just the wife and daughter are at home and they cannot refuse.”
During Ramadan time they have to eat together and while they don’t have a choice in that, Muslim families were also made to eat pork, said Isa. If they refused, they were labelled religious extremists and they were then punished.
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The campaign against religion
Since 2014, Chinese government’s assimilation policies have been turned into “genocide policies” in an attempt to rid the country of those who do not conform to their views. The main aim of the Chinese government is to remove the identity of the Uygur Muslims just like they have done to every other ethnicity, said Isa.
“According to the Chinese government, there are 56 ethnic groups in China but this is only on paper. In reality, Tibetan and Uyghur Muslims have kept their identity. The rest have been assimilated. They only have names. They have lost their religion, language and traditions. More than 75% of people in China are atheists. They do not tolerate any religions in China. Whether you are a Buddhist or a Christian but Muslims are being targeted the most.”
To hear more from Dolkun Isa about the horrors that take place against the Uyghur Muslims, listen to the podcast here:
