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http://www.rferl.org/content/ramadan-uyghurs-china-xinjiang-china/27129210.html
China – Muslim Uyghurs in China – Discrimination, Prevented from Fasting on Ramadan - Women
A
Uyghur woman walks on a street in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang
region. (file photo)
By Bruce Pannier - July 15,
2015
The end of one of the most bizarre periods of Ramadan the
Uyghur people have ever known is drawing to a close. The Turkic Muslim people
living in the area of western China now called Xinjiang were forced by Beijing
to forego the month's obligatory fasting, the latest intrusion by authorities
into the Uyghur way of life. But at the same time, the plight of the Uyghurs
has arguably been receiving the most international attention, well, ever.
Last month as Ramadan started, Chinese authorities moved
to prevent Uyghurs from fasting. The state food and drug administration in
Xinjiang's Jinghe County posted information that "food service workplaces
will operate during normal hours during Ramadan" and that includes
restaurants owned by Uyghurs. Officials in Xinjiang's Bole County were told,
"During Ramadan, do not engage in fasting, vigils, or other religious
activities."
Radio Free Asia (RFA) obtained a copy of a document sent
to local officials in Xinjiang just before the start of the Muslim holy period
warning them that "Ramadan is coming." RFA said village officials
were urged to "keep a close watch on politically suspect families, who are
required during the fasting month to report in person to authorities each
morning and night."
The ban on fasting is a new tactic in an ancient conflict
between the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese. In fact, problems between the Uyghurs
and the Han started before Islam was a religion.
But in the age of Islamic extremism, religion has become
one of the biggest contemporary problems between the two peoples, despite
the fact that at its core, the Uyghur movement for independence from China
is a nationalist movement. Many Uyghurs believe they face extinction as a
culture and a people.
Uyghurs are resisting the rule of China's Communist Party
just as Uyghurs have resisted the domination of previous Chinese governments.
After the 1949 revolution, the new government in Beijing employed the old
tactic of sending Han to work and live in the Uyghurs' homeland. However, what
was usually just a trickle became a flood in the 1990s when oil and gas were
discovered in the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang. Currently, the number of Han in
Xinjiang is approaching parity with the indigenous Uyghurs.
As the arrival of Han has increased during the last two
decades, so too has the level of violence in Xinjiang. There was a riot in the
city of Yining in 1997 and bombings in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, the same
year. Dozens, possibly hundreds, died in that violence.
Over the past two years, Uyghurs have attacked Han
Chinese at Xinjiang bus and train stations and in the streets, killing dozens,
followed quickly by police, security, and military forces killing dozens of
Uyghurs. At least three Chinese policemen were killed at the start of Ramadan;
at least 18 Uyghurs have been killed since its start.
Beijing has portrayed Xinjiang as a region rife with the
"three evils" -- terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism.
Chinese authorities have initiated a series of security operations in Xinjiang
with code names such as Strike Hard, which gives some indication of the
aggressiveness of these campaigns.
But increasingly these campaigns have focused on taming
the Uyghurs by targeting their religion, and now that has invited the sort of
international attention Beijing has sought to avoid.
Recent rules have forbidden all but elderly Uyghur men
from growing beards. Women are prohibited from wearing burqas. People under 18
are not allowed to attend mosque.
But it was the ban on fasting that fired Muslim passions
far from Xinjiang and brought the Uyghur issue into the spotlight in Turkey,
home to an estimated 300,000 Uyghurs. Turkey's foreign minister released a
statement that said, "Our people have been saddened over the news that
Uyghur Turks have been banned from fasting or carrying out other religious
duties in the Xinjiang region."
Protests against Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs started
in Turkey in late June, with some demonstrators burning Chinese flags outside
the Beijing's embassy in Ankara. There were reports of Chinese tourists being
targeted by angry protesters, and several Chinese restaurants, most belonging
to Turkish owners, were vandalized.
China issued a travel warning to citizens traveling to
Turkey.
The focus of the Turkish demonstrators switched on July
9, when it was learned Thai authorities had deported 109 Uyghurs to China.
Thailand temporarily closed its embassy in Ankara and its consulate in Istanbul
after protesters stormed the consulate the same day.
Southeast Asian countries have become a prime destination
for Uyghurs fleeing China, most hoping eventually to travel on to Turkey. The
Uyghurs deported on July 9 had been in Thailand for more than a year claiming
they were Turkish.
Thai authorities have allowed other Uyghurs to travel on
to Turkey, and Bangkok seemed taken by surprise that the country's diplomatic
missions in Turkey had suddenly become the focus of angry Muslim protesters.
Thai officials referred to the extradition request from
China. Beijing claimed the 109 Uyghurs were headed to the Middle East to join
extremist groups and that 13 of them had fled China after committing
unspecified terrorist acts.
But protesters in Turkey won't soon forget photographs of
the Uyghurs, in black hoods, being taken to the plane, sitting on board, and
disembarking in China.
For the record, there are Uyghurs who have left China and
joined Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
At the same time, the "terrorist" attacks
Beijing points to in Xinjiang are usually carried out with knives and axes. The
day before Ramadan started, a Uyghur man was mortally wounded in the
northwestern city of Xian when he attacked people waiting in line to buy
tickets at a train station. His weapon: a brick.
China has tried for many years to avoid seeing its
problem with the Uyghurs become a pan-Islamic issue, preferring to brand
Uyghurs "separatists."
But this latest move -- banning fasting during Ramadan --
has brought the Uyghurs' plight to the attention of fellow Turkic Muslims in
Turkey and between China and Turkey are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan, lands of other Turkic Muslim peoples who share a
kinship with the Uyghurs.