Ramadan: Fear of Detention prevent Uyghur from fasting 

The Uyghur Muslim minority resident in Xinjiang Province of China have resisted from fasting during Ramadan this year despite relaxations having been provided by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

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It was gathered that the reluctance to do so, stems from the experience of Uyghur being branded as ‘extremists’ and being bundled off to detention centres to be given ‘re-education’.

The CCP and local authorities in Xinjiang have imposed bans on anyone, including those in government, schools and, other institutions from fasting during the month of Ramadan.

More recently, countries like the UK and Canada have legislated that China’s actions in Xinjiang against the Uyghurs constituted genocide.

Local authorities warned Uyghur residents that if they did not do as ordered they could be sent to one of the numerous re-education camps or detention centres built across Xinjiang, along with those who broke the rules.

It was reported that the impact of Chinese state repression has intensified in Xinjiang since 2016, when Chen Quanguo was appointed Party Secretary for the region.

The reason he was chosen was his work in bringing ‘ethnic stability’ to Tibet. The measures imposed by Chen in Tibet, including heavy security and use of advanced surveillance technologies, was rolled out on an even larger scale in Xinjiang.

The “grid management” program first implemented in Tibet was expanded, using facial recognition and QR codes in homes to get personal details about the residents in major Xinjiang towns.

Recall that persecution of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang is not new and can be traced to the post-2001 situation in China.

The CCP conveniently used the rhetoric of the global “war on terror” to suppress the rights of Uyghur of access to Islamic knowledge and education.

Islamic knowledge, ideology and practices have been obstructed and subjected to interference in all walks of life, especially in educational institutions.

Significantly, youth under the age of eighteen have been forbidden from attending Mosque prayers and obtaining religious education in madrassas.

This trend became accentuated particularly after Xi Jinping became President of China in 2013. The stress on preventing the Uyghur from wearing religious symbols and engaging in religious activities, including praying, fasting during Ramadan, etc. intensified.

All mosques and Imams have been tracked and must be approved by the government. Owning a Quran or prayer mat, growing a long beard or wearing an Islamic veil are banned.

In addition, communicating religious messages online is strictly forbidden. Thus, a range of routine religious observance became arbitrarily labelled as “illegal activities” or “religious extremism”’. The CCP has thus targeted, strictly controlled and monitored the religion and language of the Uyghur.

The Chinese state has for long labelled the Uyghur as separatists and have sought an international ban on organizations like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

However, analysts note that extremism amongst the Uyghur is not a generic phenomenon and it would be unfair to classify the entire community as separatist, as China has done.

The other aspect, often ignored, is that one of the key reasons for violence in Xinjiang by sections of the Uyghur is the Chinese government’s repressive policies, including restrictions on Uyghur religious education and expressions.