Bismillah
China has imposed tight surveillance of the practices of the Muslim
Uyghur community during the month of Ramadan in the Xinjiang province in
the far west of the country, according to what has been reported by
Uyghur exiles and local officials. And sources have stated the Chinese
measures include forbidding Muslim students from fasting during the days
of Ramadan and surveillance of their phone calls. And the Uyghur
Muslims, whose number exceeds nine million people, complain of religious
persecution in this province which is rich in petroleum while
economically underdeveloped.
The ruling party is viciously trying to eliminate the Uyghur Muslims and
integrate them into mainstream Chinese culture, for their animosity is
deeply-rooted, and their aversion to Islam is immense. The fact that
government policies suppress their cultural and religious character is
confirmed by the exiled Uyghurs and many international organizations.
The spokeswoman for the Bureau of Education in the Chatca district said,
"Students must attend school every Friday (during the month of
Ramadan)". And she added that "they are prohibited from fasting, them
and their teachers." Just as local governments called for shops to
remain open and ordered government workers not to fast. And the
Educational Commission in Tekesi said that every school and day care
center in the district signed a written contract that guarantees none of
their workers would fast.
And Djelksat Raksi, spokesman for the World Uyghur Conference, said:
"The schools and universities monitor the student's phones and their
accounts on electronic messaging and social media." And he added that
"during Ramadan, religious societies are forbidden from undertaking any
religious training activities under any name." And he said: "Control
reaches to mosques and homes, where authorities enter Uyghur homes in
the name of keeping stability and provides them with refreshments and
fruit and supervises their eating them, and presents those who abstain
from eating and drinking with the charge of illegal fasting practices."
Islam reached China approximately in the year 29 AH, however the
suffering of its people only appeared after the degeneration of the
Islamic Khilafah's influence and then its downfall. China occupied east
Turkistan in 1760 CE, and its forces at that time killed around one
million local Muslims, and ruled the Muslims by iron and fire and forms
of abuse, until religious persecution became official Chinese policy.
But the suffering of the Muslims of China was not unique, for their
brothers in Czarist Russia suffered the most severe colors of suffering
and tasted the harshest persecution, and the Russians in that era
carried out the worst crimes and most severe forms of abuse and torture
against the Muslims, they even forced the people to believe in
Christianity under the threat of the sword and guillotine. The matter
persisted and indeed increased in force under the rule of the former
Communist Soviet Union, which forbid the establishment of any religious
observances, like prayer and fasting and Zakat and Hajj, and forced the
Muslim women to unveil./
