15 things to know about China's torture of Uyghur Muslims!

silhouette of people in Xinjiang Ghost City

silhouette of people in Xinjiang
silhouette of people in Xinjiang
Author: 
Gulnaz Uighur

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is China’s largest provincial unit, accounting for one sixth of the Chinese territory. Though this region does not belong to the country as it was occupied by it in 1949.

The area has been known by various names, including East Turkestan. East Turkestan was always an independent state. Though different dynasties have ruled in this area as it was a rich source of natural resources.

During the period of 1949 , the government of East Turkestan was on its way to make a decision regarding its being a Free State but they all were killed in a plane crash. It is suspected that China was behind this incident. Soon after it, China occupied East Turkestan and renamed it Xinjiang which means “New Territory”.

Uyghur Muslims are the ethnic population of this region and call this place as East Turkestan. Even after its occupation , the demands for freedom has always been alive and it still keeps growing due to the ruthless suppression of Muslims by Chinese Government.

Below are the 15 ways through which , Chinese authorities torture Uyghurs and suffocate them in their own land!

1. Forced Labour is Mandatory for Uyghurs

In Xinjiang, it is compulsory for Uyghur residents to participate in unpaid labor. They are not provided any compensation for their labor and forced to pay for their own transportation and meal costs. Workers who are injured are also required to look after their own medical expenses. In case someone sends its family member for work, then also Uyghurs need to pay a fine for that.

2. Children are also pulled out for forced labor

Uyghur families that do not have an able bodied young man are also not exempt from the system. Men and women as old as 70 and children as young as 12 are reported to have participated. Uyghur secondary school students are at times pulled out of classrooms in order to meet labor quotas.

3. Teenagers are arrested due to social media too!

Young Uyghurs are arrested for posting comments on social media and even watching a holy Islamic video online. Once a 15 yr old was arrested in the same case and sentenced for 10 years! Other than this not many people are given internet connection and Police can arrest anyone for watching anything online! Uyghur homes are also raided for materials deemed “extreme” or “subversive.

4. Muslim farmers are required to be penniless!

Government regulations require many Uyghur farmers to sell their produce to local governments for below market prices. This results in extreme poverty for the Uyghur families as they are not able to earn appropriate money to feed their own families.

5. Farmlands are confiscated by Government!

It has become common for Chinese authorities to confiscate farmland and property of Uyghurs. These assets are then redistributed to Chinese migrants. Uyghurs who petition these practices are often charged without trial for “harming ethnic unity”.

6. Discrimination of Uyghurs

On paper, the Chinese migrants are shown equal to Uyghurs. In reality, they enjoy far more entitlements than Uyghur farmers. The Chinese migrants not only enjoy the freedom to harvest any crop, they can also take out bank loans and are entitled to greater water resources.

7. A man was shot for keeping a beard!

No man, in Xinjiang is allowed to keep beard. Uyghur men refusing to shave their beards are frequently harassed, intimidated, with one man having been shot by police in one instance. According to the Chinese Government keeping a beard is a sign of being an extremist.

8. Most Uyghur don't know about their basic rights!

Most of the Uyghur population, especially those of the older generation, lack a basic knowledge of human rights and don’t even know their rights as citizens according to the constitution. This is because they have never been given these rights and lack of education has also played a very large role in it. Most of the times they are exploited by saying that its a law.

9. Nikah is considered illegal in China!

In April 2014, Chinese authorities instigated a system of rewards, some exceeding more than 50,000 Yuan (USD 7500), for whistle-blowers who reported on a range of illegal religious activities including the wearing of beards and the practice of Nikah a traditional marriage ceremony. Chinese authorities take harsh steps to ban religious freedom in East Turkestan.

10. Muslims are ordered to sell Alcohol to weaken religion!

Chinese authorities in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture ordered shopkeepers to stock alcohol and cigarettes in a campaign to “weaken religion,” as Uyghur residents refrained from drinking and smoking for religious reasons. All these actions are a part of 'Strike hard campaign' by the govt. which is actually a campaign against Uyghur Muslims.

11. Muslim names are banned!

The Chinese Government has banned Muslim names in the region. The security officials go from house-to-house ordering parents to ensure that their children’s names do not fall on a list of 22 banned names. Which include mostly Muslim names. Uyghur parents are not even allowed to name their child according to their wish.

12. Imams are imprisoned !

No one in Xinjiang is allowed to teach quran outside the mosques. And children below 18 years old are not allowed to enter the Mosques. Its a crime to give any kind of teaching related to Islam in Xinjiang. Often parents are harassed for even keeping the Quran at home. Religious leaders often serve prison sentences for the peaceful observation and practice of Islam.

13. Every year Ramadan is banned!

During the holy month of Ramadan, restaurants in Hotan have been forbidden from being shutting down. Workers are forced to participate in educational activities on atheism. Government servants,students and anyone working for the party is not allowed to celebrate Ramadan. Not only this various competitions related to eating and drinking are organized in the region to force feed people during the month.

14. Women are forced to abort their child!

Pregnant Uyghur women in stages of gestation as late as 9 months have been forced to undergo abortions in some cases under China’s one-child policy. This practice is still brutally followed in Xinjiang and Uyghur women are sometimes forced to fled their homes due to this.

15. Uyghurs are not allowed to leave China!

In 2014, Chinese authorities in Hotan began limiting Uyghurs’ ability to travel, both domestically and abroad through passport restrictions. These restrictions have increased now as the police authorities are collecting the passports of uyghurs and keeping them in the office. At present , it is impossible for Uyghurs to travel abroad as first they would need to face interrogation which will most probably result in their arrest.

Comments

Interesting article about the repression of a Muslim majority by incoming groups [Chinese Han]

Several things, the first is a link to a site on Revival that gives another viewpoint. How biased? But as most of these sorts of problems things are never ever straightforward.

The Uyghurs are complaining about the Han Chinese coming to their Province, taking their jobs, threatening their culture and way of life.

When ethnic Europeans say this sort of thing they are branded as Racist, Islamaphobist, Xenophobist, and are not willing to accept cultural enrichment?

But when Muslims in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, do exactly the same thing, “They are claiming their own rights of self determination”? Are the Chinese authorities really so bad? Apparently there are 47 distinct ethnic groups within the China. Most seem to be getting along without too much friction.

Muslim authorities in Muslim majority countries are not exactly the pillar of tolerance in dealing with other minorities that live alongside the Muslim majority. In most cases they are badly treated, and treated as second class citizens, and if any complaints are made about their conditions. They usually accused of blasphemy, this in its self is enough to keep them subdued.

As for forced abortions. The Chinese have had a one child policy in force for many years, they have since relaxed it in rural areas to two and have now accepted two child per family throughout China. What they won’t accept is large families within any community, so forcing the Uyghurs to conform to what is normal practice in China.

I shall leave it there, but I will point out one thing China is a rising Super Power. One that will be more and more dominant as the years progress. It is a communist state that as little time for religion [of any type] seeing that the Chinese state is all-important, and as such will not allow internal. Or external politics to change its course.

 

The Chinese dictator government are indeed barbarians. If someone wants to fast Ramadhan then that’s their personal choice. How come the dictator invading government is usurping peoples freedoms, and oppressing the Uyghur Muslims in such a cruel and barbaric manner…. Indeed godless systems have always been synonomous with oppression and tyranny.

I have re-posted this to twitter today, 2 years later and once the chinese policies have become much better known, including their establishment of re-education camps where they try to replace Islamic and Muslim rituals with communist symbols, forced marriage of Uyghur women to ethnic Han chinese and also forcing the Uyghurs to "host" ethnic Han officials in their own homes to show that they are integrating.

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.