China frequently cracking down on expressions of Muslim identity over terror fears

[Loafer]

Washington D.C. (United States), July 14 : A more than decade-long study on anti-Muslim sentiment in China has found that a majority of Chinese view Islam, minority groups and particularly Muslim groups residing in the country's Xinjiang province with suspicion because of concerns and fears of terrorist activities.

Luqiu/146134" target=_blank>Researchers Rose Luqiu, a doctoral candidate at the College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University and Fan Yang an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University at Albany-SUNY, have come out with a joint study on rising anti-Muslim sentiment in China in which they claim that beijing's cracking down on expressions of Muslim sentiment has become more frequent of late in the wake of the political leadership being warned about terrorist activities destabilizing China.

They say in their article, which appears on the website of Cambridge Community Television (www.cctvcambridge.org) that the authorities have introduced new security-related measures in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a Muslim-majority area in northwest China, out of concern over these reported terrorist activities.

For instance, in February this year, car owners in Xinjiang were asked to install GPS devices to ascertain movement of their respective vehicles.

Xinjiang provincial authorities also banned wearing of burqas and veils, and preventing males from having what they referred to as "abnormal beards" on the ground of combatting "extremism" among the Uighur ethnic minority.

China has an estimated 23 million Muslims, 10 million of whom live in Xinjiang. They make up less than two percent of the Chinese population. The majority Han form about 92 percent of the population, according to China's 2010 Census.

Analyzing over 10,000 news reports and internet posts on the status of Islam and Muslims in China between 2005 and 2015, both Luqiu and Yang have concluded that government censorship rules related to China's minority groups, including Muslim groups in Xinjiang and other parts of China, have been tightened to ensure what Beijing refers to as maintenance of "social harmony."

"Domestic news coverage of the daily life of Muslims in China tends to be scant. Many of the news stories are government propaganda pieces about how much Chinese Muslims have benefited from the government's preferential policies toward racial minorities," both researchers claim in their study.

https://www.outlookindia.com/newssc...-of-muslim-identity-over-terror-fears/1098736

 

[Jacob Martin]

Pakistani members are welcome to comment. Since the fate of Muslims from Burma to Bosnia is apparently their concern...

 

[Turingsage]

• 
  
  
  • Friday, 14 Jul 2017

China's Uighur Muslims struggle under 'police state'
Published: July 13, 2017
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China's Uighur Muslims struggle under 'police state'. PHOTO: AFP

KASHGAR: Worshippers quietly passed through metal detectors as they entered the central mosque in China’s far western city of Kashgar under the stern gaze of stone-faced police officers.

The increasingly strict curbs imposed on the mostly Muslim Uighur population have stifled life in the tense Xinjiang region, where beards are partially banned and no one is allowed to pray in public.

For years, the square outside the mosque in Kashgar was packed with teeming crowds as worshippers jostled for space to unroll their prayer rugs and celebrate the end of Ramadan. But no longer. This year, an eerie silence hung over the plaza outside the imposing prayer hall as devotees gathered to mark the end of a month of fasting – the lowest turnout in a generation according to residents.

China bans religious names for Muslim babies in Xinjiang

Authorities declined to comment on the numbers. But local businessmen told AFP the government had used the multiple checkpoints encircling the city to prevent travellers to Kashgar from joining Eid prayers. “This is not a good place for religion,” said one trader.

Beijing says the restrictions and heavy police presence seek to control the spread of separatist movements, but analysts warn that Xinjiang is becoming an open air prison. China is “essentially creating a police state of unprecedented scale,” said James Leibold, an expert on Chinese security at Australia’s La Trobe University.

The government began ramping up security and religious restrictions in Xinjiang in 2009, following a series of riots in the regional capital Urumqi that left around 200 dead. In March, President Xi Jinping ordered security forces to build a “great wall of steel” around the region after Uighurs claiming to belong to a division of the Islamic State group in Iraq threatened to return home and “shed blood like rivers”.

Over the last year, Beijing has flooded Xinjiang with tens of thousands of security personnel, placed police stations on nearly every block, and rolled out tough regulations aimed at “eliminating extremism”. Public signs say no one is permitted to pray in public or grow a beard before the age of 50, while government employees are forbidden from fasting during Ramadan.

In Tashkurgan, near the Pakistan border, authorities shut a halal restaurant as ‘punishment’ for refusing to serve food during the holiday, according to a shopkeeper working next door. A teacher and a government official told AFP that schools discourage students from using the traditional Arabic Muslim greeting “As-Salaam Alaikum” [“peace be upon you”]. “The government thinks this Islamic word is equal to separatism,” the official said.

The region’s ubiquitous surveillance cameras are particularly abundant in places of worship: an empty mosque in the southern city of Yarkand had three of them pointing directly at the spot where the imam leads prayers. Even more hung from the wooden rafters like bats. At police stations, officers monitor screens with direct feeds from mosques as well as other buildings and nearby streets.

In the run-up to Eid in the southwestern desert oasis town of Hotan, police manned checkpoints with rifles and crude spears made from metal pipes. At one intersection, men in bulletproof vests stopped traffic for a fleet of dozens of heavily armoured trucks, personnel carriers with mounted guns and black vans. The caravans patrolled the city every day during the month of Ramadan, a police officer said.

Chinese official demoted for not smoking in front of Muslims

At a mosque in the heart of Hotan, Muslims gathering for Friday prayers passed through a police barricade and showed identity documents at two checkpoints before entering. Inside, plainclothes men with Communist Party lapel pins and sunglasses kept a close eye on hundreds of worshippers.

At the front of the mosque, an LED signboard reminded people that “the greatest task for Xinjiang’s masses is harmonising ethnic unity and religion.” Such signs are a common sight throughout Xinjiang, where tensions between Uighurs and the majority Han ethnic group have led to violent clashes.

Chinese authorities have long linked their crackdown on Uighur Muslims to international counter-terrorism efforts, arguing that separatists are bent on joining foreign militants like Al-Qaeda.

Uighurs have been tied to mass stabbings and bombings that left dozens dead in recent years across the country. Riots and clashes with the government killed hundreds more. Worries about ‘extremism’ notwithstanding, many Xinjiang residents fear the loss of their cultural identity and question whether the government has gone too far.

“We don’t want it to become another Pakistan or Afghanistan,” a shopkeeper in Tashkurgan said, fearing violence could spill into China from the nearby countries. But, he added, “only a small minority of Muslims are extremists. The Chinese government can’t differentiate.”

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1456880/chinas-uighur-muslims-struggle-police-state/

@waz @Jungibaaz @The Eagle

 

[Jacob Martin]

• 
  
  
  • Friday, 14 Jul 2017

China's Uighur Muslims struggle under 'police state'
Published: July 13, 2017
115SHARES
SHARE TWEET EMAIL

China's Uighur Muslims struggle under 'police state'. PHOTO: AFP

KASHGAR: Worshippers quietly passed through metal detectors as they entered the central mosque in China’s far western city of Kashgar under the stern gaze of stone-faced police officers.

The increasingly strict curbs imposed on the mostly Muslim Uighur population have stifled life in the tense Xinjiang region, where beards are partially banned and no one is allowed to pray in public.

For years, the square outside the mosque in Kashgar was packed with teeming crowds as worshippers jostled for space to unroll their prayer rugs and celebrate the end of Ramadan. But no longer. This year, an eerie silence hung over the plaza outside the imposing prayer hall as devotees gathered to mark the end of a month of fasting – the lowest turnout in a generation according to residents.

China bans religious names for Muslim babies in Xinjiang

Authorities declined to comment on the numbers. But local businessmen told AFP the government had used the multiple checkpoints encircling the city to prevent travellers to Kashgar from joining Eid prayers. “This is not a good place for religion,” said one trader.

Beijing says the restrictions and heavy police presence seek to control the spread of separatist movements, but analysts warn that Xinjiang is becoming an open air prison. China is “essentially creating a police state of unprecedented scale,” said James Leibold, an expert on Chinese security at Australia’s La Trobe University.

The government began ramping up security and religious restrictions in Xinjiang in 2009, following a series of riots in the regional capital Urumqi that left around 200 dead. In March, President Xi Jinping ordered security forces to build a “great wall of steel” around the region after Uighurs claiming to belong to a division of the Islamic State group in Iraq threatened to return home and “shed blood like rivers”.

Over the last year, Beijing has flooded Xinjiang with tens of thousands of security personnel, placed police stations on nearly every block, and rolled out tough regulations aimed at “eliminating extremism”. Public signs say no one is permitted to pray in public or grow a beard before the age of 50, while government employees are forbidden from fasting during Ramadan.

In Tashkurgan, near the Pakistan border, authorities shut a halal restaurant as ‘punishment’ for refusing to serve food during the holiday, according to a shopkeeper working next door. A teacher and a government official told AFP that schools discourage students from using the traditional Arabic Muslim greeting “As-Salaam Alaikum” [“peace be upon you”]. “The government thinks this Islamic word is equal to separatism,” the official said.

The region’s ubiquitous surveillance cameras are particularly abundant in places of worship: an empty mosque in the southern city of Yarkand had three of them pointing directly at the spot where the imam leads prayers. Even more hung from the wooden rafters like bats. At police stations, officers monitor screens with direct feeds from mosques as well as other buildings and nearby streets.

In the run-up to Eid in the southwestern desert oasis town of Hotan, police manned checkpoints with rifles and crude spears made from metal pipes. At one intersection, men in bulletproof vests stopped traffic for a fleet of dozens of heavily armoured trucks, personnel carriers with mounted guns and black vans. The caravans patrolled the city every day during the month of Ramadan, a police officer said.

Chinese official demoted for not smoking in front of Muslims

At a mosque in the heart of Hotan, Muslims gathering for Friday prayers passed through a police barricade and showed identity documents at two checkpoints before entering. Inside, plainclothes men with Communist Party lapel pins and sunglasses kept a close eye on hundreds of worshippers.

At the front of the mosque, an LED signboard reminded people that “the greatest task for Xinjiang’s masses is harmonising ethnic unity and religion.” Such signs are a common sight throughout Xinjiang, where tensions between Uighurs and the majority Han ethnic group have led to violent clashes.

Chinese authorities have long linked their crackdown on Uighur Muslims to international counter-terrorism efforts, arguing that separatists are bent on joining foreign militants like Al-Qaeda.

Uighurs have been tied to mass stabbings and bombings that left dozens dead in recent years across the country. Riots and clashes with the government killed hundreds more. Worries about ‘extremism’ notwithstanding, many Xinjiang residents fear the loss of their cultural identity and question whether the government has gone too far.

“We don’t want it to become another Pakistan or Afghanistan,” a shopkeeper in Tashkurgan said, fearing violence could spill into China from the nearby countries. But, he added, “only a small minority of Muslims are extremists. The Chinese government can’t differentiate.”

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1456880/chinas-uighur-muslims-struggle-police-state/

@waz @Jungibaaz @The Eagle

Sounds much worse than Palestine to me. Of course, not nearly enough to earn China eternal enmity as is the case with Israel.

 

[Zabaniyah]

A very pointless effort as far as combating terrorism is concerned. Anyone can be a potential terrorist willing to commit acts in the name of Islam. He/she could very easily be wearing a suit, be clean shaven, dress sexy, 'civilized' and such.

You don't buy it? Let me share some experience here. Remember the cafe siege in Dhaka? None of those boys sported beards. In fact, no one ever suspected them to have had become radicalized. Heck, one of them was the son of a ruling party (a secular party) member. Ask yourselves Chinese netizens, did the boy who committed the terror act in Bangkok (primary target being the Chinese tourists) 'look' like a Muslim?

As far as culture goes, their country, their rules, their problems. It is no secret that there is significant anti-Muslim sentiment among Chinese. They just don't elaborate it for fear of hampering business. But it is there....

 

[StraightShooter]

Chinese means business. No ifs and buts.

You can do nothing but admire and respect Chinese leadership.

 

[Bombaywalla]

Not a peep eh?

Haha

 

[BABA AGHORI]

 

[Loafer]

Sometimes it feels for some south Asian Muslims Chinese have replaced the position of Allah on their life.

 

[Place Of Space]

The similar thread is like your period, once a month.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

LOL these Hindu got frustrated that their Hindu temples got burned and want to vent their frustration by stirring up trouble between China and Muslim .