Chinese academic defends beer festival in Muslim region

[Devil Soul]

Chinese academic defends beer festival in Muslim region
By AFP
Published: June 23, 2015

Two ethnic Uighur men walk in a clothing market in downtown Urumqi, Xinjiang province. PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING: A Chinese Communist party academic defended a government-organised beer festival in a mainly Muslim county ahead of Ramazan by saying that locals enjoy alcohol, state media reported Tuesday.

Islam prohibits alcohol but authorities in Niya county in China’s troubled Xinjiang region held a beer drinking contest last Monday, three days before the start of Islam’s holiest month, with cash prizes of up to $160 for winners, the Global Times said.

The county is in southern Xinjiang, the heartland of the Uighur ethnic minority, who are mostly Muslim.

Uighur rights groups say restrictions on Islam have added to ethnic tensions in the far western Muslim-majority region, where clashes have killed hundreds in recent years.

Read: Exiles angered as China holds beer festival in Muslim county

China says it faces a terrorist threat in Xinjiang, with officials blaming “religious extremism” for growing violence.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for exiled group the World Uyghur Congress, slammed the festival as an “open provocation” to faithful Muslims in a statement.

But the Global Times cited La Disheng, professor at a Xinjiang Communist party training school as saying that “many Uighurs… like to drink for pleasure”.

He labelled those condemning drinking among local Muslims as “extremists and separatists”.

The Communist party tightly controls the media, and initial reports about the beer festival were apparently deleted on Tuesday.

China has banned civil servants, students and teachers in Xinjiang from fasting during Ramazan and ordered restaurants to stay open, official websites said this month.

Xinjiang’s government-run Tianshan website showed that officials in Niya county organised an event where local Muslims made and ate rice dumplings on Saturday, three days after the start of Ramazan, during which devout Muslims abstain from all food and drink during daylight hours.

 

[Ajit Kumar]

Chinese academic defends beer festival in Muslim region
By AFP
Published: June 23, 2015

Two ethnic Uighur men walk in a clothing market in downtown Urumqi, Xinjiang province. PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING: A Chinese Communist party academic defended a government-organised beer festival in a mainly Muslim county ahead of Ramazan by saying that locals enjoy alcohol, state media reported Tuesday.

Islam prohibits alcohol but authorities in Niya county in China’s troubled Xinjiang region held a beer drinking contest last Monday, three days before the start of Islam’s holiest month, with cash prizes of up to $160 for winners, the Global Times said.

The county is in southern Xinjiang, the heartland of the Uighur ethnic minority, who are mostly Muslim.

Uighur rights groups say restrictions on Islam have added to ethnic tensions in the far western Muslim-majority region, where clashes have killed hundreds in recent years.

Read: Exiles angered as China holds beer festival in Muslim county

China says it faces a terrorist threat in Xinjiang, with officials blaming “religious extremism” for growing violence.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for exiled group the World Uyghur Congress, slammed the festival as an “open provocation” to faithful Muslims in a statement.

But the Global Times cited La Disheng, professor at a Xinjiang Communist party training school as saying that “many Uighurs… like to drink for pleasure”.

He labelled those condemning drinking among local Muslims as “extremists and separatists”.

The Communist party tightly controls the media, and initial reports about the beer festival were apparently deleted on Tuesday.

China has banned civil servants, students and teachers in Xinjiang from fasting during Ramazan and ordered restaurants to stay open, official websites said this month.

Xinjiang’s government-run Tianshan website showed that officials in Niya county organised an event where local Muslims made and ate rice dumplings on Saturday, three days after the start of Ramazan, during which devout Muslims abstain from all food and drink during daylight hours.

The Chinese dont believe in Any religion I think.

 

[Kyle Sun]

I saw so many uighurs drink beer when I was a student.
Gov gave those uighurs food allowance,but they spent the allowance to buy a drink. they drink beer like water.
thay really confused me,some eat pork also!

 

[Ajit Kumar]

I saw so many uighurs drink beer when I was a student.
Gov gave those uighurs food allowance,but they spent the allowance to buy a drink. they drink beer like water.
thay really confused me,some eat pork also!

You can not be right. A pakistani just few minutes bfore told me that Pork is haram for muslims.

 

[Kyle Sun]

You can not be right. A pakistani just few minutes bfore told me that Pork is haram for muslims.

I just say what I see.
and I still remember the allowance ,it's 500rmb 15years ago.

 

[Ajit Kumar]

I just say what I see.
and I still remember the allowance ,it's 500rmb 15years ago.

why are you giving that much amount of money ?

 

[Kyle Sun]

why are you giving that much amount of money ?

beacuse they are minority and their families were poor. So our school gave them 500rmb per month. it was a lot of money at that time. i only spent 250rmb per month.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

In Beijing, if you want to get some good stuffs to smoke, you go to the Uighure street.

On topic, nobody forces them to go to the beer festival. Just stay out of the place and don't tell how others to live their life.

 

[Koovie]

Whats there to defend? Why should everybody be forced to follow the fasting just because the majority does it?


Should be common sense...

 

[Jesus Christ 2015]

In Beijing, if you want to get some good stuffs to smoke, you go to the Uighure street.

On topic, nobody forces them to go to the beer festival. Just stay out of the place and don't tell how others to live their life.

This is true, the festival is not forcing anyone to come. If the festival was scheduled, there is only one reason, i'm lovin it.

 

[Ajit Kumar]

Yeah that Pakistani was right, but your Indian mind apparently runs at IQ levels similar to room temperatures.

what that has to do with this topic ? reported for trolling.

 

[Nan Yang]

Beer is just barley juice. Chinese beers have very low alcoholic content anyway.

 

[VCheng]

http://www.economist.com/news/leade...-terrorism-xinjiang-try-treating-muslims-more

Muslims in China
Wooing Islamists with a beer festival
China’s government wonders how to stop terrorism in Xinjiang. Try treating Muslims more sensitively
From the print edition

IN CHINA’S far western region of Xinjiang, the authorities are fearful. What they call terrorist attacks carried out by Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group that regards Xinjiang as its homeland, have killed 400 people in the past couple of years. The latest such incident, on June 22nd, left 18 people dead near the southern city of Kashgar. In recent months officials in Xinjiang claim to have broken up more than 180 terrorist groups—at least one of them reportedly set up by Uighurs who had fought with Islamic State in the Middle East. State television recently aired footage of children being turned into “killing machines” for global jihad at a training camp near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. China’s rhetoric is overblown, but the country is right to worry about terrorism. In March last year a group of Uighurs knifed 31 Chinese civilians to death at a railway station in the south-western city of Kunming.

China recognises that part of the problem is a home-grown one: that many of Xinjiang’s 10m Uighurs have felt left out of the country’s economic boom. Thanks, not least, to its oil and gas industries, Xinjiang’s own economy has been growing fast, too. But this has mainly benefited ethnic Hans, who form about 40% of the province’s population. Firms in Xinjiang often prefer to employ Hans, because they speak better Chinese and because there is a shortage of skilled Uighurs. Officials say, plausibly, that better education for Uighurs is crucial for improving stability. Overcoming racial prejudice among employers would help. In 2009 long-simmering ethnic tensions erupted into an orgy of rioting in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, leaving around 200 people dead and the region even more ethnically divided than before.

The terrorist murder of civilians is wrong, however beleaguered a people. But China can help bring about the calm it seeks by treating Uighur culture and faith with more respect. Even as officials wage what they call a “people’s war” against terrorism, they inflame Muslim fury by banning women from wearing face-veils and men from growing long beards. Other countries, such as Belgium and France, have also mistakenly banned the veil, but China’s restrictions are especially draconian. In March a man was jailed for six years by a court in Xinjiang for “provoking trouble”; his offences included growing a beard. His wife got a two-year sentence for covering her face. Before the holy month of Ramadan this year, officials reiterated a ban on the observance of fasting rituals by bureaucrats, teachers and students. In January they decreed that pilgrims to Saudi Arabia must travel in state-organised groups. (Few win permission to go.) Small wonder many Uighurs see what officials call “bilingual education” as a trick to marginalise their language and identity.

Show a little respect

Last year China launched a hearts-and-minds operation in Xinjiang: 200,000 officials were told to spend time living among Uighurs in order to understand their problems. They clearly failed to listen hard enough. Earlier this month, as Muslims in Xinjiang prepared for Ramadan, rural officials near the city of Hotan decided to organise a beer festival. A local news website showed pictures of men glugging down beer in a drinking contest. Uighurs in exile expressed outrage; in a rare climbdown of sorts, the report was censored.

A counter-terrorism law is now being drafted that could allow officials to brand any unauthorised religious activity as “extremism”. That would play into the hands of terrorists. The way to peel violent extremists from the general population is to give Muslims fewer grievances. Heavy-handedness will only make Xinjiang—and the rest of China—less safe.

From the print edition: Leaders

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

http://www.economist.com/news/leade...-terrorism-xinjiang-try-treating-muslims-more

Wooing Islamists with a beer festival
China’s government wonders how to stop terrorism in Xinjiang. Try treating Muslims more sensitively

When and where exactly has that approach "stopped terrorism"?

One country that stopped terrorism was Sri Lanka, and they didn't do it by coddling people.

 

[70U63]

Some people can't accept the fact that some of their Muslim brothers are not actually a Muslim, but only their identity to the public.