www.kansascity.com | 09/28/2008 | China’s Muslims say Ramadan a time of repression
China’s Muslims say Ramadan a time of repression
By WILLIAM FOREMAN
Associated Press Writer
William Foreman
Uighurs are seen at the Sufi mosque in Yarkent, in China’s western Xinjiang province Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008. For followers of Islam, Ramadan is supposed to be a time of fasting, spiritual reflection and prayer. But for many members of China’s Muslim ethnic Uighur minority, the holy month is also full of fear and seething resentment about increasingly tight restrictions - coming on the heels of a series of attacks - on how they worship and practice their moderate form of Islam.
All that was left on the chin of the Muslim man praying at the huge brownstone mosque was a small patch of stubble. He said officials had forced young men in China’s far western Xinjiang region to cut off their beards at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
“If I didn’t shave, they would do this to me,” said the man, who put his wrists together as if handcuffed, his eyes bulging with anger. “If I say more, I could be arrested.”
He gave only part of his name, Arem, and stomped away.
For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting and prayer. But for China’s Muslim ethnic Uighurs, the holy month is also full of fear and seething resentment about increasingly tight restrictions on how they practice their moderate form of Islam, influenced by the Sunni and Sufi sects.
Managing the restive Turkic people is developing into one of China’s biggest challenges. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs have been unwilling to buy into the government’s plan: greater economic prosperity instead of greater religious freedom or autonomy.
This year has been especially jittery in Xinjiang, a sprawling territory three times the size of France that is home to 9 million Uighurs (pronounced WEE-GURS). Despite ramped-up security in the region before the Beijing Olympics, a string of bombings and deadly attacks - the worst wave of violence in a decade - deeply embarrassed China under the global spotlight.
China blamed terrorists, but has yet to release evidence that links terror groups to attacks that killed 33 people in Kuqa and Kashgar in western Xinjiang.
With the Olympics over and the world’s focus elsewhere, it seems to be payback time for Xinjiang. Overseas Uighur rights groups have accused the government of mass arrests, which police deny. Uighurs interviewed by The Associated Press in Kuqa and Kashgar complained of sweeping detentions but would not say more. In Kuqa, security officials followed an AP journalist for most of his visit.
The most obvious signs of tension are the tight restrictions on Ramadan, which ends this week.
Several local governments have posted lists of warnings on their Web sites, including a detailed one by the township of Yingmaili in Xayar county, near Kuqa. Government employees, teachers and students can’t fast during Ramadan. Mosques can’t host out-of-town visitors or play video and sound recordings. Proselytizing in public is prohibited. Surveillance of mosques must be increased. Restaurants must stay open during the daylight fasting period.
“All effective means must be used to make sure that men shave their beards and that women remove veils that cover their faces,” adds the notice.
A slogan painted on a wall in the area warns Muslims it is illegal to make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca except with a government-sanctioned tour group.
Such restrictions have long been on the books but were selectively enforced, said Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College in California.
“The government has really been enforcing these restrictions in Xinjiang more than in the past,” Gladney said. “In other Muslim areas in China, you certainly don’t see these similar kinds of restrictions.”
In many ways, Xinjiang is China’s Siberia. This harsh land of snowcapped mountains and scorching deserts is broken up by oil fields and oasis cities surrounded by lush fields of cotton, melons and grapes. The territory has been China’s nuclear test ground and home to an extensive “laogai,” a gulag-like prison system.
Xinjiang also shares borders with Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations - a volatile neighborhood that makes Beijing nervous.
www.kansascity.com | 09/28/2008 | China’s Muslims say Ramadan a time of repression