China crackdown on Islam in push against terrorism

Away from the eyes of the world, China continues to wage its war against Islam more vehemently. After stripping Islam of several of its symbols, and after banning even "certain names," the Xinjian population has now been asked to hand over all copes of the Holy Koran and prayer mats as "they are terror symbols" and promote enmity and distrust among various groups.

It should be known that the Chinese authorities have already banned the names such as Islam (Aslam), Quran, Saddam and Mecca as well as references to the star and crescent moon symbol as those were all unacceptable. People who defy authorities suffer all benefits including social services, healthcare and education.

Now, the Chinese authorities have asked the Muslims living in the North Western Xinjiang to hand over all religious items from their households to the authorities including the Holy Koran and prayer mats as they form part of terror items. This is the latest in the anti-Muslim campaign of the Chinese authorities and just caps the long and relentless campaign against terrorists.

Of course, this has not been commented upon by anyone in this country so far. An alarmed Uyghur Human Rights Project has urged the world to take note of the repression and come to their rescue, but as it happens in case of China, not many would like to comment upon.

China's State Council has introduced new regulations that further criminalise religious practice and belief. The Religious Affairs Regulations (RAR) target faith communities with strict measures mandating loyalty to China and punishing individuals whose behaviour falls outside a state-definition of religious behaviour.

The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) is worried at the intrusiveness of the regulations into private religious life and rejected the implication made in the new measures that people of faith should be treated as state suspects. UHRP called on China to respect international human rights standards on freedom of religion and to end the targeting of Uyghurs and others in China purely based on their faith.

“The new religious regulations demonstrate how Xi Jinping’s administration is founded on division. In Xi’s China loyalty is demanded and not earned. Ethnic minorities, dissidents and people of faith present a challenge to Beijing’s vision of unquestioned allegiance to the state. If these groups do not fall into line, their vilification creates a convenient scapegoat for a morally compromised government,” said UHRP Director Omer Kanat in a statement from Washington, DC.

Kanat added: “Uyghurs have long been portrayed as disloyal to the Chinese state. The intensification of this process since the 9/11 attacks on the United States has placed Uyghurs under the strictest laws governing religion and turned Uyghurs across China into permissible targets of ethnic profiling. We are now witnessing the extension of this divisive approach to other religious groups in China.”

The State Council of the People’s Republic of China promulgated the 2017 RAR on August 28, 2017. The 77 articles of the document will come into force on February 1, 2018. The measures are a revision of the 2005 RAR. A September 7, 2017 Reuters article describes how the new regulations “use strong and specific language about the need to protect China’s national security against threats from religious groups.” For example, Articles 3 and 4 state:

The management of religious affairs upholds the principles of protecting what is lawful, prohibiting what is unlawful, suppressing extremism, resisting infiltration, and fighting crime…Religion must not be used by any individual or organization to engage in activities that endanger national security, disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or obstruct the State educational system, as well as other activities that harm State or societal public interests, or citizens’ lawful rights and interests, and other such illegal activities.”

Further clauses of Article 4 reaffirm the necessity of religious groups to demonstrate loyalty to China and couple religious practice with anti-state activities. “Religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious citizens shall abide by the Constitution, laws, regulations and rules; practice the core socialist values; and preserve the unification of the country, ethnic unity, religious harmony and social stability…Individuals and organizations must not create contradictions and conflicts between different religions, within a single religion, or between religious and non-religious citizens; must not advocate, support, or fund, religious extremism; and must not use religion to undermine ethnic unity, divide the nation or carry out terrorist activities.”

Chinese authorities are extending their reach into the practice of religion more than ever before as the country pushes forward its agenda of OBOR and takes Pakistan into its 'Drritarashtra's Hug." On September 6 this year government leaders from the five officially approved religions held a conference in Beijing on “Chinese culture and religious sinicization (a process where non-Han Chinese come under the influence of Han Chinese State and societal mores).” The religious leaders agreed that “the direction of religions is to integrate them with Chinese culture,” including in terms of doctrine and culture.

The authorities have for years required the Chinese flag to be placed inside mosques in East Turkestan. Not satisfied with it, the mosques have also been holding weekly flag raising ceremonies and display banners promoting loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and “Chinese style Islam.”

In a 2013 report, UHRP documented the increasing number of national and regional regulations limiting the Uyghurs’ fundamental right to religious freedom including curbs on Uyghur religious life, including provision of private religious education, attendance at mosques, choice of dress, ability to perform the Hajj and observe Ramadan, and selection of clergy.

Since 2013, religious repression has expanded with the process of de-extremification process launched by the authorities. The regulations illustrate how religious restrictions are usually implemented among Uyghurs before the Chinese government puts in place curbs at the national level. The De-extremification measures create an explicit link between religion and extremism without consideration of root causes such as social and economic discrimination or the suppression of free speech.

Universal religious freedom is protected under Article 18 of the normative human rights standards outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Of late, the authorities have been warning neighbourhoods and mosques that ethnic minority Muslim families of severe punishment if the any of the prayer material is found in their homes.
There are reports similarly that the authorities in Kashgar, Hotan and other regions have adopted similar practices starting last week.

In a communication this week, the spokesman for the exile World Uyghur Congress group, Dilxat Raxit said "copies of the Koran and related items must be handed into the government authorities, and there will be notices being broadcast via WeChat, China's most popular social media app". Chinese officials maintain that all Koran copies have to be removed due to its extremist content.

The Korans were taken as part of the 'Three Illegals and One Item' campaign that was underway in Xinjiang, which is against 'illegal' religious items owned by mostly Muslim Uyghurs.

This operation bans 'illegal' publicity, religious activities, religious teaching, and items believed to be tools of terrorism including flammable objects, and knives.

China says it is facing threats from domestic cults and radical Islam, According to a copy of the regulations posted on the State Council's official website the latest measures focus on 'maintaining legality, blocking extremism, and attacking crime'.

What would Pakistan, which keeps accusing India of unleashing repression in Kashmir, say to this? Or, all those Indian voices that join its chorus?