{"id":1356,"date":"2019-05-22T14:47:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2019-05-22T14:47:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:47:43","slug":"uighurs-condemn-china-forcing-muslims-to-eat-pork-during-ramadan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/?p=1356","title":{"rendered":"Uighurs Condemn China Forcing Muslims to Eat Pork During Ramadan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official conceded this week that Beijing had imposed draconian restrictions on Ramadan practices in Muslim-majority Xinjiang, denying reports of a blanket ban on activities during the holy month.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dolkun Isa, the exiled head of the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, told Voice of America (VOA<\/a>) that the CCP has intensified efforts to stifle Ramadan this year, urging Muslims to eat pork in violation of Islamic rules, imposing fasting restrictions, banning headscarves, prohibiting prayer, and other hurdles to the holy month.<\/p>\n

His revelation came on Thursday, the same day that Radio Free Asia (RFA<\/a>), citing a new\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by the U.S.-based Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), reported that Beijing is implementing a policy of \u201clinguistic imperialism\u201d to marginalize the ethnic group\u2019s language with the purpose of eradicating their \u201cethnic identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

China has long oppressed its Uighur (or Uyghur) minority with the intent of erasing their religious and ethnic identity by coercing them into pledging loyalty to the communist party.<\/p>\n

VOA learned from Isa \u201cthat Uighurs who are working in the public sector and students are asked to appear daily at canteens during lunch or they will be accused of secretly fasting and hiding \u2018extremist\u2019 tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He revealed that Beijing mandates that some Uighur public workers ignore\u00a0Ramadan<\/a>, going as far as ordering the predominantly Muslim ethnic group to consume pork during the holy month, a practice forbidden by Islam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, Uighur employees are forced to take home pork and ordered to share with their families,\u201d Isa told VOA. \u201cThe restrictions on Ramadan have been in place every year since 2016, but they are especially hard this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xinjiang, China\u2019s largest province, is home to the highest concentration of the country\u2019s Muslim minority \u2014 mainly Uighurs, but also Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn their attack on Uyghur culture and identity, Chinese officials have portrayed the Uyghur language as \u2018incompatible with modernity\u2019 and are removing its relevance from the education system and public life,\u201d RFA pointed out, citing the UHRP report.
\nIn other words, the Chinese Communist Party is moving the ban the Uighur language altogether.<\/p>\n

UHRP reported:<\/p>\n

Following a pattern of broader development policy that has promoted the adoption of [majority] Han [Chinese] civilization as central to modernization, China has moved to diminish the status of the Uyghur language in society.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe CCP is making every effort to erase our culture,\u201d Abduweli Ayup, a Uighur scholar and linguist mentioned in the UHRP report, declared.<\/p>\n

Isa acknowledged that language is the most essential aspect of an individual\u2019s ethnic identity.<\/p>\n

He told RFA:<\/p>\n

China is doing everything in its power to erase the Uyghur language\u2014beginning in kindergarten\u2014from every aspect of life, which is in violation of the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, the constitution and the country\u2019s international obligations.<\/p>\n

The Uyghur language is one of the most ancient Turkic languages and has been used to make significant contributions to human civilization.<\/p>\n

If the Uyghur language is erased, an inalienable part of human civilization will be lost. Therefore, it is not only the duty of Uyghurs to save and preserve the Uyghur language, but also the duty of the international community.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since 2017, Beijing has intensified its Muslim crackdown, destroying their worshipping sites and forcing them into \u201cconcentration camps\u201d that the Chinese government claims are \u201cvocational\u201d centers aimed at combating religious extremisms, ethnic separatism, and violent terrorism.<\/p>\n

Zhao Lijian, the deputy chief of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, denied that China is in any way preventing all Muslims from observing Ramadan, noting that Beijing has only imposed some restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuslims are free to fast in Xinjiang,\u201d he wrote on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0on May 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestrictions are with Communist Party members, who are atheists; government officials, who shall discharge their duties; students who are with compulsory education & hard learning tasks,\u201d Lijian added.<\/p>\n

VOA noted:<\/p>\n

Chinese officials do not disclose how many people fall under those [communist member] categories. But the groups would include as many as two million Uighurs who are believed to be undergoing compulsory education in prison camps in Xinjiang.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the Chinese diplomat\u2019s assertion that Beijing is not completely blocking Muslim religious practices Ramadan, human rights activists, and Uighur advocacy groups have sounded the alarm about the CCP\u2019s expansion of repressive tactics against thousands of Uighurs during the holy month.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials believe China has sent up to\u00a0three million<\/a>\u00a0of its Muslim minorities, mainly Uighurs, to extrajudicial \u201cconcentration camps\u201d also dubbed \u201cre-education\u201d or \u201cmind-transformation\u201d centers.<\/p>\n

At the facilities, the Muslim detainees and some Uighur Christian converts, are subjected to systemic torture, disappearances, executions, and arbitrary detentions in an effort to coerce them to denounce their religion in favor of the communist party.<\/p>\n

VOA reported:<\/p>\n

The [Chinese] government\u2019s April 2017 regulations to \u201cprevent extremism\u201d drew international outcry, with critics saying they violated basic human rights and religious freedom.<\/p>\n

According to the state-run newspaper\u00a0China Daily<\/em>, the regulations forbid people in the region from wearing full-face coverings and long beards. They also prohibit them from \u201cchoosing names in an abnormal way.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most Muslim governments often quick to repudiate alleged mistreatments of fellow Muslims in the West and Israel, namely as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Nigeria, have\u00a0kept mostly silent<\/a>\u00a0over the persecution of coreligionists in China, seemingly concerned about angering Beijing.<\/p>\n

Given that Uighurs\u00a0share\u00a0cultural and linguistic similarities with other\u00a0Turkic ethnic, Turkey felt compelled to speak out against the persecution of Islam adherents in China.<\/p>\n

To a much lesser extent,\u00a0some<\/a>\u00a0politicians in\u00a0Malaysia, and Indonesia<\/a>, rather than their government as a whole, have also\u00a0condemned<\/a>\u00a0the practice.<\/p>\n

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC<\/a>) and Pakistan\u00a0praised<\/a>\u00a0China\u2019s treatment of its fellow Muslims, dealing a blow to the suffering Uighurs.<\/p>\n

News Source: https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2019\/05\/19\/uighurs-condemn-china-forcing-muslims-to-eat-pork-during-ramadan\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official conceded this week that Beijing had imposed draconian restrictions on Ramadan practices in Muslim-majority Xinjiang, denying reports of a blanket ban on activities during the holy month. Dolkun Isa, the exiled head of the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, told Voice of America (VOA) that the CCP has intensified efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinas-uyghur-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.uyghuracademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}