The Islamic holy month of Ramadan brings with it “extreme suffering, pervasive surveillance, and unyielding oppression” for the majority-Muslim population of occupied East Turkistan under Chinese communism, Uyghur activists and experts told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Tuesday.
Ramadan – a month during which most Muslims participate in fasting during daylight hours, keep a more rigorous prayer schedule, and host nightly religious events – began on Monday in most of the world. The Chinese Communist Party formally allows the existence of Islam in the territories that it controls, but has waged a campaign to “Sinicize” it: to erase all aspects of the faith that are incompatible with communist atheism and force imams and other faith leaders to promote the agenda of the Party. China has similarly oppressed the other four religions legal in the country: Protestant Christianity, Catholicism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
For Ramadan, “Sinicization” has meant the banning of most public indications that the holiday is ongoing. The Communist Party officially banned public officials, teachers, and other prominent members of the community in East Turkistan from fasting for Ramadan. By 2019, the Chinese Communist Party had identified fasting for Ramadan as a “sign of extremism,” meaning anyone suspected of fasting could be placed on a terror watch list or shipped to a concentration camp.
The repression of Islam has been at its most brutal in China in East Turkistan, where genocidal dictator Xi Jinping began enacting pervasive policies to erase the indigenous Turkic people of the region in 2017. While the Communist Party has always violently repressed Uyghurs and others, Xi elevated the scale of the abuses with the construction of sprawling concentration camps, in which indigenous people are subject to indoctrination, torture, gang rape, and slavery. Reports also indicate that China engages in the trafficking of organs of concentration camp prisoners and openly sells them as slaves online.
In this image from video, Zumret Dawut, a Uyghur from China’s western Xinjiang region who was forcibly sterilized for having a third child after being released from a Xinjiang detention camp looks at documents at her home in Woodbridge, Virginia, on Monday, June 15, 2020. (Nathan Ellgren, File/AP)
The persecution has directly targeted Islam. Xi has ordered the demolition of historic mosques, cemeteries, and other culturally significant sites. In one particularly offensive episode in 2020, the Chinese government replaced a demolished Uyghur mosque in Atush, East Turkistan, with a public toilet.
Shortly before Ramadan began, during the “two sessions” of national legislatures last week, the head of the Communist Party in East Turkistan asserted that it was “inevitable” that Islam would be “Sinicized” to conform to communism. The National People’s Congress (NPC), the federal lawmaking body, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an “advisory” body made up of well-connected elites, meet once a year to approve legal changes spearheaded by Xi.
“Everyone knows that Islam in Xinjiang needs to be Sinicized; this is an inevitable trend,” Xinjiang Communist Party chief Ma Xingrui proclaimed last week. China refers to East Turkistan by the Mandarin name “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” or XUAR.
Uyghur activists and human rights leaders condemned the declaration as essentially calling for “the eradication of Islam.”
“China has a history of hostility towards Islam and has targeted the religious beliefs of Uyghurs,” Turghunjan Alawidin, a member of the East Turkistan Scholars Union, told RFA in an article published Tuesday. “Chinese authorities seem to acknowledge that erasing Uyghur religious beliefs is necessary to gain compliance; thus, they are actively suppressing Islam.”
Rushan Abbas, the head of the advocacy group Campaign for Uyghurs, described Ramadan to RFA as “synonymous with extreme suffering, pervasive surveillance and unyielding oppression.”
“This year, the situation is further inflamed by Ma Xingrui’s audacious remarks about the inevitability of the Sinicization of Islam in East Turkistan,” she added.
Campaign for Uyghurs issued a call to action on Monday to advocate for the rights of Muslims in the region, condemning Ma’s statements as an indication “the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] will continue its Uyghur genocide and relentless war on religion.”
Guard towers stand on the perimeter wall of the Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on April 23, 2021. China’s discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity, the U.N. human rights office said in a long-awaited report released Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Mark Schiefelbein, File/AP)
The World Uyghur Congress, a global advocacy group for the East Turkistan ethnic group, issued a statement at the start of Ramadan reminding the world of the “unique challenges” that Uyghur Muslims face to observe the holy month.
“As they strive to observe this sacred month, many are subjected to oppressive policies and restrictions on their religious practices. Despite these obstacles, the Uyghur community remains resilient, drawing strength from their faith and the support of allies worldwide,” the group’s statement reads. “While Uyghurs are restricted from observing the Holy Month of Ramadan, join us in dedicating our duas and good deeds for Uyghurs in East Turkistan.”