As Muslims around the world prepare to begin the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims in China are facing a fasting ban while their cultural and religious traditions are increasingly coming under attack, according to a media report.
Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang are being ordered not to allow their children to fast, with the latter being quizzed by the authorities as to whether their parents are fasting, local officials and rights groups said, RFA reported.
“During Ramadan, the authorities are requiring 1,811 villages [in Xinjiang] to implement a round-the-clock monitoring system, including spot home inspections of Uyghur families,” World Uyghur Congress spokesperson Dilshat Rishit said, RFA reported.
During Ramadan, Muslims are called to fast during daylight hours.
China’s 11.4 million Hui Muslims close-knit ethnic Chinese communities who have maintained their Muslim faith over centuries are in danger of being erased entirely under the Communist Party’s draconian religious rules, rights groups have warned in a new report.
They have been identified by Beijing as “a threat to be resolved through forcible assimilation”, said a report from a coalition of rights groups, including the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), RFA reported.
This is in stark contrast to the relative freedom they enjoyed before President Xi Jinping launched a renewed attack on religious worship, forcing Christians, Muslims and Buddhists alike to submit to party control and censorship of their religious lives under his “sinicisation”, the report said.
