Written by: Averroes
(1.0) Introduction
China is a secularist or atheist State, whichever one may want to describe it. They are very sensitive when there is discussion regarding the Islamic religion. Since the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976) all religious traditions were ruthlessly suppressed.
However, the situation became less tense after the said Cultural Revolution. Cultures, traditions, values and faiths were allowed to flourish again, well to a certain degree. It was through the Law on National Regional Autonomy of 1984, that enabled minorities pluralistic rights, allowing for the construction of mosques and private religious education, to a certain degree.
The ramping up of the prejudicial sentiments against Islam, sparked after the 9/11 events, hence many rhetorics were raised. The Chinese government had coined the "war on terror" or their "Strike Hard, Maximum Pressure" campaign and considered that the Uyghur separatists are now terrorists, by by further suppressing Islamic education and knowledge.
China's goal is to maintain their territorial integrity and sovereignty, from the innocent Uyghurs, by confusing a small fraction of troublesome Uyghurs, attributable to the larger demographics of Uyghurs.
These included the views that Islam and its identity were associated with violence, ethnic separatism of the Chinese Muslims, extremism and terrorism. As a result, the Uyghur's Islamic practice and culture has been severely damaged by the Chinese authorities.
(2.0) Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are among the 55 officially recognised minority groups in China, as opposed to the 91% majority Han group. The Xinjiang area was annexed by the Manchu Empire into China proper in the second half of the 18th Century.
Throughout history, there were mass attempts to colonise and influx or exodus of Han Chinese into the region. Xinjiang in Chinese means 'new territory'. Previously, Qing also went on to conquer Xinjiang in 1759 and to absord it into the Qing State as a province in 1884.
The Uyghurs are ethnically Turkic and has been there ever since the 10th century, where they follow the moderate form of Sunni Islam, mixed around with local norms and customs. They managed to gain independence twice, under the East Turkestan Islamic Republic (1933-1934) and the East Turkestan Republic (1944-1949).
In 2010, the Uyghur population is more than 10 million. The reason why China is still holding onto the area is because, it is abundant in resources of oil and gas. Until today, it is extremely difficult to enter XUAR and gain the perspectives of the Uyghurs, due to tight censorship and security measures.
(3.0) What China has done?
Particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), China has been implementing policies regarding religious education in that territory. China has advocated to separate religious education or activities from compulsory education under both the primary and secondary levels.
Since 2017, XUAR is among the most 'policed' areas in the world with one time, 100,000 security personnel and constructed thousands of 'Convenience Police Stations'. The police were then equipped with facial recognition video, cell phone inspection software, remote cell phone tracking and sniffing. The use of biometric data was also used.
In June 2017, for instances, their surveillance system detected 24,421 'suspicious persons' in the Kashgar, Khotan, Kizilsu and Aksu districts and prefectures, where 706 of them were arrested as criminals, 15,683 were sent to the Nazi Concentration Camps and 2,096 were put under preventive surveillance.
Some of the trivial arrests, include travelling overseas to 26 sensitive countries, going on an unofficial Hajj pilgrimage, applying for a passport, communicating with someone abroad and accidentally clicking on an overseas website on their phone.
As a result, between 2017-2018, more than 350,000 people were prosecuted through this new legal regime in Xinjiang. Clearly, these Nazi Concentration Camps disguised as educational institutions target specific people from prominent Turkic Muslim academics, writers, journalists, doctors, entertainers and those from the educated background.
Indications of facilities of perimeter walls, guard watchtowers and armed guards to prevent escapes, it is clearly a prison and forced 'deradicalisation'.
Some of the them would include as follows;
This is apparent under article 8 of the Education Law of the People's Republic of China (EL), adopted in 1995. The law fundamentally stipulates that;
"Education activities shall be in the benefit of public interests of the State and the society. The state shall separate education from religion. Any organization or individual may not employ religion to obstruct activities of the state education system."
The only 'religious knowledge' impart at the primary and secondary levels are only the introduction to the world's major religions and the relevant cultures.
This has caused a rift between the Muslim Uyghurs and the majority Han population. There are serious ramifications. Even if there are religion in the Chinese education system or religious institutions operating these institutions, they must cultivate patriotism and loyalty to the Communist Party.
This is true, in the sense of article 82 of the EL prescribes that; "regulations governing education of religious schools shall be formulated separately by the State Council."
After 9/11 Event, youngsters are prohibited from attending mosques for prayers, any religious education in underground madrasas, wearing religious symbols and engaging religious activities, which includes fasting during Ramadan. All of these were banned in all educational institutions within Xinjiang.
Latest Developments:
Situations of a person who is suspected of supposedly expressing signs of radicalisation, includes participating in mainstream religious activities from praying, fasting, wearing hijab, growing a beard and abstaining from alcohol.
New rules were issued in October 2016, to forbid Uyghur parents from teaching their children religious knowledge, as well as to send or coerce their children into religious activities. If not, they would face serious punishments.
In March 2017, a new regulation was issued. According to article 4 of the Uyghur Autonomous Region Regulation on De-extremification (the regulation), it further restricts religious knowledge or information sharing in all private and public spaces. It explicitly mentions to make Islam, more Chinese under the law and guide religions to be more compatible with a socialist society.
Also, article 40 of the same regulation states that religious schools and institutions are required to adhere to direction of 'sinocization' of religion, to perform duties of cultivating and training religious professionals, to avoid permeation of extermification.
This implies that Islam is a primitive and innately brutish religion. After heavy barrages of criticisms, the Chinese government reworded the regulation as to 'educate and transform' people from extremism, by enrolling them in vocational skills and educational training centres, to teach them Mandarin, Chinese law and occupational skills.
There are even counter-extremism training schools, which the Uyghurs would have to go for months or indefinitely from their families to 'deradicalise' from their religious ideologies. It came about in early 2017 in Xinjiang, where many have been 'deradicalised' and many Uyghurs, perhaps as to reach one million are living in these Nazi concentration camps. The conditions there are also poor.
These Nazi concentration camps are destroying and harming the identity, dignity and honour of the detainess and also shattered their physical health. Uyghurs studying Islam abroad are also being deported or extradited back to China, for instances in Egypt.
(4.0) International Law
In addition the mentioned regulation and policies, China also amended their domestic laws from the Criminal Law, to adopting the National Security Law of 2015, Counter-Terrorism Law 2016, the Cybersecurity Law 2017 and Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs 2018.
UN Human Rights experts condemn these amendments as to have imprecise and broad definitions on national security offences, pertaining to terrorism and extremism, which allows for arbitrary and discriminative prosecution and conviction.
With what China is committing, their acts and conduct falls under the egregious patterns of human rights violations, against populations which they wield control. They are known as crimes against humanity.
Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity may occur in absence of armed conflict, and times of peace. Unlike genocide, it does not require evidence of "intent to destroy in whole or in part" a protected group.
All that is required is that there is "widespread or systematic attacks against any civilian population." Hence, crimes against humanity are universally prohibited under international law.
Since there are large-scale detention programmes, systematic abuse experienced by Uyghur detainees, lack of information related to those in State custody would constitute at least three of the eleven acts of crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
These three acts would be;
(i) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law,
(ii) Torture and,
(iii) Enforced disappearance of persons
Not to mention that the Uyghurs would also be subjected to mental anguish, deprivation and patterns of abuses from 'other inhumane acts... causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health', which is another component of crimes against humanity.
Moreover, the Rome Statute defines persecution on religious or cultural grounds as part of crime against humanity. It is "the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of a group or collectivity."
There are even reports that the Uyghur detainess were sent to factories for employment as part of forced labour and with the 'deradicalisation' policy, the Uyghurs are being gradually assimilated into the enlightened or civilised Han culture.
The detainees were also separated from their families, especially children without parents as they caretakers were sent into incarceration. These children are then considered as orphans and sent to boarding school to learn Chinese and punished from speaking their native languages.
The most vile of these all would include discrimination against women, where on several occassions, they were gang-raped and tortured with electroshock inside their genitals. Uyghur women's reproductive rights had been violated by the Chinese officials.
(5.0) Conclusion
In totality, if these policies and laws were to continue, it is ineffective and breeds more resentment and further bloodshed among the community of the Uyghurs and Han population. The lack of Islamic knowledge itself would stimulate more misunderstanding of the Islamic religion itself and they would be more susceptible to extremist teachings.
So far, China's response to international criticisms is to ease the pressure, rebrand the policies or covertly shut down the existence of mass detention programmes. Therefore, China must end all of their discriminative and oppressive practices towards their citizens.
The UN bodies and agencies must investigate and formulate recommendations that China should adhere to as to follow the principles of International Law. Other nations around the world must have diplomatic discussion with China to end all hostilities and find plausible solutions as to reach a harmonious conclusion for all parties.
(6.0) References;
Dilmurat Mahmut. (2019) Controlling religious knowledge and education for countering religious extremism: Case study of the Uyghur Muslims in China. Forum for International Research in Education. 5(1), 22-43.
Global Centre For The Responsibility To Protect (2019) The Persecution of the Uighurs and Potential Crimes Against Humanity in China. Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.
Millward, J., & Peterson, D. (2020) China's System of Oppression in Xinjiang: How it developed and how to curb it. Global China Assessing China's Growing Role in the World.
Fuller, G., & Starr, S. (n.d) The Xinjiang Problem. Central Asia-Caucus Institute.
Human Rights Watch. (2021) "Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots" Chinese Government Crimes against Humanity Targeting Uyghurs and Other Turkic Muslims. Mills Legal Clinic, Standford Law School.
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