Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
02 April 2023 | 22:44 CAT

Photo Credit: Al Arabiya

While Muslims worldwide are observing their holy month of Ramzan, Uyghur Muslims in China are facing a prohibition on their fasting. The Chinese authorities have instructed Muslims in the northwestern province of Xinjiang that their children should not fast during Ramadan. The authorities also questioned the children to see if their parents were fasting.

During Ramadhan, the Chinese authorities have implemented a 24-hour monitoring system in 1,811 villages in Xinjiang, including home inspections of Uyghur families. According to reports, local human rights groups have warned that China’s 11.4 million Uyghur Muslims are at risk of being wiped out entirely under the Communist Party’s harsh religious rules.

Western-educated linguist and poet operating in Uyghur language schools and Kashgar, Xinjiang, Abduweli Ayup, told Radio Islam International that up to three million people are in detention camps, with over sixty thousand mosques being destroyed since 2017.

It was reported that many people had been arrested from iftar gatherings with their families, leaving the people in fear of the consequences of fasting.

Meanwhile, children aged six to ten are targeted and used to get information on their parent’s religious observances. According to Ayup, children must give information on the occurrences from home every morning during the reporting process, especially during Ramadhan.

“Children are innocent, honest and cannot hide, which is why they are questioned,” he said.

China has also targeted Muslim communities with its “ethnic unity” campaign, under which authorities pressure members of ethnic minority Uyghur Muslim families to follow non-Muslim traditions, including drinking alcohol and eating pork. In Xinjiang, unity policies have been implemented amid the mass incarceration of at least 1.8 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minority Muslims in ‘re-education’ camps and their deployment in forced labour, rape, sexual exploitation, and forced sterilization of Muslim women in the camps.

Listen to the full interview with host Annisa Essack on Radio Islam’s podcast.