The information comes from an article in the Al Jazeera newspaper from September 13, 2018, but is very actual because the situation for the Chinese Muslims, the Uighurs, has continued to worsen.
A significant humanitarian crisis is unfolding in China, and the international community must intervene proactively before the situation escalates further.
The prohibition of observing Ramadan served as a clear warning to Uighurs, signalling that expressing Islam would face unchecked punishment. This state-imposed ban on Ramadan not only dealt a severe blow to a fundamental aspect of Uighur culture and life but also reinforced the official stance that Islam is viewed as “an ideological illness” requiring not just legal prosecution but pathological correction.
Beginning in 2013, internment camps, euphemistically labelled as “re-education centres” by the state, expanded in size and number. Within these overcrowded facilities, state agents are tasked with addressing the perceived “illness” of Islam through a range of distressing measures. These include compelling Uighur Muslims to violate Islamic dietary restrictions by consuming pork and alcohol, memorizing and reciting Communist Party songs, engaging in strenuous labour, attending Mandarin language courses, and undergoing comprehensive training aimed at eradicating their religion and culture.
Currently, 10-20 % of the Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang is or has been subjected to the horrors of these internment camps, constituting the largest such network since World War II. Those who resist within the camps face torture, and there are well-documented reports of deaths, disappearances, and widespread suffering among family members. The majority of those interned are men, and Chinese authorities have exacerbated the gender imbalance by implementing a policy that compels Uighur Muslim women to marry non-Muslim Han men, further diluting the Uighur Muslim population and reinforcing Han dominance.
The spectre of internment hangs over Xinjiang, instilling fear in every Uighur Muslim. The threat of detention has become an inescapable reality of daily life, a weapon wielded by the Chinese government to deter Uighurs from practising their faith. This fear is enforced through pervasive police presence in Uighur Muslim communities, utilizing neighbours, classmates, and colleagues of Uighurs as informants, and, most insidiously, recruiting Uighur children to monitor and implicate their own parents. The level of surveillance and control implemented by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang goes beyond what could be described as Big Brother, involving virtually everyone within Uighur Muslim communities in the systematic eradication of Islam.
