China’s Urumqi bans Islamic veil, sparking rights concerns

Reuters

By Reuters Staff
December 12, 2014

The capital of China’s far western Xinjiang has banned the wearing of Islamic veils in public, the regional government said on Thursday, in a move experts worry could spark more unrest in the troubled region.

The restriction comes as China is stepping up curbs on religious clothing amid increasing nervousness about Islamist extremism. Beijing blames Islamist separatists for several deadly bomb and knife attacks that have killed hundreds of people over the past two years or so.

Many Xinjiang experts say the outlawing of veils and the heavy-handed enforcement of the rules would further stigmatize the region’s minority Uighurs.

Uighurs have traditionally followed a moderate form of Islam, but many have begun adopting practices more commonly seen in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, such as full-face veils for women, as China has intensified a security crackdown in recent years.

The veil ban was “considered and approved” by the Urumqi parliament’s Standing Committee on Wednesday, the official news website of the Xinjiang government said.

It is scheduled to come into force after review by the Xinjiang parliament’s Standing Committee before it is formally announced, the website Tianshan.net, reported.

Xinjiang, home to the Uighur people who speak a Turkic language, has been beset for years by violence that the government blames on Islamist militants or separatists.

James Leibold, an expert on China’s ethnic policy from Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said the ban on the veils would make them “more popular as a symbol of resistance and assertion of ethno-national identity”.

“The Party has drawn a one-to-one link between these styles of head, face and body covering and religious extremist thought and violence,” said Leibold, who is researching anti-veiling practices in Xinjiang.

“It’s a very crude and counterproductive way of trying to deal with the problem of terrorism.”

Exiles and many rights groups say the real cause of the unrest is China’s heavy-handed policies, including curbs on Islam and the culture and language of the Uighurs.

Last month, Xinjiang said it has banned the practice of religion in government buildings and people will be prohibited from wearing or forcing others to wear clothes or logos associated with religious extremism, in a package of regulations aimed at combating separatism.

In August, Karamay, a northwestern city in Xinjiang, banned people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses.

China Tries to Bring Growth to Its Restless Xinjiang Region

Business Week

By Dexter Roberts
December 11, 2014

Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang in China, is a cold and forbidding place to visit in late November. The red and blue flashing lights of police vehicles are everywhere. Soldiers wearing black masks and carrying automatic weapons are spread across the city, often standing next to squat black and white armored vehicles. Every commercial building, hotel, and government office has a metal detector manned by a police officer at its entrance. Fliers scattered around the city explain why women should not wear veils.

Perched on the edge of Central Asia, the region of Xinjiang (“new frontier” in Mandarin) has long presented a dilemma for China’s leaders. It’s home to some of the country’s largest oil, gas, and coal reserves. But its ethnically Turkic, Uighur Muslim inhabitants have long chafed under Chinese rule: Many pro-independence fighters over the decades have attacked Chinese targets, and the violence—what some credit to a shadowy group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement—continues to this day. Beijing labels the ETIM’s members as terrorists.

This year growing anger with Uighurs over what they say is economic discrimination and religious oppression sparked attacks, usually against Chinese residents, that have killed 200 people and undermined Beijing’s control over the region. On Dec. 8, authorities sentenced eight Uighurs to death for their role in two attacks killing 42 at a train station and an Urumqi market in the spring.

President Xi Jinping has presided over seven Politburo meetings about the security, economy, and social conditions in Xinjiang. In April he toured the region, visiting schools, small businesses, police stations, and mosques. “The long-term stability of Xinjiang is vital to the whole country’s reform, development, and stability—to the country’s unity, ethnic harmony, and national security as well as to the great revival of the Chinese nation,” Xi told local officials. His carrot-and-stick strateg

At the heart of Xi’s plans is the Silk Road Economic Belt, a name that evokes the old trade routes across Central Asia that ended in China. The new version of the road is an intensive effort to increase China’s trade with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other nations eager to supply China with oil, gas, and minerals in exchange for China-built and financed infrastructure. Urumqi will be the Silk Road trade network’s financial and administrative capital, providing new jobs to Xinjiang. “China is rediscovering its continental ambitions, and Xinjiang is central to that,” says Tom Miller, an analyst at researcher GavekalDragonomics.

Beijing is building 20 special industrial zones in Xinjiang, similar to those that made coastal China a magnet for outsourcing. Companies in the zones will enjoy tax breaks, cheap rent, and expedited approvals for exporting and importing. Today more than one-quarter of the value of the area’s industrial sector is related to natural resources, compared with the national average of just 5 percent. That leaves the local economy exposed to the commodities slump. Xinjiang’s economy also relies heavily on subsidies from Beijing, which make up more than 60 percent of the budget.

The Uighurs face serious discrimination in the job market, says Wu Xiaogang, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Almost 80 percent of Uighurs still farm, largely in the poor southern half of Xinjiang. One focus of a top-level party meeting in May was the concern that inequality and the jobless rate among young Uighurs in the south were fanning unrest. The senior officials in attendance decided to offer lower tax rates and other benefits to companies that bring jobs to southern Xinjiang. They also pledged that at least one member of every Uighur family will have a job and expanded the placement of Uighurs in factory work in Guangdong province. “The idea is to take them out of subsistence agriculture and push them into migrant worker-type jobs. Like it or not, these people will be dragged into the 21st century,” says Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.

New rules that ban religious practice in government buildings and pressure Muslim women to forsake their veils are alienating many Uighurs, says James Leibold, a political scientist at Australia’s La Trobe University. He says a policy in some parts of Xinjiang to encourage intermarriage between Uighurs and Han Chinese with annual payouts as high as 10,000 yuan ($1,620) for five years is seen as heavy-handed by many.

China Uighurs: Xinjiang city of Urumqi to ban Islamic veil

The Islamic veil has grown increasingly popular among the Muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang.

BBC Asia – The Islamic face veil is to be banned in public in the capital of China’s restive Xinjiang region, home to its Uighur Muslim minority.

The ban was backed by local authorities in Urumqi, state media reported.

The move is the latest in a campaign against Islamic clothing and symbols in the mainly Muslim region.

China’s government has blamed Uighur militants for several recent attacks – but activists say the violence has been fuelled by Chinese repression.

The Uighurs traditionally practice a moderate form of Islam. Recently, though, the influence of stricter forms of the faith from the Gulf and Pakistan has led to more women covering their faces.

According to the BBC’s Asia Pacific editor, Charles Scanlon, the Chinese authorities regard wearing an Islamic face veil as an act of defiance at a time of growing violence in the region.

In August this year, the northern city of Karamay banned men with long beards from boarding buses.

Some experts believe such restrictions could backfire at a time when many Uighurs believe their culture is under attack.

China has maintained tight security in Xinjiang amid fears of Uighur separatism.

James Leibold, an expert on China’s ethnic policy at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, told Reuters news agency that the ban on the veils would make them “more popular as a symbol of resistance and assertion of ethno-national identity”.

He is quoted as saying that China’s Communist party had made a direct link between certain Islamic dress styles and religious extremism.

The law passed in Urumqi is set to come into force after it has been approved by a regional body.

China’s authorities have attributed a wave of recent violence, some of which has targeted civilians in public places, to Uighur militants inspired or aided by overseas terror groups.

It has launched a crackdown in the region, arresting and jailing scores of people.

But Uighur activists say that China’s strong-arm tactics in Xinjiang – including cultural and religious repression – are fuelling tensions.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-30435691

Full-face Islamic veil banned in China’s Uighur region

Reuters / Osman Orsal.

RT Asia – The capital of China’s western Xinjiang region – home to its Uighur Muslim minority – has banned the wearing of veiled Islamic robes in public amid pressure from Beijing to crack down on religious extremism, the regional government said on Thursday.

According to the official website of the Xinjiang government, the ban was “considered and approved” by the Urumqi parliament’s standing committee.

China is becoming increasingly concerned about Islamist extremism, with experts worried that it may create unrest in the troubled region.

Uighurs – the dominant Muslim minority in Xinjiang – mostly practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam, but recently many have begun taking up practices more commonly followed in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, such as making women wear a full face veil.

Experts say the decision to outlaw the face veil will further stigmatize the minority Uighurs.

Reuters / Reinhard Krause.

The ban would “make the veils more popular as a symbol of resistance and assertion of ethno-national identity,” James Leibold – an expert on China’s ethnic policy from Melbourne’s La Trobe University – told Reuters.

“This fits into the larger pattern, keeping up with the trend in the past five years that has really intensified in the last year by the government to try to forcibly reshape and standardize the type of garment among the Uighur females,” he added, as quoted by AP.

The Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, have been beset for years by violence which the Beijing government blames on Islamist militants.

The latest announcement comes just one month after Xinjiang banned the practicing of religion in government buildings, as well as wearing clothes or logos associated with religious extremism.

In August, the northern Xinjiang city of Karamay prohibited young men with beards and women in burqas or hijabs from boarding public buses.

Police have also raided women’s dress shops in the province to confiscate full length robes, AP reported.

In 2013, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement – which is listed as a terrorist group by the UN – produced 107 terror-related audio and video materials.

Turkestan is an area of northwest China. It was formed by Uighur militants whose stated aim is independence from China.

In response to the increasing threat, Xinjiang began a one-year campaign against terror-related violence in May, which will last until June 2015.

China is also facing a growing threat from ISIS. In July, Wu Sike, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, said that up to 100 Uighurs from Xinjiang may be fighting alongside the militant group.

http://rt.com/news/213691-china-xinjiang-bans-muslim-veils/

Chinese Court Frees Uyghur Linguist Following Appeal

Abduweli Ayup and his daughter in a file photo.

RFA Uyghur Service– Chinese authorities have freed a U.S.-educated Uyghur linguist who sought to set up schools to promote the ethnic minority language in the Xinjiang region after more than a year in prison, according to a close relative.

Abduweli Ayup was ordered jailed 18 months and fined 80,000 yuan (U.S. $13,000) for “illegal fundraising” in August by the Tengritagh (in Chinese, Tianshan) district court in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi after being detained for a year.

He was released on Nov. 27 after his partners in an education venture, Muhemmet Sidik and Dilyar Obul, who were convicted in the same trial, appealed their verdict, the relative said, speaking to RFA’s Uyghur Service on condition of anonymity.

State media had not reported the release of Ayup, who did not appeal his sentence.

Uyghurs in exile have suggested that the charges against Ayup and his partners were politically motivated, after the linguist’s essays and lectures on maintaining the Uyghur language in schools drew widespread support in China’s Uyghur community.

“After Abduweli’s trial, our family assumed that he would be released in Febraury 2015, based on the decision of the court [which included his time already spent in detention], but the authorities freed him three months before the end of his jail term,” he said.

The conviction of Ayup, who has a Master’s Degree in Linguistics from the University of Kansas, had received international attention.

A group of supporters in the United States launched a petition on MoveOn.org to publicize his case, receiving hundreds of backers from across the globe. They also set up a Facebook page “Justice for Uyghur Linguist Abduweli Ayup” to highlight his plight.

The petition called on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to protect the rights of ethnic minorities, among other requests.

The mostly Muslim Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness.

Ishat Hesen, vice president of the Uyghur American Association, said he found it strange that Ayup had been convicted of illegal fundraising instead of crimes against the state or separatism.

But he said the authorities were likely eager to avoid drawing international attention to his case in the same way that the September sentencing of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti to life in prison for “separatism” had invited criticism from rights groups and Western governments.

“Ilham Tohti’s case was one of the big lessons for the Chinese government,” Hesen said.

Partners appeal

The education venture partners, Sidik and Obul, who together with Ayup had set up Mother Tongue International Co. to push for Uyghur language education in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, had been sentenced to jail for up to 27 months and fined up to 130,000 yuan (U.S. $21,000).

They were “unsatisfied” with their verdicts and had appealed to the Urumqi Intermediate Court, the relative said.

“We don’t know what the intermediate court’s ruling was on their appeal, but either way, my uncle was released from prison three months early.”

Ayup’s elder sister told the relative that the partners’ prison terms had been reduced, but it was unclear by how many months, adding that the two men were being held in Liudawan prison in Urumqi.

He said that the day after his uncle’s release, Ayup had traveled from the capital to his home in Kashgar’s old city, where he was ”recovering from his trauma” along with his wife and two daughters.

“I heard that [his] mood is normal, but he is thin and his body is weak, so he needs some time to recover,” he said.

Kashgar kindergarten

An active promoter of the Uyghur language in Xinjiang, where Beijing is strongly pushing the use of Mandarin Chinese in schools, Ayup established a Uyghur-language kindergarten in Kashgar, China’s westernmost city, together with his business associates in the summer of 2012.

Authorities said they closed down the school in March 2013 because it was operating “without complete documentation,” though they later let it reopen on a smaller scale. They refused the trio’s permission to open another school in Urumqi.

Ayup said he plans to return to teaching at the kindergarten in Kashgar, which his wife had continued to operate in his absence, according to his relative.

But he has abandoned his dream of opening a Mother Tongue school in Urumqi, he added.

The relative said Ayup will have his work cut out for him in trying to rebuild the status of the kindergarten, which saw a major drop in attendance after he was jailed.

“After [he] was detained, his wife took over the responsibilities of the daily work and teaching at the kindergarten. The local authorities warned her several times that they would close the kindergarten, but later they let her continue her work,” he said.

“The problem was that Uyghur parents would dare not send their children to the kindergarten, because they worried the government would interfere in the school’s affairs after my uncle was jailed. The number of children decreased, but my aunt insisted on continuing the kindergarten.”

Avoiding a political tone

“[Ayup’s] writings and lectures aroused strong feelings in the Uyghur community in the Uyghur Region. After he was detained in August, there was a lot of reaction from Uyghurs and international human rights organizations,” Hesen said.

“I think the Chinese authorities would never want to create a second Ilham Tohti among the Uyghurs, so the court avoided taking a political tone on [Ayup’s] case and convicted him of illegal fundraising.”

The Xinjiang region, which is home to millions of Turkic-speaking Uyghurs, has seen an upsurge in violence that has left hundreds dead since 2012, and which China has blamed on terrorists and Islamist insurgents seeking to establish an independent state.

But rights groups accuse the Chinese authorities of heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, including violent police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people.

Reported by Eset Sulaiman for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Eset Sulaiman. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/linguist-12112014153845.html

Uyghurs Demand Inherent Dignity and Respect on this 64th World Human Rights Day

Press Release – For immediate release
10 December 2014
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org 
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or contact@uyghurcongress.org

The World Uyghur Congress, while commemorating the 64^th International Human Rights Day, would like to call attention to China’s alarmingly opaque justice system and calls on China to immediately put a stop to its capricious use of the death penalty. Another 8 Uyghurs were sentenced to death in Urumqi which takes the total to at least 47 people in the last 12 months. Although the WUC recognizes the need to combat those perpetrating genuine crimes, this must be achieved through transparent and judicial processes, and without the use of violence or collective punishment.

Most troubling has been the absence of transparency or proper observance of internationally recognized legal procedures. The most recent death sentences doled out in 2014 have shown that the majority, if not all, of these decisions are implemented hastily with no effective chance for appeal. None of these sentences have been delivered transparently or with any opportunity for external scrutiny by third parties. There has been no evidence that the suspects were provided any kind of legal representation or defence.

The most recent one year anti-terror campaign began at the end of May and has led to an increasingly harsh campaign of intimidation and violence on the part of China’s security forces, along with house to house searches, hundreds of arbitrary arrests, and even greater curbs on cultural and religious freedoms. Twenty-two imams were recently sentenced to anywhere between five and sixteen years in prison for “illegal preaching”.

Amnesty International has called the death sentence “the ultimate denial of human rights” and reminded us that its use is in clear violation of the right to life under the Universal Declaration. The WUC reminds the international community that China has consistently been in clear violation of a number of internationally recognized human rights norms and continues to disregard the essential principles of freedom of speech and assembly as well as the right of legal due process.

China remains the world leader in the use of the death penalty, executing more people than any country last year combined. Executions rose from 682 in 2012 to 778 in 2013, according to Amnesty International, suggesting that China continues to move against the overwhelming trend away from its practice. Although Amnesty’s estimates are based on factual information taken from inside the country, many have suggested that the real figure is likely much higher.

Relatedly, the imprisonment of Uyghur scholar, Ilham Tohti, has also continued with few signs that the situation is improving after the expected denial of his appeal. Chinese authorities appear bent on ensuring that he stands as an example for anyone choosing to speak out against abuses. What is more, seven of Tohti’s students were sentenced earlier this week to up to eight years in prison simply for their association with Tohti – a blatant illustration of how far the regime will go to punish dissent.

As Human Rights Day serves to remind us of our collective effort to enhance the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of each and every human being, we should remain vigilant in the face of these continued abuses. Not only should the day act as a poignant reminder of past and present abuses, but it should also provide us with an intimation of some of the successes that the human rights regime has bestowed. While keeping the latter in mind we can better address the current climate of human rights abuses.

We must let the past serve as a potent reminder of how the international system both failed and succeeded in improving the lives of so many. For the Uyghur people living in China, there remains real potential for a constructive future as long as we are able to engage with the international community to bring about positive change.

With this in mind, we must now look at avenues for such change. Change cannot come purely from within or without, but should be a collective effort where all parties recognize the importance of a resolution and see the benefits of cooperation.

Likewise, the WUC urges the international community to play a responsible role in a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The power of those that influence, and are influenced by, China, carries tremendous weight in the international arena. We must also understand the disparity between those that criticise and those that act against whom those criticisms are levelled. We do not walk in their shoes and they not in ours, but it should not forestall our chance for mutual understanding and progress. We urge the Chinese leadership to practice restraint in these situations and to communicate with those whom they perceive have wronged them.

Alternatively, root causes will continue to go unaddressed with the hope that the problem will resolve itself. Far from a reasonable approach, Chinese authorities maintain that instability should be met with unrestrained force targeting the Uyghur people generally. This will never serve as an appropriate response to violence. This will only exacerbate an already perilous situation in the region and likely drive even more down a path of violence. Violence begets violence, but it is crucial that we remember that peace begets peace, and understanding, understanding.

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