China has raised the heat again on the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang by banning civil servants, students and children from fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan. They are also not allowed to take part in religious activities. Xinjiang in western China is home to around 10 million ethnic Uighur Muslims who have been asserting their rights for years, only to be thwarted by Beijing that looks at the region with suspicion.
Minorities in the region have been complaining of marginalisation and persecution by the government. The country, ruled by the Communist Party of China, is known to crack down on religious groups trying to spread their influence.
Beijing’s restriction on fasting and religious activities during the month, though condemnable, doesn’t come as a surprise. Xinjiang’s proclivity towards separatism is seen by the government as a red flag in a country that stretches across thousands of kilometres. The ban came on a day China went up the power list of women in the Forbes magazine. A record nine Chinese women are part of the 2016 Power Women List. The fasting ban and the Forbes list do not have any apparent connection. However, it points to a dichotomy. A country where minorities complain of marginalisation probably treats its women better.
The Ramadan ban on fasting and religious activities in Xinjiang is likely to further alienate Muslims in the region. The Uighurs are ethnically different from Han Chinese. They speak Turkic and many of their cultural activities are far removed from the largely secular Chinese society. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in the past criticised Beijing for its approach towards the Uighurs. China’s policy of cracking down on Islamist extremists and reigning in religious groups treads on a controversial path. Any anti-terror policy has to have assimilation as its corner stone. The rise of insurgency and separatism across the world has cultural alienation and estrangement at its bedrock. Instead of cracking down on the religious practices of the Uighurs, China should seek to devise ways of bringing them into the mainstream. Geography has perched the Uighurs in the far west of China and sociology has made them less uniform with other Chinese. The factors combine to increase social distance with the majority Han population.
By stopping a section of the population from fasting and participating in religious practices during the most Holy Muslim month, China is complicating the Uighur issue than working towards solving it.
China has raised the heat again on the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang by banning civil servants, students and children from fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan. They are also not allowed to take part in religious activities. Xinjiang in western China is home to around 10 million ethnic Uighur Muslims who have been asserting their rights for years, only to be thwarted by Beijing that looks at the region with suspicion.
Minorities in the region have been complaining of marginalisation and persecution by the government. The country, ruled by the Communist Party of China, is known to crack down on religious groups trying to spread their influence.
Beijing’s restriction on fasting and religious activities during the month, though condemnable, doesn’t come as a surprise. Xinjiang’s proclivity towards separatism is seen by the government as a red flag in a country that stretches across thousands of kilometres. The ban came on a day China went up the power list of women in the Forbes magazine. A record nine Chinese women are part of the 2016 Power Women List. The fasting ban and the Forbes list do not have any apparent connection. However, it points to a dichotomy. A country where minorities complain of marginalisation probably treats its women better.
The Ramadan ban on fasting and religious activities in Xinjiang is likely to further alienate Muslims in the region. The Uighurs are ethnically different from Han Chinese. They speak Turkic and many of their cultural activities are far removed from the largely secular Chinese society. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in the past criticised Beijing for its approach towards the Uighurs. China’s policy of cracking down on Islamist extremists and reigning in religious groups treads on a controversial path. Any anti-terror policy has to have assimilation as its corner stone. The rise of insurgency and separatism across the world has cultural alienation and estrangement at its bedrock. Instead of cracking down on the religious practices of the Uighurs, China should seek to devise ways of bringing them into the mainstream. Geography has perched the Uighurs in the far west of China and sociology has made them less uniform with other Chinese. The factors combine to increase social distance with the majority Han population.
By stopping a section of the population from fasting and participating in religious practices during the most Holy Muslim month, China is complicating the Uighur issue than working towards solving it.
