Students and civil servants in
China's Muslim northwest have been ordered by the state to avoid taking part in
traditional fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Statements posted in the past
week on websites of schools, government agencies and local party organisations
in the Xinjiang region said the ban would protect students' wellbeing and
prevent the use of schools and government offices to promote religion, the AP
news agency reported on Thursday.
Statements on the websites of
local party organisations said members of the officially atheist ruling party
should also avoid fasting, although the month of Ramadan, which began at
sundown on June 28, is observed by Muslims.
"No teacher can participate
in religious activities, instill religious thoughts in students or coerce
students into religious activities," said a statement on the website of
the "Number 3 Grade School" in Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang.
The news agency reported that
cities in Xinjiang had set up news portals saying that fasting was detrimental
to the physical wellbeing of young students, and also have called in retired
teachers to stand guard at mosques in order to prevent students from entering.
Similar bans have been imposed
on fasting in the past. This year's ban was unusually sensitive because
Xinjiang is under tight security following a number of attacks that the
government blames on Muslim rebels who allegedly have ties with foreign armed
groups.
On Tuesday, authorities in some
communities in Xinjiang held celebrations of the anniversary of the founding of
the Communist Party and served food to test whether Muslim guests were fasting,
according to Dilxat Raxit, spokesman in Germany for the rights group World
Uyghur Congress.
"This will lead to more
conflicts if China uses coercive measures to rule and to challenge Uyghur
beliefs," Dilxat Raxit told AP.
Violence has escalated in recent
years in Xinjiang. The ruling party blames rebels who it says wants
independence, while members of the region's Uyghur ethnic group complain that
discrimination and restrictions on religion, such as a ban on taking children
to mosques, fuels anger at the ethnic Han Chinese majority.
Wary of religious activities
An attack on May 22 in the
regional capital of Urumqi by four people who threw bombs in a vegetable market
killed 43 people, including the attackers.
On June 22, police in Kashgar in
the far west said they killed 13 attackers who drove into a police building and
set off explosives, injuring three officers. Authorities have blamed two other
attacks at train stations in Urumqi and in China's southwest on Muslim rebels.
The government responded with a
crackdown that resulted in more than 380 arrests in one month and public
rallies to announce sentences.
According to AP, the ruling
party is wary of religious activities which it worries might serve as a
rallying point for opposition to one-party rule. Controls on worship are
especially sensitive in Xinjiang and in neighbouring Tibet, where religious
faith plays a large role in the local cultures.
Source: Prime Chronicle
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