China has banned civil servants, students and teachers in its mainly
Muslim Xinjiang region from fasting during Ramadan and ordered
restaurants to stay open.
Most Muslims are required to fast from dawn to dusk during the holy
month, which began on Thursday, but China’s ruling Communist party is
officially atheist and for years has restricted the practice in
Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
“Food service workplaces will operate normal hours during Ramadan,”
said a notice posted last week on the website of the state Food and Drug
Administration in Xinjiang’s Jinghe county.
Officials in the region’s Bole county were told: “During Ramadan do
not engage in fasting, vigils or other religious activities,” according
to a local government website report of a meeting this week.
Each year, the authority’s attempt to ban fasting among Uighur
Muslims in Xinjiang receives widespread criticism from rights groups.
Uighur
rights groups say China’s restrictions on Islam in Xinjiang have added
to ethnic tensions in the region, where clashes have killed hundreds in
recent years.
China says it faces a “terrorist threat” in Xinjiang, with officials blaming “religious extremism” for the growing violence.
“China’s goal in prohibiting fasting is to forcibly move Uighurs away
from their Muslim culture during Ramadan,” said Dilxat Rexit, a
spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress.
“Policies that prohibit religious fasting is a provocation and will only lead to instability and conflict.”
As in previous years, school children were included in directives limiting Ramadan fasting and other religious observances.
The education bureau of Tarbaghatay city, known as Tacheng in
Chinese, this month ordered schools to communicate to students that
“during Ramadan, ethnic minority students do not fast, do not enter
mosques … and do not attend religious activities”.
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