Uyghurs, an ethnic minority in China who are predominantly Muslims, are inhabitants of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Comprising a population of roughly 10.5 million presently (45 per cent of the region’s population), Uyghurs for centuries have lived in what is known presently as Xinjiang in China. Following brief independence (known as East Turkestan) during the 1940s, Xinjiang came under the control of the PRC in 1949 and Uyghurs were designated as one of the officially recognised ethnic minorities by the PRC in 1954 and the following year the XAR was established with Uyghurs then constituting a predominant ethnic group in the region. However, despite the official recognition, Uyghurs could not enjoy any significant political power. In fact, since the 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated its assimilationist policy and encouraged the majority ethnic Han population to migrate to Xinjiang under the pretext of incentives and employment. Now Hans are 40 per cent of the population in XAR, forming the majority in its capital Urumqi.
Meanwhile, to have absolute control over religious institutions, the Islamic Association of China was established in 1953 to “manage Islam within the organisational structure of the CCP”, whereby religious clergy would be officially recruited. Henceforth, those who are deemed fit to disseminate the CCP guidelines get recruited under the garb of religious clergy.
These restrictions on Islamic practices under the PRC peaked during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). There were reports of mosques being destroyed and their conversion to CCP buildings, religious books and Uyghur-language books were burnt, Madrasas, Mazar festivals and Muslim cemeteries were shut down and wearing native dresses was prohibited. The Islamic Association of China was banned and all those who were practising religion were targeted by the Red Guards.
Restrictions on religious practices underwent further state control and management following the 11 September 2001 attack in the United States. Through its rhetoric on security threats to fight “three evil forces” of separatism, terrorism and religious extremism, the CCP expanded its hard grip on the Uyghurs, linking Uyghur’s religious practice to separatism. This reached its turning point after the 2009 Urumqi riots, a result of ethnic unrest between Uyghurs and Han residents of Urumqi. Chinese crackdown on the Uyghurs intensified, including large-scale disappearances, imprisonment, and execution, along with a government-implemented internet shutdown in Xinjiang, a first in its history. With Xi Jinping assuming the political leadership of the PRC, new policies were adopted to maintain state control over religion. In 2014, Xi launched what he referred to as “People’s War on Terror” in Xinjiang, violating Uyghur people’s freedom, autonomy and privacy.
The Yarkand massacre of 2014 can be traced as the initial glimpse of Chinese genocidal intention towards the Uyghurs. The Chinese official narrative is that of a “premeditated terrorist attack on a police station in Xinjiang” with links with extremists outside the country who were pushing for the region’s independence. And the state security forces suppressed them. However, continued restrictions on Uyghurs during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan such as the house-to-house search campaigns by police forces to detect separatists and terrorists and conservative followers of Islam which is banned in Xinjiang, the detention of 40 women for wearing the Islamic veil, the extrajudicial killing of a Uyghur family of five in Beshkent Town infuriated the Uyghurs. They led a peaceful demonstration outside a local police station. The peaceful demonstration soon turned bloody due to the deliberate violent confrontation by the Chinese police forces.
Religious practices are controlled and maintained by the National Religious Affair Administration (NRAA) (formerly known as the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) of the PRC which looks after the regulations and legislations on religion. It works to “prevent and curb illegal elements from irregular and illegitimate activities by taking advantage of religions”; though not mentioning what “taking advantage of religions” really means. It should be noted here that Islam is recognised to be one of the five official religions in the PRC. This state institution essentially works to ensure that religious affairs are managed within Chinese law by the CCP maintaining control over religious clergy. Restrictions on religious practices continued following a relative period of calm in the 1980s. These restrictions began to be codified in a series of regulations and legislations, starting in 1994.
