More Pressure, More Problems

By William Foreman/AP, "China's Muslims say Ramadan a time of repression" - Kansas City Star - Kansas City, MO, USA
Sunday, September 28, 2008

All that was left on the chin of the Muslim man praying at the huge brownstone mosque was a small patch of stubble. He said officials had forced young men in China's far western Xinjiang region to cut off their beards at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

"If I didn't shave, they would do this to me," said the man, who put his wrists together as if handcuffed, his eyes bulging with anger. "If I say more, I could be arrested."

He gave only part of his name, and stomped away.

For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting and prayer. But for China's Muslim ethnic Uighurs, the holy month is also full of fear and seething resentment about increasingly tight restrictions on how they practice their moderate form of Islam, influenced by the Sunni and Sufi sects.

Managing the restive Turkic people is developing into one of China's biggest challenges. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs have been unwilling to buy into the government's plan: greater economic prosperity instead of greater religious freedom or autonomy.

(...)

One Uighur businessman named Mattursun praying at a mosque in Yarkent said he despised the Han Chinese. "They no longer really believe in Marxism or communism," the man said. "All they believe in is money. Money is their god."

The government insists most Uighurs are happy because, like the rest of the country, Xinjiang is becoming more prosperous. In recent years, highways, airports and rail lines, schools, hospitals and even mosques have been built. The government has high hopes for deposits of oil, natural gas and minerals. Slogans on billboards and walls across Xinjiang tell people that social harmony and unity equal prosperity.

But many Uighurs aren't biting. They think the region is being colonized by Han Chinese, who have flooded into the territory in recent years.

"Sure, they're building roads and bridges. But that's just so that more Han Chinese will move to Xinjiang and take the place away from us," said Haji, a 34-year-old Uighur businessman in Kashgar.

Haji has a college degree and a successful enterprise that benefits from improved infrastructure and security, but he is fed up with the government's religious policy. In school he was allowed to observe Ramadan, but now his children cannot.

Haji said he doubted China would ever give Xinjiang independence, but hoped Beijing would eventually heed the words of the late leader Mao Zedong.

"Mao said that if there is more pressure, there are more problems," Haji said. "I believe someday the government will realize this and relax."

[Picture: Uighurs are seen at the Sufi mosque in Yarkent, in China's western Xinjiang province Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008. For followers of Islam, Ramadan is supposed to be a time of fasting, spiritual reflection and prayer. But for many members of China's Muslim ethnic Uighur minority, the holy month is also full of fear and seething resentment about increasingly tight restrictions - coming on the heels of a series of attacks - on how they worship and practice their moderate form of Islam. Photo by William Foreman.]