PAKOBSERVER - Jun 17, 2016
Sultan M Hali
There have been reports in the western media and also unwittingly
reproduced in a section of Pakistani Press that China is curbing
religious freedom in Xinjiang. According to the fallacious report, China
has banned civil servants, students and teachers in its mainly Muslim
Xinjiang region from fasting during Ramadan and ordered restaurants to
stay open. This scribe visited Xinjiang in Ramadan and has interviewed
government servants and ordinary Chinese Muslims as well as Pakistanis
in the Muslim majority province and found that the allegation lacking
veracity.
The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region or Xinjiang is located in northwest
China. For thousands of years it has been a multi-ethnic region of
multiple religions. At present, the major religions in Xinjiang are
Islam, Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism and Taoism.
After the People’s Republic of China was founded, people of all ethnic
groups in Xinjiang gained the freedom of religious belief. The central
government and local governments at all levels of Xinjiang have fully
implemented the system of regional ethnic autonomy and the policy on the
freedom of religious belief, and constantly improved laws and
regulations on the administration of religious affairs. The majority
population of Xinjiang is Islam and till recently, the province lagged
behind the more opulent Eastern region of China, which led to a sense of
deprivation amongst the people. The feelings of neglect were exploited
by vested interests to urge the Uyghurs to strive for their rights,
which caused some incidents of violence.
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