Since the Silk Road first opened twenty centuries ago, religion has played a major role in the life of the inhabitants of the region. Buddhist temples and cave complexes, vast collections of spiritual art which demonstrate a profound effect on the Uyghur people, remain from a time when Buddhism was making its way to China. Those Buddhist traditions are still being upheld by the Yellow Uyghurs (Yugurs) in the Gansu province of the People's Republic of China (PRC). As recently as 1993, these followers of the Yellow-Hat (Gelukpa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism appealed to the Dalai Lama of Tibet to aid in training and educating a new generation of teachers and leaders to replace those who had become the victims of the Communist Chinese occupation. In 934 CE, during the Karakhanid Uyghur Kingdom under Satuk Bughra Khan, many Uyghur people embraced Islam and the building of temples and monasteries gave way to the building of Mosques and Madrasas (mosque-schools).
The next thousand years saw art, sciences, and literature flourish as the Islamic religious institutions enabled the pursuit of an advanced culture. In Kashgar alone, there were 18 Madrasas with enrollments of up to two thousand students in any given year. The schools were essential in teaching Uyghur children not only reading, writing and Islamic subjects, but also such familiar subjects as logic, arithmetic, geometry, ethics, astronomy, medicine, and agriculture.
Soon after the takeover of the Uyghur homeland by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), all the mosques and mosque-schools were closed. Religious leaders were jailed by the thousands and sentenced to hard-labor. All the lands which once belonged to the religious institutions were confiscated and the Communist Chinese government began a policy to eliminate religious instruction, practice, and thought. Chinese schools were soon set up and no longer did the Uyghur people study about their history, religion, scientific achievements or culture. The new schools forced students to learn the Chinese language, learn about Chinese culture and Chinese literature, and the "great accomplishments of Chairman Mao Ze-dong". All aspects of Uyghur culture and civilization were erased from serious study. Religious study and training, which formed the backbone for the continued survival of Uyghur culture and civilization were decimated.
Communist Chinese Policy
Underlying Chinese Communist Party policy on religion is a commitment to the "natural withering away" of religion. The guidelines "Concerning our Country's Basic Standpoint and Policy on Religious Questions" (1982) set out a "magnificent goal" for Party members: "an era when all the various religious expressions of the actual world finally disappear". The practice of religion in East Turkistan (Uyghurstan) is subject to strict controls within carefully prescribed limits. It is these controls which are destroying the root of Uyghurs' religion, Islam, an integral part of East Turkistan (Uyghurstan) society.
Chinese policy on religion in East Turkistan over the last 45 years can be divided into five periods
1. 1950-59: Religion was officially endorsed in the 1954 Constitution, but religious activity was strictly controlled through state-run associations.
2. 1959-66: China consolidated its control over Eastern Turkistan (Uyghurstan) - mosques were targeted as the backbone of Uyghurs' society. By 1966, before the Cultural Revolution began, most of mosques had been destroyed.
3. 1966-77: During the Cultural Revolution, all religious activity was banned; religious institutions were razed; texts and sacred objects destroyed; religious leaders imprisoned and tortured; many were killed. Abuses of religious freedom reached its peak.
4. 1977-early 90s: In 1977, some religious activities were allowed. Liberalization policies were initiated by Hu Yao-bang in 1980. Uyghurs rebuilt or newly built many mosques using private funds and donated labor. The period between 1983 and 1987 was one of rapid growth for mosques and religious practitioners with little government interference.
5. Early 90s-present: The Chinese government placed severe restrictions on building new mosques and completely banned all private religious schools (There are no public religious schools in East Turkistan (Uyghurstan) except an Islamic College located in the capital city, Urumchi, but this school is used exclusively by the government to re-educate Uyghur religious leaders). They have also exercised very strict control over all the religious activities among Uyghurs.
Administration of the Mosques
The head of every mosque is appointed by the Religious Affairs Bureau, a state-run (CCP controlled) body founded in 1952. The Chinese authorities appoint a Democratic Committee for Religious Affairs within each mosque, which acts as a liaison group with the local government. Most members of both organizations are communist party members and avowed atheists. That is, persons who do not believe in religion have been placed in charge of it. Calls came from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Communist Party in late 1994 for these committees to more effectively control Uyghur religion in mosques. Mollahs and Ahuns are examined for political correctness and trained under Party super vision. They must not have been involved in "unpatriotic" activities. The authorities have set up work teams, groups of people who have received special political education in various levels of CCP schools, to control the political education of religious institutions. These work teams are funded by the provincial governments and work under the direction of provincial CCP governments. They organize special sessions of political education in various levels of political schools to religious leaders, such as Ahuns and Mollas, and teach them CCP's policies and regulations, communistic ideas and CCP's religious ideals.
Mosques given state funds to be restored tend to be those on the tourist route. However, more than 95% of mosques have been built with private funds and donated labor. In rural areas reconstruction is completely banned.
Religion outside the Mosques
Religious practitioners cannot be Party members, which affects access to housing and employment as well as political influence. Article 36 of the 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) says its members enjoy freedom of religious belief. But Article 36 also says religious rituals; festivals and meetings can be banned on the grounds of disrupting social order. Religious education is banned from schools.
Overseas Organizations
The Party guidelines on religion state that no contact with overseas religious organizations is tolerated, rendering communication with any foreign Islamic organization unlawful. This has led to a situation in which Uyghurs have been completely isolated in religious aspects in the past 45 years from the outside world.
New laws promulgated in January 1994 sharply increase the Communist government's control over religious activity in China and Eastern Turkistan (Uyghurstan), banning foreign proselytizing and forbidding mosques from "destructive, independent, unauthorized or overseas-financed activities", strengthening the isolation of Uyghurs from the outside world.
Religion and 'Superstition'
Under Article 99 of the Chinese Criminal Law, heavy penalties can be exacted for the use of "feudal superstition and superstitious sects" to "carry on counter-revolutionary activities". The distinction between superstition and religion is left unclear, and the ban on superstition can be applied to religious practices.
Several Examples on Abuses of East Turkistan Religious Freedom
Eating pork or not is the biggest symbol that separates Moslem Uyghurs from non-Moslem peoples, especially from ethnic Han-Chinese, in China. Uyghurs not only never raise pigs in their houses, but also consider it a severe violation of Islamic principles to come close to a pig or to smell pork. However, during the Cultural Revolution, in most of the countrysides in East Turkistan (Uyghurstan), each family was required to raise pigs according to their household numbers, to be used by Han-Chinese settlers as a food supply. For example, if an Uyghur had 7 people in his family, he had to raise 7 pigs in his house. The people who did not obey this policy were treated as criminals, imprisoned and sometimes killed. Even worse, most of the mosques were changed into pigpens as a state law, and pigs received more and better measured foods than Uyghur people. As a result, the number of pigs far exceeded the number of Han-Chinese settlers in East Turkistan (Uyghurstan). In contrast to this situation, most Uyghurs farmers did not get any lamb for several years.
Religious leaders were abused in front of large organized people gatherings, asked questions such as "Where is your God? Why doesn't it come to rescue you?", and were executed right at the spot.
In 1996, the Chinese government started a "strike-hard" campaign under the slogan of cracking down on various criminal activities. But this campaign took a completely different form in East Turkistan (Uyghurstan). During this campaign, all religious activities were labeled as illegal activities, and all the non-pro-Chinese religious leaders and followers, including high school and college students, were labeled as pro-independence suspects and jailed. Some unofficial estimates claim that up to 570,000 jailings of Uyghurs have happened in Eastern Turkistan (Uyghurstan) since 1996. A substantial number of the Uyghur people, some as young as 14 years old, who were imprisoned since the "strike-hard" campaign still remain in Chinese jails as political prisoners. These kinds of mass arrests have led to the enormously high level of ethnic unrest in East Turkistan (Uyghurstan).
One of such incident of unrest occurred in the spring of 1997. On February 5th and 6th, some Uyghur residents of Ghulja (also called Ili), a city 4000 kilometers away from Beijing with an Uyghur majority, carried out a peaceful demonstration on the streets against the arrest of 30 prestigious religious leaders during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Following the demonstration, the Chinese armed police and PLA soldiers opened fire on the defenseless, peaceful Uyghur demonstrators, killing 103 people, and critically injuring another 184. About 3000 people were arrested according to eyewitnesses (Government acknowledged 10 dead, 198 injured).
Following that incident the entire Ghulja valley, the capital city - Urumchi, and some other major East Turkistan (Uyghurstan) cities came under martial law. Police made swift arrests of thousands of Uyghur men, women and even children with "separatist and counter revolutionary" charges. Chinese police tortured the arrested Uyghurs using very cruel means, such as forcing them to stand barefooted on ice for hours, burning the women's breasts with cigarettes and asking questions such as "Where is your God? Why doesn't your God come to rescue you?", releasing police dogs to bite them and forcing the Uyghur girls to share the same prison cells with Chinese male criminals.
According to Chinese sources, on April 24, 1997, three arrested demonstrators were sentenced to death and executed on the same day. Twenty-seven others were sentenced for life in prison. Paramilitary forces shot three people to death when the families of the convicted came to bid a final farewell to their loved ones. On July 22, 1997, seven more people were sentenced to death and executed on the same day, three were sentenced for suspended death, seven for life in prison, and ten for lengthy jail terms. According to witnesses from the area, many people were executed behind the scenes. The death toll related to the Ghulja incident alone is estimated to be around 250. The number of arrested reached 5,000.
Closing Remarks
It has become apparent that the communist Chinese government is currently carrying out a deliberate policy of cultural genocide in Eastern Turkistan (Uyghurstan). They are planning to wipe out the Uyghur people from the face of the earth using ethnic assimilation. To this end, they have accelerated the speed of planned population transfer of ethnic Han-Chinese into East Turkistan (Uyghurstan) on one hand, and have tightened their control over the Uyghur religion and intensified the infamous "strike-hard" campaign against Uyghur nationalism and religion on the other. Therefore, the violations of Uyghurs human rights and the abuses of Uyghurs religious freedoms have a distinct character, and are aimed at preventing Uyghurs as a people from asserting their own identity and culture and their wish to preserve it.
