(WASHINGTON, D.C., 1/31/2024) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned new regulations issued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) restricting Islamic practice in the Uyghur region of Xinjiang.
The CCP’s new set of regulations on Islam in Xinjiang are aimed at ensuring that practice of the religion reflects “Chinese characteristics and style.” According to the regulations, religion should not interfere in the “clothing, weddings, funerals, and other ethnic customs” of Muslims and “religious activity sites that are newly built or renovated, expanded, or rebuilt should reflect Chinese characteristics and style in terms of architecture, sculptures, paintings, and decorations.” Xinjiang is the province in which the Chinese government has been carrying out a program of genocide and mass interment of Uyghur Muslims.
SEE: China: Religious Regulations Tighten for Uyghurs | Human Rights Watch
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/31/china-religious-regulations-tighten-uyghurs
China Introduces Strict Rules In Xinjiang On Islam, Other Religions
https://www.rferl.org/a/china-strict-rules-islam-xinjiang/32798502.html
In a statement, CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“The Chinese Communist Party’s war against Islam is continuing in Xinjiang. In addition to forcibly detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps where they are subject to sterilization, torture and death, the CCP is attempting to ethnically cleanse the landscape and cultural life of Xinjiang to strip of its centuries-old Islamic character. The time has come for Muslim nations, as well as the rest of the world, to hold the Chinese government to account for its crimes.”
He noted that in November, CAIR said it was “shameful” that American corporate CEOs gave Chinese leader Xi a standing ovation, despite that nation’s genocide targeting Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minorities.
SEE: CAIR Condemns ‘Shameful’ CEOs for Giving Standing Ovation to Chinese Leader Xi Responsible for Uyghur Genocide
In September, CAIR condemned a life sentence for a prominent Uyghur activist imposed by the Chinese government.
SEE: CAIR Condemns China’s Life Sentence for Uyghur Scholar, Calls on Muslim-Majority Nations to Do the Same
In August, CAIR welcomed the Department of Homeland Security’s ban on imports from Camel Group Co., Ltd. and Chenguang Biotech Group Co., Ltd. and its subsidiary Chenguang Biotechnology Group Yanqi Co. Ltd. because of the companies’ forced labor practices that target groups, such as Uyghur Muslims in the PRC.
SEE: CAIR Welcomes the DHS Ban on Imports from Additional Chinese Companies Due to Forced Uyghur Labor
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com, CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com