China's New Anti-Extremism Law is an Extension of its Brutal Campaign to Erase the Islamic Identity of Xinjiang’s Muslim Women and their Children

Press Release

Blinded through its hate towards Islam, China has extended its brutal war against the Islamic beliefs of the Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang. On April 1, 2017, it enacted the Law on the "Fight Against Extremism" which once again targets the Islamic identity of Muslim women and their children as well as the Uighur Muslims in general. Article 9 of this new law bans "to use religious rituals in marriage and divorce, funeral and heritage issues, to refuse to watch and listen to state television and radio broadcasts, to wear clothing which covers the face, to grow abnormal beards, to give children names which have religious association and thus provoke religious extremism, to oppose or prevent the State's Birth Control Policies" and many more bans. Article 7 of the law promises to "reward persons and institutions financially who effectively contribute to the struggle against Extremist Religious Trends and who succeed in their eradication for good". For example, reporting a veiled woman or man with a long beard will be rewarded with a thousand Yuans (275 Euros). This new law essentially expresses that preaching, promoting, or conducting basic Islamic ideas or practices, will be regarded as "strictly religious extremism", and the state "will hunt and punish those who conduct these activities and practices", and "will eradicate opponents" of state policies.

It is clear that this edict seeks to erase the Islamic personality and culture of the Muslim woman and the future Muslim generations of Xinjiang through associating basic Islamic thoughts and rulings with extremism and labelling any believer who rejects the law as an extremist and potential terrorist. Furthermore, just 2 days before the launch of this law, on March 30^th, international media organizations reported that terrorizing Chinese forces conducted massive military operations in the towns and villages of the districts of Hotan, Kashkar and Aksu. They raided the homes, work places and every sphere of life of Muslim Uighur Turks and confiscated Qur'ans, religious books, any audio and video material with religious content, and women's Islamic dresses, and burned and destroyed them publicly in squares. Already since 2015 civil servants, teachers and students are prevented from fasting in Ramadan and participating in collective worship, children under the age of 18 are prohibited from entering mosques and there has been a severe crackdown on Islamic schools. Furthermore, the ‘extremist’ Chinese regime announced last year that it would be implementing new education rules in Xinjiang that would punish parents who encourage their children into religious activities or force them to wear Islamic dress. This brutal regime has even conducted forced sterilizations and abortions on Muslim Uighur women to try and stem the size of the future Muslim population of Xinjiang.

The implementation of this new law came right before Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to the US on April 6, 2017 and his meeting with President Donald Trump, which indicates that the Chinese regime is sure of the Western World's approval of these bans regardless of their empty rhetoric of championing religious freedoms and human rights. This is not surprising as Beijing’s anti-Muslim policies echo the actions pursued by many western secular states against the Islamic beliefs of their Muslim communities to distance them from their Deen, under the false guise of ‘counter-extremism’ measures.

O Muslims! There is a cultural genocide being undertaken against your Muslim brothers and sisters of Xinjiang to erase every trace of their Islamic culture and heritage to force Kufr upon them. Indeed, this intensive agenda to coerce Muslims and their children to abandon their Islamic identity through repressive ‘anti-extremism’ laws and bans on Islamic practices such as the Islamic dress is one that is replicated in America and states across the world. The enemies of Islam have a free-hand to attack Islam due to the absence of the Khilafah which is the only state which will protect the Islamic laws, and in the future and supports the believers in fulfilling their Islamic obligations and rulings. So we call you O Muslims to increase your efforts to re-establish the Khilafah based on the method of the Prophethood which will save the Deen of the Muslims in China and across the world.

Women’s Section

in The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir