On Wednesday, the United Nations Human Rights Office issued a report on human rights concerns in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (Full text of report.) A portion of the report focuses on restrictions on religious expression, and says in part:
The “Strike Hard” campaign has led to the adoption or amendment of various legal instruments to further tighten the regulation of religion.... “[E]xtremism” is defined broadly, while the legal instruments include a list of “primary expressions of extremism” that have in practice been accompanied by lists of “signs” of “religious extremism” to assist officials and the general public in identifying “extremist” behaviour.... These ... include conduct that may in the circumstances be of legitimate concern, such as “inciting ‘Jihad’, advocating and carrying out violent terrorist activities”, but range far more widely, encompassing an exceptionally broad range of acts that in themselves constitute exercise of protected fundamental freedoms connected to the enjoyment of cultural and religious life by these communities. These include wearing hijabs and “abnormal” beards; expanding the scope of “Halal”; closing restaurants during Ramadan; participating in cross-county religious activities “without valid reason”; using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), social media and Internet to teach scriptures and preach; and giving one’s child a Muslim name....
Such exceptionally broad interpretations of “extremism”, often explicitly targeting standard tenets of Islamic religion and practice, in effect renders virtually all such conduct in potential breach of the regulation of religion.... An environment is thus created in which religious or cultural practice or expression is conflated with “extremism” ....
Alongside the increasing restrictions on expressions of Muslim religious practice are recurring reports of the destruction of Islamic religious sites, such as mosques, shrines and cemeteries....
China filed a 122-page response (full text) to the report contending that China is fighting terrorism and extremism. It says in part:
Religious extremists advocate extremist ideologies, incite hatred against other religions and "heretics", and undermine Xinjiang's religious harmony and ethnic unity.
AP reports on these developments.
