China's terror fight fuels Muslim fears, alienation
By Jehangir Pocha, Globe Correspondent, 1/17/2004
boston.com
BEIJING -- China's designation of four Muslim separatist groups and 11 individuals as terrorists has alarmed many Chinese Muslims, who say such actions by the government are fraying their already tenuous ties with other Chinese.
Groups from the western region of Xinjiang, where some ethnic Uighurs are fighting to create the independent state of East Turkestan, dominate the list, which was announced last month. It was China's first formal accounting of suspected terrorists.
The dispute between Beijing and the Muslim Uighurs dates to 1949, when the region was annexed by China. But since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, China has cast the conflict as one driven by Islamic fundamentalism.
"Since 9/11, people's perception of us [Muslims] has changed," Abdul Qadeer, 20, a migrant in Beijing, said recently as he set tables at the West Wind cafe. "We were always the outsiders; now we are the enemy."
At Beijing's Central University for Nationalities, Muslim students seemed exasperated with what they called China's cold war against Islam.
In Xinjiang, "we were not allowed to grow beards or fast during Ramadan. If you did, you were expelled from school," said Yaseen Mohammad, 22. "Even now, I would like to grow a beard, but I worry it will become more difficult to get a job." He paused then added, "And no Chinese girl will look at me."
Other students are laughing, but the growing ostracism of Muslims is very real, Yaseen said.
In most large Chinese cities, Muslims live in ghettos, and the community sticks to itself. Generally poor and often unemployed, some Uighurs also turn to crime.
"They think we are all criminals," Khader Ja, 25, said recently as he kneaded a mound of dough at the Heavenly Lake bakery on what used to be Beijing's infamous Uighur Street, a Uighur ghetto in the heart of Beijing. Once reputed to be a den of thieves, prostitution, and drug runners, the thoroughfare was recently dismantled by the local government after a bus bombing in Beijing by suspected Uighur separatists killed two and injured 30.
Zheng Hufeng, 49, a retail store manager in Beijing, is one of those who admits to having antipathy toward Muslims. "These people only want to fight. They are dangerous."
Such knee-jerk, stereotypical responses that brand the entire Muslim community are alienating ordinary Muslims, Khader and other Muslims in Beijing say.
Michael Dillon, a professor of East Asian studies at the University of Durham in Britain and the author of "China's Muslims," said the general perception among Chinese "is that Islam is foreign and backward and it would be much better if Muslims abandoned their religion and became more modern."
Human rights groups accuse the government of attempting to alter the ethnic and cultural make-up of Xinjiang and some other Muslim areas. Amnesty International says huge numbers of Han Chinese have been resettled in Xinjiang, local language Islamic schools closed, illegal birth control measures instituted against Uighurs, and many Uighur women pressured to marry Han Chinese.
The US Department of State's Annual Reports on Religious Freedom have also accused the government of preventing Muslim worshipers from going on the Haj pilgrimage, trying to get Muslim women to shed the veil, and preventing the construction of mosques.
Amnesty International says more than 500 Uighurs suspected of being "splittists" have been killed by Chinese authorities, and more than 5,000 have been arrested since 1985.
In numerous reports and statements, the government has accused the Uighurs of having ties to Al Qaeda and receiving training and support from fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. The said it captured about 300 Uighurs during operations in Afghanistan.
Xinjiang has become the death-penalty capital of the world, rights groups say. Although the exact number of people executed in China is a state secret, Amnesty estimates the number to be 4,000 to 6,000 a year. While only a small fraction of those executed are political activists, a large number are Uighurs.
To insulate all of China's Muslims from foreign influence, the government has forbidden Chinese Islamic groups from forging ties with Islamic organizations based abroad. Only mosques and organizations affiliated with the Islamic Association of China, or IAC, which takes it orders from Beijing, are permitted.
Still, Xue Tian Li, imam of the 1,300-year-old Niujie Mosque in Beijing, says such restrictions have no bearing on the private worship of China's Muslims, because "most of the Koran and prayers are about the same in China as anywhere."
But outside the mosque on a recent evening, as prayers ended and men congregated in the historic courtyard to chat, different opinions were aired, including a challenge to the government's estimate of the number of Muslims in China. "There are far more than 20 million Muslims," said a man from Sichuan Province who gave his name only as Kemal. "They do not register with the IAC because it is not the true Islam. [They hide] for they fear they will be targeted."
For Muslims like Khader, the baker, there is only one solution. "I just want to get out of here. . . . USA, Kuwait, Pakistan, anywhere," he said. |
