Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered ethnic minority Muslim families to hand in religious items including prayer mats and copies of the Quran to the authorities, RFA has learned.
\nOfficials across Xinjiang have been warning neighborhoods and mosques that ethnic minority Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz Muslims must hand in the items or face harsh punishment if they are found later, sources in the region said.
\n\u201cOfficials at village, township and county level are confiscating all Qurans and the special mats used for namaaz[prayer],\u201d a Kazakh source in Altay prefecture, near the border with Kazakhstan told RFA on Wednesday.
\n\u201cPretty much every household has a Quran, and prayer mats,\u201d he said.
\nDilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exile World Uyghur Congress group, said reports have emerged from Kashgar, Hotan and other regions of similar practices starting last week.
\n\u201cWe received a notification saying that every single ethnic Uyghur must hand in any Islam-related items from their own home, including Qurans, prayers and anything else bearing the symbols of religion,\u201d Raxit said.
\n\u201cThey have to be handed in voluntarily. If they aren\u2019t handed in, and they are found, then there will be harsh punishments,\u201d he said.
\nRaxit said announcements are being made by the police via popular social media platform WeChat.
\n\u201cAll Qurans and related items must be handed into the authorities, and there are notices to this effect being broadcast via WeChat,\u201d Raxit said.
\n\u201cThe announcements say that people must hand in any prayer mats of their own accord to the authorities, as well as any religious reading matter, including anything with the Islamic moon and star symbol on it,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThey are requiring people to hand in these items of their own accord,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\nEarlier this year, Xinjiang authorities began confiscating all Qurans published more than five years ago due to \u201cextremist content,\u201d according to local officials, amid an ongoing campaign against \u201cillegal\u201d religious items owned by mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghur residents.
\nThe Qurans were appropriated as part of the \u201cThree Illegals and One Item\u201d campaign underway in Xinjiang that bans \u201cillegal\u201d publicity materials, religious activities, and religious teaching, as well as items deemed by authorities to be tools of terrorism\u2014including knives, flammable objects, remote-controlled toys, and objects sporting symbols related to Islam, they said.
\nThe Kazakh source said that earlier directives calling for the confiscation of Qurans and other religious items hadn\u2019t been effective, and so the authorities are now stepping up the pressure and placing the onus on individual households to hand them in under a compulsory program.
\nHe said confiscation drives targeting Uyghurs are now also being extended to the country\u2019s ethnic Kazakh population.
\nAt the same time, any products from neighboring Kazakhstan or bearing the Kazakh language or symbols have also been outlawed, sources said.
\nA leaked police notice from Changji prefecture called on local officials to search for any items bearing any writing or symbols linked to Kazakhstan.
\n\u201cAny items bearing writing or any other traces of Kazakhstan, including street signs or graffiti, store decorations, arts and crafts items, T-shirts and so on, must immediately be investigated \u2026 and a detailed report made to higher authorities by Sept. 25,\u201d the notice, dated Sept. 22, it said.<\/p>\n
\nA second Kazakh source said authorities are also searching for and confiscating any products brought from Kazakhstan.
\n\u201cThere are restrictions on the sale of any products and foodstuffs from Kazakhstan, including noodles, organic products and mare\u2019s milk spirit,\u201d the source said. \u201cThey won\u2019t let you sell things brought over from Kazakhstan.\u201d
\nAn official who answered the phone at the Altay police department on Wednesday hung up when asked to comment on the reports.
\nChinese authorities have lately issued orders for ethnic Kazakh Chinese nationals to hand in their passports and Kazakh green cards in some parts of Xinjiang, and have reportedly detained dozens of Kazakhs returning from overseas study or family visits to Kazakhstan, sending them for indefinite terms in \u201cre-education\u201d facilities, sources have told RFA.
\nOfficial figures show that there are around 1.5 million Kazakhs in China, mostly concentrated in and around the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture close to the Kazakhstan border.
\nChina has previously welcomed Kazakhs who wished to relocate from Kazakhstan, with their numbers peaking at nearly 38,000 in 2006. But now many Kazakhs with Chinese nationality are heading back in the other direction.<\/p>\n