Xinjiang Muslims that have not yet been sent to “transformation through education” camps are forced to live their lives as dictated by the Communist Party to avoid detention. Indoctrinated and entirely controlled, they exist in prison-like conditions.
The arrest of over a million Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang has had many consequences on their families and the livelihood of the entire region. Those who managed to escape detention live their lives in meager existence without their loved ones, deprived of faith, and under strict supervision by the authorities that watch their every step.
According to a Hui Muslim resident from a village in Shawan county’s Daquan township, it is compulsory for local villagers over the age of 18 to attend flag-raising ceremonies regularly. The village’s Party committee conducts these ceremonies, and the attendees are required to sign in their presence. They also force the locals to sing the national anthem. Anyone who doesn’t obey is put into the so-called “political study classes.” Four government employees have been stationed in the village to supervise that the villagers comply with the new order.
Missing the flag raising ceremonies three times can land one in a “transformation through education” camp. The authorities publish a list of names of such absentees, and if one sees their name on it, it is both a warning and a threat. Failure to heed to it leads to detention, from which there might be no release. Most Muslim villagers cannot afford to take an ideological stand and so end up obeying the diktats of the CCP authorities.
Meanwhile, in Hotan prefecture, Muslims are forbidden from keeping motifs or symbols related to Islamic faith at their homes. Anyone who is found violating this rule is detained and put into a camp.
Muslims are not allowed to practice their faith even in the privacy of their homes. In this way, the authorities in Xinjiang have been able to create prison-like conditions even for the “free” Muslims who cannot live their lives on their terms.
Reported by Li Zaili
