Mosque leaders' re-education campaign stepped up

China News Digest, 15 November 2001

[CND, 11/15/01] In recent weeks the government in Beijing has stepped up a nine-month political re-education campaign for 8,000 imams who lead mosques in the restive province of Xinjiang, even as national security forces increase the pressure in their drive against splittist movements, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.

In addition, a 15-member special working team made up of officials from the central Government was dispatched early in November to Xinjiang's key party units and government departments, to supervise local cadres and attempt to maintain stability in the region.

The September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington set off alarm bells in Beijing, which has used the incident as an excuse to further crack down on members of the Uygur ethnic minority in Xinjiang.

Senior party cadres in Xinjiang have recently been urged to remain loyal to the Beijing government, and have been told that they would be blamed for unrest stirred up by Uygur separatists, Beijing sources said.

The patriotic re-education campaign aimed at imams - which began on March 15 and continue until December 23 - has been run by Beijing's United Front Work Department and State Bureau of Religious Affairs and is an attempt to increase control of religious activities, and to cut ties between mosques and groups allegedly involved in separatist activities.

In total approximately 8,000 religious leaders have been told to attend one of the 10 sessions of the political re-education lessons offered under the campaign. At a session, leaders are required to attend seminars, discuss ideological issues, and participate in individual consultations with a special focus on anti-splittism law, religious and political policies as set by the government, and Xinjiang history.

Each session is a 20-day programme aimed at re-establishing correct ideological understanding and improving the political qualities of the religious leaders, the Xinhua news agency quoted officials as saying.

These lessons are essential to the long-term stability of Xinjiang as they will guide our students away from ideological confusion and mistakes, Xinhua noted further.

One explanation for the campaign is the authorities' suspicion that donations given to Xinjiang mosques have been used to fund the Uygur separatist cause rather than the charitable Muslim projects for which they are intended.

Over the last ten years Uygur militants have been blamed for sporadic attacks in China, including bombs placed in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, in 1997 that resulted in the deaths of nine people.

Similar patriotic education courses were implemented in 1996 in Tibet, to oppose alleged infiltration by the Dalai Lama. The European Union has reported that in the five years since the patriotic education campaign began, thousands of Buddhist lamas and nuns had been expelled from Tibet for refusing to denounce the Dalai Lama .

During her visit to Beijing in early November UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called on mainland leaders not to use the United States-led war on terrorism to infringe upon civil liberties and crack down on ethnic minorities, especially in the Muslim areas of the northwest provinces of the mainland. (Laurel Mittenthal)