Muslim children forced to drop 'religious' names in China

Muslim adults are also being coerced to attend rallies showing devotion to the officially atheist Communist party.

India Samvad

3 June 2017

New Delhi, June 3: During Ramadan, Muslim children in China's Xinjiang region are being forced to change their names which have been deemed "overly religious" by authorities, according to reports.

As many as 15 names have been banned, including Islam, Quran, Mecca, Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, Medina and Arafat, according to Radio Free Asia.

Muslim adults are also being coerced to attend rallies showing devotion to the officially atheist Communist party.

Xinjiang's Muslims mostly belong to the Uighur ethnic group, whose exiled separatists often attack the country.

“Terrorists are the scum of the Uighur people, they are the common enemies of the people of all ethnic groups,” said a Communist party cadre leading one of the rallies in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. “We must treat the enemy harshly and brush away the old to make a clean sweep, we should raise our swords high and in no way be lenient.”

“Fundamentally these rallies are just a show of force, and part of the audience is the Han Chinese population in Xinjiang, to show the power of the state,” said Michael Clarke, a political science professor at the Australian National University and expert on Xinjiang.

Human rights groups accuse China of restricting Uighurs’ freedom of religion and expression and authorities routinely deny passports to members of the ethnic group. The government has also encourages mass migration by Han Chinese to the area and they now make up roughly 45% of the population.

Xinjiang has seen an increasingly invasive security state since president Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Rules announced last year also forbid retired officials from attending religious ceremonies and ban them from holding and beliefs.