dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMany way is an illegal activity. They won’t even let me talk about religious issues tomy own children. How can this be right?” A Chinese official: “The students studying in our schools, your childrenin particular, are not focusing completely on their lessons. They are occupied withprayer, fasting and some other religious activities. Therefore, they are violating thefifth article, dated 1996, of the Autonomous Regions Education Commission.According to this article, students cannot participate in religious activities (prayer,fasting or other similar religious activities) and cannot act in contravention of theschool rules.” An Uyghur citizen: “The militia is coming to search the villages andregularly examine the people living there. They come during the nights andsearch the houses. If they find any religious material, they take that person in forinterrogation. They say “These are illegal religious publications.” My father is acommon farmer. How can he know whether the Qur’an is illegal or legal?” An Uyghur professor working in a higher education institution inXinjiang, where teaching traditional local music is forbidden: “I have experiencedit personally. Although I am not considered to be a devout Muslim, this happenedto me. I mention religious tunes in a general sense only during my lectures. Theseare widely spread tunes. Banning these is just nonsense. These are a part of ourmusical culture and our history. I need to learn these. However, in the secondsemester the school management told me that since there are so few studentsregistered for my lecture, I can no longer give lectures. But this isn’t true. I havebeen waiting for one year now without giving any education. They won’t fire mebecause they don’t want me to speak out against them. I am still earning a wagefrom the Communist party. However, the only thing I do is to stroll around thecampus or sit in my room. This is nothing but a waste. Still, it would be best forme not to talk about these issues.” An Uyghur citizen: “My relatives and I were able to establish a mercantilebusiness. This is something that I am proud of. Earlier I was working in an office.I was providing catering services for schools. They said to me “you can’t havea beard, not even a moustache.” I asked myself who they thought they were,interfering in my personal choices. These are our traditions. No one has theright to interfere with this. When I found an opportunity to leave the country I326