HC WASHINGTON — U.S. ally Saudi Arabia continued to torture, execute and discriminate against minority Shiite Muslims last year, according to the State Department, but the Trump administration followed the Obama administration and has granted the Sunni-ruled kingdom an exemption from sanctions normally placed on countries with bad records on religious freedom. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unveiled the ann ...

Asia Times Beijing is bent on 'racial cleansing' targeting Uyghurs in the name of social inclusion and assimilation, a rights group claims. A video clip of a gloomy bride, believed to be a young Uyghur woman, appearing to begrudge marrying her groom, a member of China’s predominant Han race, has been circulating online, with observers and Uyghur human-rights advocacy groups calling it more proof of Beijing’ ...

Daily O Such a decision coming in the thick of Ramzan assumes special significance for the Islamic minority, the Uighurs. In an extraordinary move, the China Islamic Association (CIC), which enjoys the moral and material patronage of the government, announced rather surprisingly that all mosques in China should now raise the national flag and study the Chinese Constitution along with socialist core values t ...

All Chinese mosques should raise the national flag to "promote a spirit of patriotism" among Muslims, the country's top Islamic regulatory body has declared, as the Communist Party seeks to tighten its grip on religion. Flags should be hung in a "prominent position" in all mosque courtyards, the China Islamic Association said in a letter published Saturday on its website. This would "further strengthen the ...

Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are forcing Uyghur students and their parents to sign pledges that they will not fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan in a bid to further undermine the religious traditions of the mostly Muslim ethnic group. Officials have typically forced restaurants to stay open and restricted access to mosques during Ramadan, and last year ...