AlJazeera Uighur 're-education' in China Thousands of Uighur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region have been reportedly detained in so-called re-education camps where they are forced to renounce their cultural and religious identities. The detentions are part of China's efforts to deradicalise a population Beijing sees as prone to committing acts of terrorism. The policing of Uighurs continues outside of the c ...

China File A ChinaFile Conversation Deliberate, systematic human rights abuses are happening in China’s northwest. Reporting and research published in recent weeks shows that the Chinese government is targeting the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region’s roughly 11 million Muslims for “re-education.” Anywhere from several hundred thousand to more than a million people have been or are being held in “centers,” w ...

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 ...

A Uyghur pop star in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), who had worked to bridge the divide between his ethnic group and the country’s Han Chinese majority, is missing and believed detained in a “political re-education camp,” according to sources. Ablajan Ayup, 34, known as the “Uyghur Justin Bieber,” was taken into custody by a state security unit in the XUAR capital Urumqi on Feb. ...