China has marked the start of Ramadan with its customary ban on civil servants, students and children in a mainly-Muslim region from taking part in fasting, government websites said as the holy month started on Monday.
Chinaโs ruling Communist party is officially atheist and for years has banned government employees and minors from fasting in Xinjiang, home to the more than 10 million strong mostly Muslim Uighur minority. It has also ordered restaurants to stay open.
The region sees regular clashes between Uighurs and state security forces, and Beijing has blamed deadly attacks there and elsewhere in China on militants seeking independence for the resource-rich region.
Rights groups blame tensions on religious and cultural restrictions placed on Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the vast area, which abuts Central Asia.
Several local government departments in Xinjiang posted notices on their websites in the last week ordering restrictions on fasting during Ramadan.
During the holy month, the faithful fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious.
โParty members, cadres, civil servants, students and minors must not fast for Ramadan and must not take part in religious activities,โ a notice posted Thursday on the government website of central Xinjiangโs Korla city said.
โDuring the Ramadan month, food and drink businesses must not close,โ it added.
A Uighur official in the cityโs Tiekeqi township named Ahmatjan Tohti told a group of men wearing traditional doppa hats at a meeting last Monday that officials should โresolutely stop party members, civil servants, students and minors from entering mosques for religious activitiesโ during the festival, a separate report posted on the website last Tuesday said.
A website run by the education bureau of the regional capital Urumqiโs Shuimogou district posted a notice last Monday calling for โprevention of students and teachers from all schools from entering mosques for religious activitiesโ, during Ramadan.
In the northern city of Altay, officials agreed to โincrease contact with parentsโ, to โprevent fasting during Ramadanโ, according to a post Friday on the state-run China Ethnicities Religion website.
Islamic threat-Meanwhile the website of the Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County government in northwest Xinjiang said Monday that restaurants in the area would be instructed to stay open during Ramadan to โensure that the broader masses have normal access to cuisineโ.
Dilxat Raxit of the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group, condemned the restrictions in an email Monday, adding: โChina thinks that the Islamic faith of Uighurs threatens the rule of the Beijing leadershipโ.
China keeps tight control over religious groups, though Beijing often says it grants citizens broad freedom of belief.
Chinaโs State Council on Thursday released a white paper which declared that religious freedom in Xinjiang โcannot be matched by any otherย period in historyโ.
โDuring the month of Ramadan, Muslim restaurants can decide whether they want to do business. There will be no interference,โ it said.
โLocal governments ensure that all religious activities during Ramadan go on in an orderly manner,โ it added.
