A Uyghur butcher serving a seven-year prison sentence in southern Xinjiang for advising friends not to drink alcohol or smoke at a gathering has been released alive and returned to his family, sources with knowledge of the situation said. It marks the first time that one of the roughly 100 jailed Uyghur residents from Xaneriq...
“The reason for arrest is that he stopped others from smoking and drinking,” said the officer. “He is not a religious figure.”
Abstaining from alcohol is one of 75 different activities and behaviors identified by the Chinese government as a sign of potential religious extremism. It is listed in brochures distributed in some parts of Xinjiang to educate the public on how to identify extreme religious activities.
It is also a cause for jailing Uyghurs, who as Muslims abstain from drinking alcohol, as part of a larger effort by Beijing to eradicate Uyghur culture and religion.
Initially, the Uyghur was “educated” in a camp for two years, but in 2019, he was sentenced and transferred to prison, they said.
Xaneriq village consists of 23 smaller communities with a total population of 31,000 people, averaging around 1,400 people in each community.
About 800 people live in Tawaqchi community, of which more than 100 were in prison, with some serving indefinite sentences in internment camps, an Uyghur expatriate said.
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TIL I’m a radical theist. Might as well join Y’all Qaeda, a group notorious for temperance.
Is Y’all Qaeda a euphemism for Christian terrorists?