Muslims Are Being Imprisoned in China For This

Since the past year, there have been videos and article going around highlighting the cruelties faced by Chinese Muslims. Some have even called it the next Holocaust as people are being thrown into concentration camps.

The country’s western Xinjiang province is trying to combat with extremism by opting for extreme measures over simple things. Seems rather ironic, no? You can be thrown into a concentration camp for owning a tent, asking people not to swear and even feeling sad at your parents’ death!

You could be detained and locked away in a political education camp for undefined days.

There are forty-eight reasons why you could end up in this horrible situation. A list that was compiled by an analyst Tanner Greer which was later published in the Australian National University’s 2018 China Story Yearbook. It was based on the interviews that Human Rights Watch conducted with 58 ethnic Uyghurs and Kazakhs who managed to successfully escape from Xinjiang at some point in the past three years.

Back in 2014, the Communist Party in China launched a “Strike Hard Campaign Against Violent Terrorism” to combat religious fanaticism in their country by controlling Muslim Uyghurs. According to the statistics gathered by the United Nations, approximately two million members of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority have disappeared since then.

Here is the full list of things that could put you in a concentration camp without any warning:

1. Praying
2. Fasting
3. Going to a mosque
4. Owning a tent
5. Owning welding equipment
6. Telling people to refrain from swearing
7. Asking people not to sin
8. Knowing someone who has traveled abroad
9. Talking to someone who has traveled abroad
10. Eating breakfast before the sun comes up
11. Owning extra food
12. Arguing with the authorities
13. Owning a compass
14. Owning multiple knives
15. Having too many children
16. Not drinking alcohol
17. Abstaining from cigarettes
18. Having a VPN
19. Having a WhatsApp
20. Sending petition that complains about local officials
21. Refusing officials to sleep in your bed, eat your food, and live in your house
22. Publicly stating that China is inferior to any other country
23. Watch a movie filmed abroad
24. Wearing a headscarf in the presence of the Chinese flag
25. Covering your head with a hijab (if you are under 45)
26. Not having government ID on your person
27. Crying, wailing or publicly grieving at your parents’ death
28. Listening to religious sermons/lectures
29. Not allowing officials to scan your irises
30. Refusing officials to download everything you have on your phone
31. Talking to someone living abroad via Skype, WeChat, etc
32. Having traveled abroad yourself
33. Having a full beard
34. Not allowing officials to take your DNA
35. Not attending mandatory propaganda classes
36. Not attending mandatory flag-raising ceremonies
37. Not making voice recording to give to officials
38. Speaking your native language at school
39. Speaking your native language in government workspaces/groups
40. Wearing any clothing with religious iconography
41. Wearing a shirt with Arabic lettered writing on it
42. Not attending public struggle sessions (public humiliation of political rivals)
43. Refusing to denounce your family members or yourself in these public struggle sessions
44. Trying to commit suicide when detained by the police
45. Trying to commit suicide when in the education camps
46. Performing a traditional funeral
47. Inviting multiple families to your house without registering with the police department
48. Being related to anyone who has done any of the above

According to Tanner, only a few of these activities can be somewhat connected to acts of terrorism while the rest are the only ways to get rid of any other religious practice in general.