by Farid Hafez
Published on 14 Jan 2020
Read the full article: https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/how-chinese-is-western-islamophobia-2/
Since the People’s Republic of China increased the repression of Uighur Muslims in late 2016, headlines in Western media have highlighted Chinese authorities’ discriminatory policies against Chinese Muslims in the Western region of Xinjiang. Maya Wang from the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has used the notion of a “Chinese Muslim Ban” as early as September 2018, reporting that authorities were confiscating prayer mats and copies of the Quran to erase Islamic identity from the soil of Xinjiang. Wang came to the conclusion that “the government’s religious restrictions are now so stringent that it has effectively outlawed the practice of Islam.” The Chinese government has framed its policies that restrict freedom of religion as anti-terrorist measures.
