KASHGAR , China, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A hard-line campaign targeting the religious identity of ethnic Uighurs in northwestern China has begun with new regulations and intrusive police monitoring.
Closed-circuit cameras and police patrols abound in Kashgar, a city of 500,000 in the center of the region populated by Uighurs -- a Turkic Muslim group of 10 million not related to the majority Han population of China. Uighur men have their identifications checked regularly, as well as an examination of music playlists on their cellphones. In a local initiative nicknamed Project Beauty, women whose clothes are deemed too Islamic are detained. Kashgar officials enforced extraordinary measures to prevent residents from faithfully observing the recently-ended month-long Muslim observance of Ramadan, which involves fasting during daylight hours. Cafeterias at government offices kept lists of who arrived for lunch and who did not, and restaurants were required to be open all day, despite a lack of customers.
University students were required to have lunch with teachers and drink a bottle of water in the afternoon, an unidentified Kashgar Normal University student saying, "You couldn't leave the classroom until you drank at least one-third of the bottle."
He added, "They don't want us listening to any songs in Arabic or anything that has to do with religion."
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The clampdown comes after nearly 300 people were killed in a string of terrorist violence tied to Uighur militants. A bomb-laden car in Beijing struck and killed pedestrians, a gang dressed as ninjas slashed at random passengers in Kunming, and last week 96 people were killed when a gang armed with knives and axes ambushed vehicles near Kashgar.
The suppression could backfire, analysts believe.
"You can't say that because somebody wears a scarf or grows a long beard they are a violent extremist. It is a lazy way for government officials to say they are striking hard against terrorism," said Yang Shu of the Institute for Central Asian Studies at Lanzhou University.
"By adopting a hard line against the practice of religion, you risk escalating the conflict."
