“Posting quotations from the Quran or about God is against the law”
Beijing: After ban on extreme Muslim names, 26 yr old Muslim woman has been arrested in China’s troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang for posting Quranic messages on social media.
She was reportedly associated to a Muslim-majority Uighur ethnic group and was detained in the city of Korla this week on charges of spreading “extremist religious thought”, Radio Free Asia reported.
“There is extremist religious content that you’re not allowed to repost, and she reposted it; she reposted that kind of thing many times,” an employee at a government-backed extremism watchdog told the media outlet.
“Posting quotations from the Quran or about God is against the law,” they added.
The far-western region is the homeland of the Uighurs is often hit by deadly unrest due to religious and cultural discrimination.
Last month, Chinese authorities released a list banned baby names as part of a crackdown on “extremism”
Earlier this year, authorities in Xinjiang announced a ban on beards and burqas, saying growing “abnormal” facial hair or wearing robes that cover the whole body and face are now prohibited.
Human Rights Watch has slammed the measures as oppressive.
“This is just the latest in a slew of new regulations restricting religious freedom in the name of countering ‘religious extremism’,” Sophie Richardson, China director at HRW, said in a statement.
“These policies are blatant violations of domestic and international protections on the rights to freedom of belief and expression”
“If the government is serious about bringing stability and harmony to the region as it claims, it should roll back – not double down on – repressive policies.”