China’s Muslims Say Ramadan A Time Of Repression
From AP:
All that was left on the chin of the Muslim man praying at the huge brownstone mosque was a small patch of stubble. He said officials had forced young men in China’s far western Xinjiang region to cut off their beards at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
“If I didn’t shave, they would do this to me,” said the man, who put his wrists together as if handcuffed, his eyes bulging with anger. “If I say more, I could be arrested.”
He gave only part of his name, Arem, and stomped away.
For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting and prayer. But for China’s Muslim ethnic Uighurs, the holy month is also full of fear and seething resentment about increasingly tight restrictions on how they practice their moderate form of Islam, influenced by the Sunni and Sufi sects.
Origin: William Foreman, AP
