China Cracks Down on Muslims: No Large Beards, Islamic Clothing on Public Buses

The city of Karamay, in China’s Xinjiang region, “has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from traveling on public buses.”

This move comes after imam Jume Tahir was attacked and stabbed to death in Xinjiang and after Chinese police cracked down on “Islamic terrorists” who had carried out a “gang attack with knives in Xinjiang.”

According to NDTV, the new bans in Karamay mean “people wearing hijabs, niqabs, burkas, or clothing with the Islamic star or crescent symbol” cannot take public buses. 

The ban was published in a “state media” paper, which intimated there will be inspections for suspicious persons. The paper also said “those who do not cooperate with inspection teams will be handled by police.”

Rebiya Kadeer–an exiled Uyghur leader from China’s Xinjiang district and president of the German-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC)–claims China’s war on Islam goes far beyond transportation bans. According to Radio Free Asia, Kadeer claims Chinese security forces “may have… killed… at least 2,000 ethnic minority Uyghurs… last week.”

Uyghurs are a “mostly Muslim” population, and Kadeer accused China of carrying out a “massacre” against them.

She said: “It is clearly state terrorism and a crime against humanity by any standard committed by Chinese security forces against the unarmed Uyghur population.”

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