it's not unusual for an ron to get offended when he logs into China's
social networks the writer is keenly aware of the growing Islamophobia wave
spreading through the country including a so-called anti halal movement who
supporters accuse Muslims of dividing the country they're calling on Airlines
and universities to stop serving halal food dishes prepared according to Muslim
law China's internet censors have nothing
against these kinds of messages for sure the goal of this movement is to clamp
down on Muslims and to limit their rights as part of a minority for sure
walkins yet none of the members of the anti halal movement we contacted were
willing to speak on camera but one who calls himself the association of pork
eaters agreed to answer a few questions in an online chat he said Islam in China
is on the rise and that Chinese majority culture is under threat but he wouldn't
provide examples to back his claim
Muslims make up less than 2% of China's population an R on whose real name is
sweet house in belongs to the who a minority a mandarin speaking group of
Muslims whose mosques are often built in typical Chinese style for centuries on
Ron's birthplace jinan in eastern China has been the home of a substantial
Muslim community
the government strict rules controlling religious practice are apparent in the
mosques quartet the head of this congregation says he supports state
policy the religion should serve society first
and foremost it should be managed in harmony with our social system that's
the right way
even though daily life in Jena Anne's Muslim Quarter looks like business as
usual state back pressure on Chinese Muslims is mounting a new five-year plan
calls for stiffer control over mosques in a few provinces some of them have
been closed and restaurants were forced to remove any signs an erratic script
the government points to the police state in the western region of Xinjiang
as a perfect example of religious control but in reality that's where
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Muslim Uighur are being detained in reeducation
camps according to human rights groups
our camera team was stopped by God's when we approached one of them and we
were head-on Ron is one of few Chinese intellectuals who have openly criticized
the state's persecution of the weekers this has led to police questioning him
for two days he says he is afraid but refuses to remain silent once you speak
the truth and the Communist Party takes offense at you they will certainly take
their revenge at some point if shutting up will not protect you then wala young
man ha - each year on Iran fears the worst for Chinese Muslims may be yet to
come let's get some analysis on that story now with a China analyst Mariko
Oberg from the think-tank Marek's here in Berlin Mariah thank you very much for
joining us first of all let's talk about the increasing Islamophobia that we saw
in that report from our correspondent do you think it's safe to say that Muslims
have something to fear in China I would love to say on the one hand yes and on
the other hand no but I think at this point it is safe to say that an
increasing number of Muslims are seeing their lives disrupted in China I mean on
the one hand you have you have the societal initiatives that the report
talked about but the more important thing that really is the overall climate
that's being created by the CCP by the Communist Party of China itself with its
own initiatives it had its own anti halal movement where it encouraged
officials not to eat in halal restaurants it's coming out with a plan
for synthesizing Islam which it does for other religions as well and last but not
least there's the big elephant in the room which is the mass internment of
recurs and other minorities in so-called reeducation camps I want to ask you
about those camps in a moment but first how do you think attitudes towards
Muslims have changed under President Xi Jinping I mean they have always been
certain tensions both at the popular level and also the government has never
quite said that you know it's fine to fully embrace your religion and you
don't have to you don't have to this is all you you
can do but it's it's gotten a little more extreme under C Jinping to wanna
rein in religion and to want to make sure that they're not in conflict with
the governing ideology leading up to a million Muslim bleeker's being uh
interned in camps as we said what do you think Beijing is actually hoping to
achieve with this method I mean officially representing this as
like deep radicalization in some cases might even frame it as part of the
anti-terror campaign the the thing that's happening here is basically what
the CCP is trying to do is eradicate any kind of belief system that could be in
conflict to its own ideology so this is targeting something that they feel is
threatening their their their grip on power and that's why they're they've
been doing this so so radically isn't it fair to say from the Chinese
government's perspective that they do want to tackle extremism there has been
violence linked to extremist separatist groups in the past there has been and I
think to some extent there is that problem but I mean the way that the
reports coming from those camps is something and even if you just look at
Chinese media itself something that could be considered radical just like
having a beard wearing a veil refusing to drink alcohol refusing to eat pork so
if that's your definition of radical then that clearly goes beyond just
fighting terrorism this is a serious issue we're talking about Islamophobia
growing in China why do you think there's been so little response from
Western countries for example it's very hard to say and I don't really want to
speculate I think there is a mixture of reasons one as their countries are busy
with other issues the other thing is kinda has been really good at defusing
and preventing criticism of its own human rights records in recent years has
gotten a lot better at that so it's it's really a mixture of things countries not
wanting to offend China perhaps also maybe not enough people standing up to
to demand countries to step up so what would be the rest response from the West
pointed out criticized a demain and that independent observers
present--and there are a number of range of issues that that could be done
sanction those officials that are involved in this possibly sanctioning
companies that are known to be involved in setting up the security apparatus and
since young there are a number of a range of responses that could be
considered and should be pursued seriously all right taking a tougher
line there then on China Morocco ullberg from the think tank Marik's here in
Berlin thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me
you