China’s Hui Muslims fear education ban signals wider religious crackdown

For some in China’s ethnic Hui Muslim minority, a ban on young people engaging in religious education in mosques is an unwelcome interference in how they lead their lives.

Their big fear is the Chinese government may be bringing in measures in this northwestern province of Gansu that are similar to some of those used in the crackdown on Uygur Muslims in the giant Xinjiang region further to the west.

Well-integrated into society and accustomed to decades of smooth relations with the government, many Hui have watched with detachment as the authorities have subjected Xinjiang to near-martial law, with armed police checkpoints, re-education centres and mass DNA collection.

But in January, education officials from the local government in Guanghe county, which is a heavily Muslim area, banned children from attending religious education during the Lunar New Year break. That lasts for several weeks around the week-long public holiday period that started on Thursday.

It is unclear if the ban, similar to those used by the authorities in the Uygur communities, will continue after the holiday, but it appears to conform to new national regulations that took effect on February 1 aiming to increase oversight over religion.