China Bans Muslim Names in Xinjiang
Xinjiang, 28 Rajab 1438/27 April 2017 (MINA) – Chinese government have banned Muslim baby names among the Uyghur ethnic group in the far-western province of Xinjiang, according to media reports.
“Names with religious overtones – such as Jihad, Imam and Medina, Hajj, Islam, Quran, Saddam, Medina and Islam, were among the 29 reportedly listed as banned in the newly-introduced ‘Naming Rules For Ethnic Minorities.'” Hongkong Free Press reported.
Germany-based exile organisation World Uyghur Congress presented Taiwan’s Central News Agency with a purported copy of the list last week, saying that the ruling Chinese Communist Party severely violated the human rights of Uyghurs.
Spokesperson Dilixiati Rexiti said that the party banned the names citing their “separatist tendencies” and “religious tendencies.”
A police receptionist in provincial capital Urumqi told US-backed Radio Free Asia that babies given these names would not be able to register a hukou in the city. The hukou is a government household registration system stipulating that only locally-registered residents can receive local public welfare, healthcare and education services.
More “mainstream-sounding” Muslim names like Mehmet were acceptable.
Any babies with “overly religious” names will be barred from the hukou household registration system governing access to healthcare and education, a police official in the regional capital of Urumqi told RFA, which was founded by the US government and advances its foreign policy, The Independent reported.
A list of banned names was previously detailed in Hotan prefecture in 2015 but has now reportedly been rolled out throughout Xinjiang, which is home to an estimated 10 million Muslims.
Human Rights Watch said the latest “absurd” prohibition was part of a slew of new regulations “restricting religious freedom in the name of countering ‘extremism’.
“These policies are blatant violations of domestic and international protections on the rights to freedom of belief and expression,” said China director Sophie Richardson.
“Violent incidents and ethnic tensions in Xinjiang have been on the rise in recent years, but the government’s farcically repressive policies and punishments are hardly solutions.
“Instead, they are only going to deepen resentment among Uyghurs.”
The reported list of names emerged less than a month after authorities in Xinjiang imposed new rules prohibiting the wearing of “abnormal” beards or burqas in public places, and imposing punishments for refusing to watch state television or radio programmes.
It included a ban on “naming of children to exaggerate religious fervour”, but did not immediately give specifics.(T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
