The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, yesterday called for the release of a Kazakh man detained in China allegedly for reciting the Quran in public and keeping Islamic religious texts in his home.
Chinese authorities in East Turkistan reportedly detained the man, Kusman Rehim, 56, for offering public Quranic recitations, including at a Muslim wedding. He was allegedly detained after “police found a Quran in his home.” In 2017, Chinese authorities reportedly banned the recitation of the Quran in public in East Turkistan.
News of the man’s detention comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise visit to East Turkistan (Xinjiang) and urged officials to “more deeply promote the Sinicization of Islam and effectively control illegal religious activities.”
“It is a clear violation of international norms of religious freedom to detain someone merely for reciting or possessing the revealed text of their faith,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw. “We demand the immediate release of Kusman Rehim, and we urge the international community, including governments in Muslim-majority nations, to address China’s egregious human rights abuses.”
The Chinese government is targeting Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic ethnic groups with a campaign of genocide. Millions of Uyghurs have been detained in concentration camps in which beatings, torture and rape are the norm. Millions more are being used as slave labor on plantations and in Chinese factories.
Earlier this month, CAIR welcomed the Department of Homeland Security’s ban on imports from Camel Group Co., Ltd., Chenguang Biotech Group Co., Ltd., and its subsidiary Chenguang Biotechnology Group Yanqi Co., Ltd. because of the companies’ forced labor practices that target groups, such as Uyghur Muslims in China.
In April, CAIR commended the efforts of congressional lawmakers for urging greater enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA)
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