The Council on American-Islamic Relations has spoken out against China’s ongoing efforts to eliminate the Muslim Uyghur culture. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, China has been systematically altering the names of hundreds of Uyghur villages to align with Communist Party ideology. This move has been criticized for further erasing the unique identity and history of the Uyghur people.
According to a statement from the communications director for CAIR, Ibrahim Hooper, the Chinese government’s effort to rename places is an evident strategy to eliminate the Uyghur culture and its Islamic roots. “This name change campaign is clearly part of the Chinese government’s ongoing attempt to erase Uyghur culture and its Islamic heritage,” stated Hooper, who works for the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, based in Washington.
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According to the findings of Human Rights Watch, the names of approximately 630 villages in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have been changed to align with the Chinese government’s propaganda language. The top three most frequently used replacement names for villages are “Happiness,” “Unity,” and “Harmony.”
CAIR has urged the international community, particularly Muslim-majority nations, to take immediate action to put an end to the genocidal campaign.
According to a representative from Human Rights Watch in China, the Chinese government has been renaming numerous villages in Xinjiang Province. The new names are said to reflect government propaganda, rather than the original culturally significant names that held meaning for Uyghurs.
In September 2022, the United Nations accused China of potentially committing crimes against humanity towards the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, located in northwest China.
Recently, the Biden administration has taken strict action against the use of forced labor of Asia’s minority populations in the U.S. supply chain. As part of this crackdown, three Chinese companies have been banned from importing their goods into the U.S. due to allegations of forced transport and labor of Uyghur civilians.
On Tuesday, Maya Wang, the acting China director of Human Rights Watch, stated that the Chinese government’s decision to change the names of Uyghur individuals is a deliberate attempt to eliminate their cultural and religious identity.
According to reports, a research spanning from 2009 to 2023 discovered that out of 25,000 villages in Xinjiang Province, at least 3,600 of them had their names changed. While some of these changes seemed insignificant, as many as 630 of them were apparently altered to reflect religious, cultural, or historical themes. It is worth noting that this process appears to be ongoing. Human Rights Watch has cited the aforementioned 630 village names as examples of this trend.
In a scathing 45-page report, the human rights office of the United Nations called out the Chinese government for its mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang province. The report accuses the government of committing severe abuses against its citizens, potentially including international crimes and crimes against humanity.
According to Zumretay Arkin, Director of Global Advocacy at World Uyghur Congress, the campaign to change the name of the village is leaving some Uyghurs feeling inferior to the Han Chinese, as it insinuates that their culture is outdated.
According to the U.N., the Uyghur community has been subjected to torture and unjustified imprisonment. Furthermore, they claim that the Uyghurs’ freedom of religion, expression, and movement have been restricted along with their cultural and linguistic identity.
According to Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist who co-authored the Human Rights Watch report, many Uyghurs living outside Xinjiang feel disconnected from their hometown and unable to recognize it. He shared this sentiment with Voice of America on Wednesday.
The Chinese government has repeatedly denied the reports claiming that around 1 million Uighurs are being held in re-education camps since 2017. Despite the allegations of forced labor, sterilization, and disappearances, Beijing has maintained its stance and vehemently denied these claims.
