China Detains Teacher, Students for Reading Qur'an
US rights groups say China oppresses the Uighurs in the name of counter-terrorism efforts.
BEIJING, August 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Authorities in China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang region have detained an Uighur woman and 37 of her students, some as young as seven, for studying the Noble Qur'an, a rights group said Monday, August 15.
Aminan Momixi, 56, was teaching the Qur'an to the students, aged between seven and 20, at her home on August 1 when police burst in and arrested her, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing the German-based World Uighur Congress.
Her students, most of whom were primary and secondary school pupils, were also arrested and some remain in detention, it said.
Police confiscated 23 copies of the Qur'an, 56 textbooks on the holy book, a hand-written manuscript and other religious materials, the organisation added.
Uighurs are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million whose traditional homeland lies in the oil-rich Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwestern China.
Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of crackdowns by Chinese authorities, who have been accused by rights groups of religious repression against Uighurs in the name of counter-terrorism efforts.
"Illegal"
Momixi was accused of "illegally possessing religious materials and subversive historical information," the congress said, adding that she had been denied access to a lawyer.
A police officer confirmed the detentions.
"This is our internal issue, we cannot disclose the reason," she said.
China bans all religious activities outside state control.
The congress' spokesman Dilxat Raxit said parents just wanted their children to learn moral values which the Qur'an taught them.
"They just want their children to learn the Qur'an, the most basic religious knowledge, during the summer holiday," he told AFP.
He added that some children had been released after parents paid fines of between 7,000 and 10,000 yuan (863 and 1,233 dollars).
"Some parents simply can't afford it. They live in the countryside and have to sell their cows and yaks to get their children out," he stressed.
The spokesman was not aware how many children were still detained.
In a 114-page report released in April, Human Rights Watch said Chinese policy in Xinjiang "denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression".
Uighur rights activists have accused the US administration, which often brags about human rights, of turning a blind eye to China's crackdown on the Muslim Uighur minority.