The Chinese authorities are forcing people to worship their leader and the Party instead of God.
A woman from an Uyghur household in Xinjiang’s Kashgar city told Bitter Winter recently that the authorities had told countless families like hers to put up a portrait of Xi Jinping in their house.
She said, “We were told to worship Xi Jinping during the festival of Eid al-Adha (Muslim festival of sacrifice. They say if we don’t do it, we will be fined.”
Her husband added, “We’re afraid to worship Allah now. The ones who worship Allah are arrested and sent to ‘transformation through education’ camps. Almost everyone in our village has been arrested.”
In accordance with Uyghur social customs and religious beliefs, Uyghurs don’t put up couplet banners. However, to subjugate even this belief, the CCP is forcing every household to put up the banners. Anyone who doesn’t obey is deemed suspicious and either detained at a camp or fined.
In Xinjiang’s Tumshuq city, Uyghur households are being forced to put up the Chinese flag on their roofs to show their support for the Communist Party. At weekly flag-raising ceremonies, people are required to pledge their allegiance to the Party, Chairman Xi, and China. Anyone who doesn’t recite the pledge is sent to a camp for having “ideological problems.”
Meanwhile, in Shihezi city, people are threatened against believing in God or being “two-faced.” Villagers are forced to sign several directive materials sent in by their Party cadres. “If you don’t sign, we’ll cancel all benefits policies, and your children’s jobs will be affected,” the villagers are told.
Source: BITTER WINTER / Li Zaili
