To Dilute Islam, China Ordered Shopkeepers To Sell Alcohol, Cigarettes

Chinese authorities have ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurant owners in a village in the troubled Xinjiang region to sell alcohol and cigarettes and promote them in ‘‘eye-catching displays’’ — an attempt to undermine Islam’s hold on local residents, Radio Free Asia reported. Establishments that fail to comply may be closed and their owners prosecuted.

Facing widespread discontent over its repressive rule in the mainly Muslim province of Xinjiang, and mounting violence in the past two years, China has launched a series of ‘‘strike hard’’ campaigns to weaken Islam in the region. Government employees and children are barred from attending mosques or observing the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

In many places, women have been barred from wearing face-covering veils, and men discouraged from growing long beards.

In Aktash in southern Xinjiang, Communist Party official Adil Sulayman told Radio Free Asia that many shopkeepers had stopped selling alcohol and cigarettes since 2012 ‘‘because they fear public scorn.’’ The Koran calls the use of ‘‘intoxicants’’ sinful, while some Muslim religious leaders have also forbidden smoking.

Sulayman said authorities in Xinjiang view ethnic Uighurs who do not smoke as adhering to ‘‘a form of religious extremism’’ and issued the order to counter growing religious sentiment that he said was ‘‘affecting stability.’’

‘‘We have a campaign to weaken religion here, and this is part of that campaign,’’ he told the Washington-based news service.

The notice ordered restaurants and supermarkets in Aktash to sell five brands of alcohol and cigarettes and display them prominently. ‘‘Anybody who neglects this notice and fails to act will see their shops sealed off, their businesses suspended, and legal action pursued against them,’’ it said.

Radio Free Asia said that Hotan prefecture, where Aktash is located, had become ‘‘a hotbed of violent stabbing and shooting incidents between ethnic Uighurs and Chinese security forces.’’

Source