Chinese authorities order Muslim shopkeepers to sell alcohol and cigarettes

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Wednesday 06 May 2015 - 12:47 Makkah mean time-17-7-1436 Muslim Uighur men leave the Id Kah Mosque after Friday prayers in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China (File image) Xinjiang (IINA) - Authorities in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region have ordered Muslim shop owners and restaurateurs in a mainly Muslim Uyghur village to sell alcohol and cigarettes or face closure of their establishments, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported, quoting an official source. Establishments that failed to comply were threatened with closure and their owners with prosecution. Last week, authorities in Laskuy township, in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture’s Hotan county, issued an announcement in the town seat of Aktash village that “all restaurants and supermarkets in the village should place five different brands of alcohol and cigarettes in their shops before 1 May 2015.” In addition to directing owners to create “eye-catching displays” to promote the products, the April 29 announcement stated that “anybody who neglects this notice and fails to act will see their shops sealed off, their business suspended, and legal action pursued against them.” China recently launched a series of “strike hard” campaigns to weaken the hold of Islam in the western region. Government employees and children have been 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, The Washington Post reported. Critics say China’s long repression of Uighur rights and nationalist sentiment has pushed people toward Islam as the only permitted assertion of their community’s identity, and pushed a minority toward a violent form. Clumsy attempts to promote alcohol or forbid beards and veils may prove counterproductive, they warn. SM/IINA