Chinese authorities confiscate Qurans from Uyghur Muslims

Authorities in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region are confiscating all Qurans published more than five years ago due to allegations of “extremist content,” according to local officials, amid an ongoing campaign against the so-called “illegal” religious items owned by mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghur residents.

Authorities in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region are confiscating all Qurans published more than five years ago due to allegations of “extremist content,” according to local officials, amid an ongoing campaign against the so-called “illegal” religious items owned by mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghur residents.

Village chiefs from Barin township, in Kashgar prefecture’s Peyziwat (Jiashi) county, recently said that hundreds of the Islamic holy books printed before 2012 had been seized since authorities issued an order recalling them on Jan. 15.

The Qurans were appropriated as part of the “Three Illegals and One Item” campaign underway in Xinjiang that bans “illegal” publicity materials, religious activities, and religious teaching, as well as items deemed by authorities to be tools of terrorism—including knives, flammable objects, remote-controlled toys, and objects sporting symbols related to Islam, they said.