Eid al-Adha prayer was not performed in Uyghur this year

In 2017 and 2018, the Chinese authorities completely closed mosques, and in 2020 and 2021, under the pressure of international public opinion, they opened a small number of mosques for demonstrations and organized some elderly people to pray Eid prayers on Eid. It turns out that this year, when Eid al-Fitr came, the mosques continued to be closed. In some mosques opened for the exhibition, artificial congregations were not organized.

When we observed information from China's national bulletin and social media, we did not find public scenes of people praying in the mosque or entering and exiting the mosque in a crowd, although there was a lot of chanting and a few people with their prayer flags. According to reports on Facebook by Zumrat David, an eyewitness of the camp, a British YouTuber posted a special travel video on Eid al-Fitr, visiting the Uighur community and operating market in Urumqi. According to the travelogue, the user passed by several mosques, including the Khantangri Mosque, and tried to enter some of them, only to witness that all of them were closed.

We called the Urumqi Police Station and asked if the Khantangri Mosque in the area was open this Eid. The officer who initially answered our call hung up as soon as we mentioned the mosque. The second person who took our call, pretending they couldn't hear us, asked for our phone number and said they would get back to us.

This English user went around the Urumqi market to shop and try to chat with the residents. While the Chinese residents responded favorably to the YouTuber, the Uyghurs spoke very little to him, and some avoided him.

In short, Yutubi did not see the spirit of a congregation celebrating a festival.

We called the Bakhuliang police station to find out about other mosques in Urumqi. When we asked the officials whether the mosques were open on Eid, and if so, how many people attended, the officials avoided answering our questions. Officers reiterated that we need to submit a written application to get an answer on this. We asked him to give a simple "no, yes" answer to our question about whether any of the mosques in his area are open on Eid, but the officer reiterated that such an answer must be followed by a formal procedure.

The user only saw a small group of people singing and dancing on the stage in front of Urumqi's main market, and he himself fell in love with the song. In order to ensure that the user's safety or travel plans do not go awry, the travelogue does not reveal the tense and mysterious aspects of the situation.

An official from Uyghur Eli who received our phone call, but did not want to reveal himself, said that this year Eid prayer was not offered in almost all places of Uyghur El, that is, like in the previous two or three years, even in the mosques that were allowed to open in the tourist centers, the prayer was not offered. Because of this, it is difficult for local authorities to organize artificial communities.

An officer who received our call from Aksu Aykol revealed that no mosque was opened this year on Eid al-Fitr in Aksu city. An officer of the Kucha County Public Security Bureau also confirmed that Eid prayers were not offered in Kucha this year.

According to Zumrat David, an eyewitness of the camp, the intention of the Chinese authorities to replace traditional Chinese festivals such as Chagan with Uyghur national festivals is concretely and prominently expressed in the scenes and moods of the festival.

Dear radio listeners, according to some comments on the Internet, the fact that the vast majority of religious leaders and public figures are in prison is another reason why Uyghur Eid prayers are not offered this year.