hearing transcript (pdf - 690 kb) - House Foreign Affairs Committee ...

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leaders who endured religious persecution under the Iraqi regime.
We thank you for joining us today via telephone.
Last, Ms. McKinney has asked Mr. Nihad Awad to join our panel
today. He is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic
relations. We welcome Mr. Awad’s testimony.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I thank all of you for joining us here today.
We look forward to your testimony. We will begin with our first
witness, Mr. Sidik from China.
STATEMENT OF GHAYRET SIDIK, UYGHUR VICTIM OF
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN CHINA
[The following testimony was delivered through an interpreter.]
Mr. SIDIK. My name is Ghayret Sidik. Thank you very much for
the opportunity to speak before you since my English is not very
good. So, Alim——
The INTERPRETER. That is me.
Mr. SIDIK [continuing]. Is going to do the translation.
My name is Ghayret Sidik. I am a Uyghur Muslim from East
Turkestan. I was born on May 10, 1966 in Urumchi, the capital of
East Turkestan. In 1955 China changed the name of our country
East Turkestan into Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Xinjiang
literally means new territory in the Chinese language.
The Chinese Constitution guarantees that every person has religious
freedom. However, China is not run by the constitution but
by the dictates of the Chinese Communist Party. The Uyghur people
have never been fully able to enjoy religious or any kind of freedom
since Communist China occupied East Turkestan in 1949.
There is indeed certain Islamic institutions sanctioned by the Chinese
Government but they have never represented the interest of
the Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan.
The Uyghur people became Muslims and adopted Islam in the
11th century. Before that they believed in Buddhism, Manichaeism,
Shamanism and Nestorian Christianity. Islam is not the only religion
the Uyghurs believed since they first appeared on the stage
of history. Today the Uyghur people believe in the Sunni branch
of Islam which is rather moderate in form. For the Uyghur people,
Islam is their religious and cultural identity. Unfortunately, nowadays
the Chinese Government is attempting with every means to
destroy the Uyghur people’s religious and cultural identity which
is Islam. China also considers Islam as a threat and has been aggressively
portraying the Uyghur dissidents as Islamic fundamentalists
or religious extremists. China knows the western democracies
would sooner or later buy this concept since the Middle Eastern
terrorist groups indeed pose a threat to them.
China is also eradicating the influence of Islam among the
Uyghur people in order to dilute the distinction between the Chinese
and the Uyghurs. Therefore those Uyghurs who practice Islam
in any form or shape without the approval of the Chinese Government
is considered an enemy of the state. Many Uyghurs who are
not necessarily opposed to the rule of the Chinese Government but
simply want to practice their religion landed in jail for many years.
In these days it is a crime being religious for the Uyghur people.
If you look, act, sound, even smell like a religious person, you become
a potential target of persecution.
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