China announces stricter rules for Muslims visiting Saudi Arabia for Hajj pilgrimage

China has announced stricter regulations for Muslims visiting Saudi Arabia for annual Haj pilgrimage, allowing only the Chinese Islamic Association to organise the Islamic pilgrimage. The new regulation, with a total of 42 articles, stipulates that Haj should be organised in accordance with laws and Chinese Muslims should oppose religious extremism.

The country has been witnessing a gradual decline in the number of Muslims embarking upon the annual Haj pilgrimage every year. Around 14,500 Muslims went for Haj in 2016 and this year, around 11,500 Chinese Muslims are expected to head to Saudi Arabia for the Islamic pilgrimage. China has around 20 million Muslim population which constitutes of Uyghurs from East Turkestan and Hui Muslims, who are of Chinese ethnic origin.

Saudi Arabia reopened Mecca for the Umrah pilgrimage from October 4 after seven months of the COVID-19 lockdown that prompted its suspension. Saudi's interior ministry announced that the kingdom has planned restart the umrah pilgrimage in three phases, with only 6,000 people, from inside the country, initially allowed to take part every day.

China’s state-run Global Times reported that no other organisation or individuals are allowed to organise the trips and Chinese Muslims should meet basic requirements as described in the new regulations. The report comes amid increased international scrutiny of China’s alleged human rights violations of ethnic minorities. 

Read: Limited Numbers Allowed To Enter Mecca Grand Mosque

Read: Pilgrims Return To Mecca As Saudi Eases Virus Restrictions

Atrocities on Muslims

Various investigative reports have until now suggested that China has been using mass surveillance programme to control every aspect of the life of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. According to the latest report by Noema magazine, published by a US-based think tank, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified the surveillance through data policing. 

Chinese tech giant Meiya Pico is reportedly helping the CCP analyse the digital footprint of ethnic minorities to identify ‘signs’ of Islamic extremism. As per the report titled ‘The Xinjiang Data Police’, the digital forensics tools, built by Meiya Pico, is used to feed data about the digital histories of individuals into a region-wide system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP). China has deployed IJOP to collect personal information on citizens and create a lengthy list of “suspicious” people based on this data. 

Read: Saudi Arabia Reopens Mecca For Umrah Pilgrimage After 7-month Pause For COVID-19 Crisis

Read: US Needs To Recognise 'genocide', Take Strong Action Against China: Uyghur Leader

(With PTI inputs)