Censorship in China: Can a poem get you 10 years in jail?

That’s not chicken you’re eating

The poem “Wild Pigeon,” written by a Muslim poet in China and published by an official Chinese literary publication, seems innocuous enough – a young pigeon is trapped and caged by humans when he ventures too far from home, and chooses to die rather than be imprisoned for life. However, this poem was published in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, otherwise known as East Turkestan, and officials saw in Nurmuhemmet Yasin’s poem a call for Uighur separatism.

The plight of China’s Muslim minority, which considers itself to have been forcibly integrated into China (alas, that bane of Muslim existence, oil, lies under their feet), has become worse in recent years as Beijing has implemented measures to suppress the Muslim population of 19 million and encourage non-Muslim Han Chinese to settle the area.

This, in turn, has radicalized some Uighurs and turned them towards militancy, which then creates a backlash against the remaining Uighur population. Which brings us back to Mr. Yasin and his poem. After a closed trial in February 2005 at which he was not permitted to hire a lawyer, Yasin was sentenced by the Kashgar Intermediate Court to 10 years in jail for inciting Uighur separatism, a sentence which was later upheld on appeal. He has been permitted no visitors, and his personal collection of 1,600 poems and stories has been confiscated.

Yasin’s story is by no means unique – similar judgements have been made on other Uighurs for infractions as small as wearing a beard. “The authorities continued to use the international war against terrorism to justify harsh repression in Xinjiang, which continued to result in serious human rights violations against the ethnic Uighur community,” reads a report from Amnesty International. “The authorities continued to make little distinction between acts of violence and acts of passive resistance.”

While there is little chance that China will restore the independence East Turkestan enjoyed between 1938 and 1949, activists are turning to the Internet and other media sources to keep China’s human rights abuses in check, using Tibetan activism as an example. Perhaps the future will see a “Uighur Freedom Concert” – with “Wild Pigeon” being set to music by a tanned, rested, and ready Yusuf “Cat Stevens” Islam?

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.