China Bans Muslim Names Including 'Muhammad' for Newborns

This is an automatic summary, original reduced by 41%.

Local authorities in the far western reaches of the world's fourth-largest country have received notice that babies can no longer be named as anything that could be construed as "Overly religious," in an expansion of rules implemented in 2015 which restricted the use of Muslim proper names, including Fatima or Saddam, for newborns, according to Ft.com.

A public official in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi stated, "We received a notice from municipal authorities that all those born in Xinjiang cannot have overly religious or splittist names."

Xinjiang is home to some 11 million ethnic Uighurs - a predominantly Muslim culture - as well as many Mongolians, Tajiks and Kazakhs, who see Beijing's naming restrictions as a form of discrimination directly aimed at their culture.

"Han people see us as bloodthirsty and violent," observed an ethnic Mongolian and practicing Muslim from northern Xinjiang.

"When we travel inland, they see our Muslim names on our identification cards and will not let us stay in hotels or rent apartments," according to a report by Ft.com.

Following a series of deadly riots in northern Xinjiang's Urumqi region in 2009, Chinese officials, taking a page from the same playbook that suppressed Tibetan culture, have increasingly restricted the cultural expression of the Uighur, including the introduction of strict rules covering dress, religious observance and travel.

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