Official Urges Participation in State-Managed Hajj After Deaths in Mecca

An official from the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) urged Chinese pilgrims to Mecca to make the trip under the auspices of the China Islamic Association, according to a January 19 report from Xinhua. Guo Chengzhen, deputy director of the Muslim affairs department at SARA, said that the delegation organized by the state-sponsored China Islamic Association "enjoys better transportation and accommodation facilities." Guo called Chinese pilgrims who do not join official groups an inconvenience to other pilgrims and the Saudi government. Four participants from Qinghai province, on the official pilgrimage, were trampled to death in Mecca on January 12; Chinese news media reported the deaths shortly after the event. (For an example of early reporting on these deaths, see a January 13 article from the China Daily.) In the January 19 Xinhua article, Guo reported that a pilgrim from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) who visited Mecca on his own also was trampled to death. The China Islamic Association will pay family members of the four Qinghai pilgrims 50,000 yuan (US$6,200) each in compensation, the China Daily reported on January 16.

Article 11 of the Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA), which went into effect in 2005, provides that China's national Islamic religious organization is responsible for organizing Chinese Muslims’ overseas pilgrimages. The RRA also regulates the unauthorized “organization” of pilgrimages. Article 43 says that where pilgrimages abroad are organized without authorization for religious citizens, “the religious affairs department shall order [the discontinuation of] such activities and shall confiscate the illegal gains, if any[.]” The religious affairs department also may impose a fine based on a multiple of the illegal gains. A 1995 circular of provisions on self-funded pilgrimages specifies that the State Council tasks SARA with responsibility for pilgrimages, assigns seven government departments to coordinate pilgrimage-related work, and also tasks the China Islamic Association with responsibility for implementation. It adds that no other department may organize pilgrimages. The circular provides information on the pilgrimage application process and details on organizing the trip. It also instructs local authorities to gather pilgrims under their jurisdiction and provide education in topics including patriotism, socialism, "defending the unity of the motherland," and ethnic unity. A Human Rights Watch/Human Rights in China analysis notes that recent legislation in the XUAR bars individuals from organizing pilgrimages. In 2001 draft amendments (yet to be made public in China) to the 1994 XUAR Regulation on the Management of Religious Affairs, Article 17 states, "Pilgrimage activities are to be organized by the religious affairs bureau of the people's government and religious organizations. No other organization or individual may organize such activities." (A full text of the legislation and information on religious policies in the XUAR are available in the 2005 Human Rights Watch/Human Rights in China report Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang.)

Ambiguity in some religious regulations, combined with Guo's statements acknowledging that independent pilgrimages occur while discouraging them, indicates some government tolerance for individuals making private pilgrimages, although the degree of tolerance may vary. In August 2005, XUAR authorities reportedly confiscated passports from a group of Uighur pilgrims en route to Mecca.

For more information, see the section on Religious Freedom for China's Muslims in the 2005 CECC Annual Report.