Thread by @WilliamYang120

From @RadioFreeAsia: “A #Uyghur father and son in northwestern #China’s #Xinjiang province are serving prison sentences for taking part in “illegal” religious education at home, a Uyghur who has knowledge of the situation said.”rfa.org/english/news/u…

“Memet Musa, a 50-year-old religious cleric from Lenger village, Keriye (in Chinese Yutian) county in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture, and his 20-year-old son, Osman Memet, were sentenced to prison in 2018 ...

... because the father taught the Qur’an to his son, said the source from Keriye, who now lives in exile.”

“Musa was known for his public cautiousness and to not cross the lines drawn by the Chinese authorities when it came to religion, the source said. When Musa was asked by others to teach the Qur’an, he politely declined by saying he was a poor teacher.”

“But he taught his son the Qur’an and the basic teachings of Islam to fulfill what he viewed as his role as a father, said the Uyghur in exile, who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal by the Chinese government.”

“Chinese police in 2017 arrested Memet for reciting suras, or sections, from the Quran at several funerals in the community, the source said.”

“During his interrogation, Memet told police that when he was a child, he learned to recite the Quran from his father and not from people considered by authorities to be suspect, said the Uyghur in exile. But police still considered the teachings to be a crime, the source said.”

“Chinese government officials in Keriye declined to answer RFA’s questions about the imprisonment of Memet Musa and his son. 
But officers at the Lenger village police station confirmed the information provided by the Uyghur source when contacted by RFA.”

“One officer named Musa as one of the religious figures arrested from the village, adding that he was sentenced along with his son.”

“I heard about his [Musa’s] case when our police station chief talked about it, but I was not directly involved in it,” the officer said.

A second officer said Musa, who has three children, once served as an imam at the village mosque and had been sentenced to 10 years in jail, while his son got six years.
“His crime was illegal preaching,” the policeman said.

His son’s crime was “studying religious knowledge from his father,” he said.
Both Musa and Memet are serving their prison terms in a prison in Keriye, the policeman said.