CFU Welcomes USCIRF Report on China’s Persecution of Religious Leaders

  • September 30, 2025

CFU PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 29, 2025, 2:00 PM EST

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CFU Welcomes USCIRF Report on China’s Persecution of Religious Leaders

Washington, D.C. – Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) welcomes the release of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) new report, China’s Persecution of Religious Leaders. The report documents the systematic detention, imprisonment, torture, and death in custody of imams, clerics, pastors, and monks across faith communities in China. CFU affirms the report’s urgent call to action, highlighting the deliberate targeting of Uyghur religious leaders as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing genocide in East Turkistan.

According to USCIRF, since 2014, more than 1,000 Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim imams have been detained or imprisoned for their religious roles. Among these documented cases are the 20-year sentence of Imam Dadihan; the death in prison of 96-year-old Imam Abidin Damollam in 2024 while serving a nine-year term; and the imprisonment of Uyghur women such as Tursungul Ghopur, Buwihelchegul Sidiq, and Ezizigul Memet, each sentenced to 10–14 years for teaching religion and culture. These cases revealed a systematic effort to erase Uyghur identity by criminalizing religious activities and leaders.

“USCIRF’s latest report confirms what Uyghur families have long endured, that our imams, scholars, and religious leaders are deliberately targeted to break the moral backbone of our community,” said Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of CFU and sister of Dr. Gulshan Abbas, who has been unjustly imprisoned by the CCP for more than seven years. “By criminalizing faith, the Chinese regime is not only violating fundamental human rights but advancing its genocidal campaign to erase Uyghur identity.” Abbas will expand on these concerns on October 16 when she testifies at the USCIRF hearing on “State-Controlled Religion in China,” which will examine the CCP’s policy of sinicization of religion and its systemic repression across faith communities.

CFU calls on governments, faith groups, and international institutions to demand the release of all religious leaders imprisoned in China. The persecution of clerics, imams, pastors, and monks is a direct violation of religious freedom. The global community must act with urgency to stop authoritarian repression and ensure religious leaders can serve their communities without fear.

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