BEIJING, September 16 (IslamOnline.net) - In a bid seen as an attempt to polish a bleak record of repressing the Muslim minority, Chine decided to earmark funds for rebuilding mosques demolished or seriously damaged in the devastating tremor that hit the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) early this year.

"The Kashi Prefecture government has ordered the rebuilding and restoration of all mosques destroyed by the earthquake in the region, which totaled more than 400," the People's Daily Online reported Monday, September 15, quoting Zhang Minggong, secretary of the Bachu County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Since the violent tremor, many Muslims in the regions where the mosques had collapsed had to stay at home or go to makeshift sites for their five-time-a-day prayers and other religious rituals.

"So far the Bachu County government has located all demolished mosques in the county and has also worked out a detailed plan for their restoration," added Zhang.

He said that most of the mosques were either "poorly-constructed at the very beginning" or "without appropriate renovation for years."

For his part, the director of the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs under the county government said the reconstruction is already underway and is expected to be completed before October 15.

In Yopurga County of Kashi Prefecture, for example, the local government has put 54 quake-destroyed mosques on the reconstruction list, with a budget of some 30,000 yuan ($3,600) each.

Abdusupur Mahesumaji, the senior scholar of the local Grand Mosque, said that the reconstruction process would adopt earthquake-proof materials and quake-resistant structure "to guarantee the safety of Muslims visiting them."

He added that when the new mosques were all built, the local people's need for religious activities would certainly be fully met.

"We're quite satisfied with it," said the scholar.

Islam is one of the leading religions in Xinjiang where some 11 million Uighurs and people of 45 other ethnic minority groups live.

Statistics show that currently there are over 23,700 mosques in the region.

The Chinese move came, however, despite a record of repression and harsh treatment against the Uighurs.

"The Chinese government has claimed that 'ethnic separatists' are linked with international 'terrorists' and has called for international support for its crackdown.

"However the subjective yardstick of 'terrorism' has been used to detain a broad range of people, some of whom may have done little more than practice their religion or defend their culture," Amnesty said.

The human rights watchdog further urge the Chinese authorities not to justify human rights violations in the name of the "war against terrorism."

The report also touched on the religious oppression of Uighur students, warning that the Chinese authorities were banning fasting during the Muslims holy month of Ramadan in schools, hospitals and government offices.

"One teacher in Khotan said that students might face expulsion if they refused to break the fast. Mosques have been closed down because they were located near schools and deemed to be a 'bad influence' on young people," the report cited an example.

It said that the communist state launched the most severe and extensive campaign dubbed as "Strike Hard", which netted "ethnic separatists" and "illegal religious" forces in the region.

The campaign resulted in hundreds of thousands of arrests and several thousand judicial executions across China, it said.

Xinjiang is Chinese for "New Dominion," or "New Frontier," a legacy of their former Manchu rulers, who invaded Eastern Turkistan in 1759 and incorporated it into China.

The Uighurs are not the only Muslims in China; the Hui Muslims are also a recognized minority of several millions, and minorities of Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Kazakhs are to be found in Xinjiang.

Ethnically, the Uighurs are a Turkic people, their language being part of the larger Altaic family.