Radio Free Asia reported on January 5, 2017, that ethnic Uyghur government workers in Xinjiang region are being ordered to remove the word “Islam” from a box indicating religious affiliation on their household registration forms. An official directive issued a month ago warns recipients not to delay in changing the form if the offending word has already been entered.A worker in Kashgar prefecture’s Municipal Office of Petition Affairs told RFA “The police department is in charge of household registration forms.” “If you have entered Islam on the form as your religion, you have to take the form back to the office that first issued it and have them change it.” Also speaking to RFA, a police officer in Xinjiang’s Hotan (Hetian) city defended the move, saying, “Yes, it is right that these should be changed.Whoever gets a government salary should not write that they believe in such-and-such a religion on their registration form. This should be left blank. We have a government directive on this, though I cannot tell you when it was issued or what the deadline may be for compliance.”