Ma Sheng
https://shahit.biz/eng/viewentry.php?entryno=13998
# testifying party
Testimony 1: Dui Hua, a San Francisco-based nonprofit humanitarian organization that seeks clemency and better treatment for at-risk detainees in China.
Testimony 2: Official court document, as used in court proceedings in the People’s Republic of China.
# about the victim
Ma Sheng (马胜) is a Hui Muslim man and a member of the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) (lit. “society for spreading faith”) movement.
Testimony 2: he is from Ghulja County.
# current location
# chronology of detention(s)
In October 2010, the Ghulja County People’s Court sentenced Ma Sheng and six other TJ participants to three to four years of imprisonment for being part of a “cult” [which is presumably a reference to the Chinese legal concept of “Xie Jiao”].
The Dui Hua article does not specify the length of Ma Sheng’s sentence in particular.
# suspected and/or official reason(s) for detention
Ma Sheng was accused of being part of a “cult” and “conducting illegal religious classes.” He allegedly taught several banned books, including “Islamic Six Virtues” and “Riyad as-Salihin Hadiths”, which were both easily downloadable free-of-charge from various online file-sharing services.
# last reported status
Testimony 1: The victim was sentenced in October 2010 to three to four years of imprisonment and has presumably been released, but his current status and whereabouts are unknown.
Testimony 2: in the 2018 court verdict for Jin Dehuai, Ma Sheng appears as a witness to testify that Jin Dehuai had organized for him and others to travel to Lanzhou and Xining for Jamaat gatherings. [That Ma Sheng appeared as a witness establishes that he was in Xinjiang during the time of the mass incarcerations, and would have very likely been detained himself, though this is unconfirmed.]
# how testifier(s) learned of victim’s situation
This information was uncovered by Dui Hua during their research into Chinese court judgements.
# additional information
Dui Hua article: https://www.duihuahrjournal.org/2021/01/tablighi-jamaat-and-hui-muslims.html
Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) (lit. “society for spreading faith”) was designated by the Chinese government as an “overseas religious infiltration organisation […] unanimously boycotted by China’s traditional Islamic groups.” According to this article, TJ is a “transnational movement closely tied to the Deobandi interpretation of the Sunni Islamic teachings” and was founded in India in 1926. TJ reportedly rejects violence as a means for evangelism and is primarily concerned with encouraging other Muslims to adopt a more orthodox lifestyle akin to the lifestyles of Mohammad and the first Muslim adherents.