Xi urges Chinese Muslims to resist religious ‘infiltration’：The Asahi Shimbun
Chinese Muslims should promote social harmony and resist illegal religious "infiltration," President Xi Jinping said while visiting a mosque in a heavily Muslim part of western China, state media reported on Thursday.
There are about 21 million Muslims in China, ranging from the Uighur people who live in the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang to the Hui, many of whom are highly Sinified, and other ethnic groups.
China's Constitution guarantees religious freedom, but rights groups say the officially atheist ruling Communist Party seeks to restrict religious practice, especially for Muslims. China strongly denies such charges.
Touring Ningxia, home to about 2.4 million mostly Hui Muslims, Xi said Chinese Muslims should practice their religion as part of Chinese society and "carry forward the patriotic tradition," the official China Daily said.
Beijing policies in Xinjiang driving Chinese Muslims to join ranks of Islamic State, says US think tank
Tough religious restrictions on Muslim minorities in the country’s far west may have driven more than 100 to join Islamic State (IS), a US think tank said on Wednesday.
Beijing has long claimed that IS is recruiting Uygurs from the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang, and blamed outside forces for fomenting deadly acts of violence there and elsewhere in the country that have claimed hundreds of lives.
At the same time, authorities have banned or strictly controlled the observance of certain Muslim practices, such as growing beards and fasting during Ramadan, saying they were symbols of “Islamic extremism”.
Those policies “could be a push factor driving people to leave the country and look elsewhere for a sense of ‘belonging’”, the Washington-based New America Foundation wrote in a study of leaked registration documents for IS fighters.
The findings were based on data from more than 3,500 foreign recruits provided by a defector from the jihadist organisation.
Of those, 114 came from Xinjiang, the study said, making it the fifth-highest contributor of fighters among regions named in the data – after three areas in Saudi Arabia and one in Tunisia.
Chinese Muslims should promote social harmony and resist illegal religious "infiltration," President Xi Jinping said while visiting a mosque in a heavily Muslim part of western China, state media reported on Thursday.
There are about 21 million Muslims in China, ranging from the Uighur people who live in the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang to the Hui, many of whom are highly Sinified, and other ethnic groups.
China's Constitution guarantees religious freedom, but rights groups say the officially atheist ruling Communist Party seeks to restrict religious practice, especially for Muslims. China strongly denies such charges.
Touring Ningxia, home to about 2.4 million mostly Hui Muslims, Xi said Chinese Muslims should practice their religion as part of Chinese society and "carry forward the patriotic tradition," the official China Daily said.
Beijing policies in Xinjiang driving Chinese Muslims to join ranks of Islamic State, says US think tank
Tough religious restrictions on Muslim minorities in the country’s far west may have driven more than 100 to join Islamic State (IS), a US think tank said on Wednesday.
Beijing has long claimed that IS is recruiting Uygurs from the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang, and blamed outside forces for fomenting deadly acts of violence there and elsewhere in the country that have claimed hundreds of lives.
At the same time, authorities have banned or strictly controlled the observance of certain Muslim practices, such as growing beards and fasting during Ramadan, saying they were symbols of “Islamic extremism”.
Those policies “could be a push factor driving people to leave the country and look elsewhere for a sense of ‘belonging’”, the Washington-based New America Foundation wrote in a study of leaked registration documents for IS fighters.
The findings were based on data from more than 3,500 foreign recruits provided by a defector from the jihadist organisation.
Of those, 114 came from Xinjiang, the study said, making it the fifth-highest contributor of fighters among regions named in the data – after three areas in Saudi Arabia and one in Tunisia.
