BEIJING, June 2 (APP): The freedom of religious belief is
protected in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,
according to a white paper on the human rights progress made
in the region.
The white paper released less than a week after Ramadan
started on Saturday in China said, the normal religious needs
of local people have been satisfied, Global Times reported
on Friday.
The normal religious needs of local people have been
satisfied, according to the white paper titled “Human Rights
in Xinjiang – Development and Progress,” which was issued by
the State Council Information Office here.
Xinjiang has published translations of the religious
classics of Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity in multiple
languages, it said, adding that 1.76 million copies of the
Holy Quran and Selections from Al-Sahih Muhammad Ibn-Ismail
al-Bukhari have been printed and distributed.
Religious organizations have organized training courses
on religious knowledge and etiquette for citizens with
religious beliefs.
“Legitimate rights of religious organizations have been
effectively safeguarded,” the white paper read.
Xinjiang has 112 religious organizations, which receive
help from the government to improve their conditions and allow
them to play a broader role, it said.
Steady improvements have been made in the training system to
cultivate clerics, by offering them systemic training, enhancing
their overall qualities, and raising religious organizations’
capacity of self-management, the white paper said.
It noted that overseas religious exchanges have been conducted
in increasing depth. Xinjiang has sent delegations to international
academic exchanges and seminars, and its clerics and students at
religious institutes have won prizes in competitions for reciting
the Holy Quran.
Since 2001, Xinjiang has sent more than 70 clerics and students
from the Islamic Institute to study at institutions of higher learning
in Egypt, Pakistan, and other countries, and has set up scholarships
to award those who achieve outstanding performance, said the white
paper.
Moreover, the local government has implemented a policy on
planning and organizing pilgrimages to Makkah, and has strengthened
services to ensure that all such pilgrimages are safe and orderly,
it said.
To ensure the citizens’ right to freedom of religious belief,
Xinjiang has worked hard to combat extremism, implementing the
Regulations on Anti-extremism of Xinjiang, strengthening the
management of religious affairs in accordance with the law,
and preventing and neutralizing religious extremism, which
have effectively curbed its spread, it said.
China also published white papers on Xinjiang’s religious
freedom and ethnic equality, unity and development in 2016
and 2015.
