A prominent Muslim cleric said earlier this month that the Communist Party’s stringent religious policies in China are the best in the world. Abudulrekep Tumniyaz from Xinjiang’s Islamic Institute failed to refer to the ongoing offensive against Muslim Uyghurs who predominantly inhabit the region, however. The ongoing offensive against religious minorities in the country includes the burqa being banned, children being prevented from entering mosques and churches being demolished.

Speaking to the parliament, Tumniyaz said, “Our religious policy is the best in the world. In Xinjiang people can choose freely which religion to follow.”

The Chinese administration started cracking down on religion after a suicide bombing killed as many as 31 people in Urumqi last year.

Amnesty International explained that, as a result, the government decided to step up its already tedious restrictions on Islam with the intention of fighting religious extremism and violent terrorism in the region. Burqas, beards and other outwardly signs of Islam were thus banned in several places.

William Nee, a Hong Kong-based Amnesty researcher, said:

“I find that really unbelievable that he [Tumniyaz] would say such a thing. Freedom of religion is systematically violated in China in general but in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in particular. The strike hard campaign is very worrying because it appears that a lot of the crackdown is a crackdown on religious practice in the region.”

Photo Credits: The Telegraph