‘Muslims in China enjoy religious freedom’

LAHORE : Muslim scholars of China as well as local people following the religion of Islam have stated that the Islamic community is practicing its religious duties without any trouble.

‘People gather at this place five times a day after Azan, on Friday, the gathering takes place regularly and similarly on both the Eids, the Muslims offer prayers and it has been happening for years here’ said Mehmeti Juma, the Imam of the main Kashgar Mosque known as Id Kah (Eid Gah) in the Muslim dominated city of Kashgar, a part of Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China.

Talking to Pakistani media during its visit to the main mosque, the prayer leader stated that Muslims in big number gather here and there has been no issue at all concerning their religious freedom. At the time while Pakistani delegation reached the main Masjid known as Id Kah, it was time for Asar prayer and within minutes, a large number of people from adjoining areas gathered at the Masjid to offer the prayer. The Id Kah is situated close to a busy market of Kashgar and most of the people living in surrounding areas pertain to the business community. Kashgar is an ‘Uyghar’ community dominated city, and major chunk of its population practice Islam.

Abdul Raqeeb, the head of Xinjiang Islamic Institute situated in the city of Umurqi received the Pakistani media delegation on December 14 afternoon in a very cold day when the temperature was around Minus 10. The delegation was taken to different sections of the institute, including library, classrooms, hostel, mosque etc.

Abdul Raqeeb told the guests that former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari also visited the institute in the year 2011. When asked when will he (Abdul Raqeeb) visit Pakistan, he replied ‘Inshallah’.

Talking to Pakistani media persons, Abdul Raqeeb told that people from western countries had also visited this institute and several misconceptions related to Chinese Muslims were removed from their minds when they saw things here closely.

Negating the allegation of maltreatment being meted out to Muslims in China, Abdul Raqeeb stated that the Muslim community was free to practise its religion. He also told that a large number of students after passing out from this institute would serve in different Islamic institutes of the country. To a question, he told that students were trained under ‘Hanfi’ school of thought here and they were provided all required facilities here.

The section for ablution (Wazoo Khana) was also shown to the delegates where students were given the facility of warm water. At the time while the delegation visited the Xinjiang Islamic Institute Masjid, Azan for Asar prayer was going on and after a few minutes, students gather in big number to offer the prayer. Mufti Abdul Raqeeb told that he had visited number of countries and sought education from various Islamic institutions of the world. He particularly mentioned his visit to Jamiat ul Azhar in Egypt. He said Islam is a religion of peace and the propaganda against Islam and Chinese Muslims by some quarters of the world was totally baseless.

Similarly, the local Muslims who were interacted by the Pakistani media also stated that they were free to practise religion here. Located in Northwest China and the hinterland of Eurasian continent, the autonomous region of Xinjiang has an area of 1.66 million square kilometers. The region borders eight countries, including Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, with a land boundary of over 5,700 kilometers long. Xinjiang has been a multi-penthic and multi-religious region since ancient times. It is currently inhabited by 56 ethnic groups, including Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Mongol, Hui, Kirghiz, Manchu, Xibe, Tajik, Daur, Uzbek, Tatar and Russian.