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China says yes to religious freedom, but no to conflicts

The Chinese government invited The Jakarta Post’s Ridwan Max Sijabat to China from April 18 to April 27

Ridwan Max Sijabat (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, April 29, 2011

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China says yes to religious freedom, but no to conflicts

T

em>The Chinese government invited The Jakarta Post’s Ridwan Max Sijabat to China from April 18 to April 27. The following is his report of the trip:

Islam in China: Islamic boarding school students walk to a mosque after helping with renovation work at their school building in a Muslim housing compound in Yinchuan, Ningxia. The Chinese provincial government has appointed governors from the Muslim Hui ethnic minority, designated Idul Fitri and Sacrifice Day as holidays, constructed more than 300 mosques and built a slaughterhouse permitting many private companies to produce halal products to facilitate the around 60,000 Muslim families in the province. JP/Ridwan Max SijabatChina’s ruling Communist Party has acknowledged the value of religious freedom, but to maintain political stability and ensure the economic development, it has never tolerated any sectarian conflicts or any foreign interference.

Deputy Director of the CPC’s (Communist Party of China) Ningxia provincial Committee, Zhang Kehong, said the Chinese government and the ruling party have allowed the nation’s 1.3 billion people to adopt any faith and facilitated them in performing their faiths, but they were required to comply with Chinese law.

He explained that the government has granted special autonomy to the Ningxia province, where 33 percent, or 60,000, of the population are Muslim, and has set Idul Fitri and the Sacrifice Day as holidays in the province.

“During the holidays, all offices are closed and government officials visit Muslim families’ homes to
celebrate the religious events,” he said recently.

Like Guangxi, an autonomous province in southernmost China, Ningxia has been given special autonomy allowing the ethnic minority Hui Muslims have two children  and appoint governors from the ethnic group.

Under the country’s family planning program, each married couple, especially from the Han ethnicity, which constitutes 70 percent of China’s population, is only allowed to have one child, regardless of its sex.

The provincial government has helped built a total of 300 mosques in the provinces and several Muslim housing compounds, constructed a big museum housing Muslim traditions in the province and a slaughterhouse that allowed many private companies to produce halal food.


Han Jian, a religious cleric, appreciated the government’s contribution to the Muslim community in the province and its protection of the Muslim Hui community despite certain limitations.

He declined to mention the limitations, but during Friday prayers, there were no loudspeakers to be found, and polygamy is not allowed due to the family planning program.

Guangxi has around 10,000 Guang Muslims.

Rev. Joseph Chang, a minister of the Catholic Church’s cathedral in Yinchuan, confirmed that the limitations set by the government on all religions in the province was aimed at maintaining social order and avoiding sectarian conflicts.

He said the Holy Week celebration, including Good Friday and Easter, went smoothly in the
province, home to around 15,000 Catholics.

“The Catholic Church has had a serious problem with the communist government because it has barred the Vatican from interfering in local churches’ internal affairs,” he said, citing how the Vatican’s appointment of bishops in China and the ordaining of new priests have required approval from Beijing.

Zhang stressed that political stability and public order were two prerequisites to China’s success in carrying out its economic development, and the government would never tolerate any sectarian conflicts, terrorist acts or any interference by outsiders in the country’s internal affairs.

“We have achieved significant economic progress because of the political stability and the legal certainty,” he said, citing as an example the harsh punishment against those found guilty in the sectarian conflict in Lhasa, Mongolia, in March.

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