BEIJING: A mostly Muslim county in western China has banned children fromattending religious events over a winter break, an education bureau said ina notice posted online, as authorities step up control of religiouseducation.
School students in Linxia county in Gansu province, home to many members ofthe Muslim Hui ethnic minority, are prohibited from entering religiousbuildings over their break, a district education bureau said, according tothe notification.
Students must also not read scriptures in classes or in religiousbuildings, the bureau said, adding that all students and teachers shouldheed the notice and work to strengthen political ideology.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the notice.A man who answered the telephone at the Linxia education bureau hung upwhen asked about the notice. A woman at the district education bureaudeclined to comment on the document’s authenticity.
Xi Wuyi, a Marxist scholar at the state-backed Chinese Academy of SocialScientists and an outspoken critic of rising Islamic influence in China,shared the picture and welcomed the apparent move by the authorities.
With the notice, the county was taking concrete action to keep religion andeducation separate and sticking strictly to education law, she said on theWeibo social media platform.
New regulations on religious affairs released in October last year, and dueto take effect in February, aim to increase oversight of religiouseducation, and provide for greater regulation of religious activities.
Last summer, a Sunday School ban was introduced in the southeastern city ofWenzhou, sometimes known as “China’s Jerusalem” due to its large Christianpopulation, but Christian parents found ways to teach their children abouttheir religion regardless.
Chinese law officially grants religious freedom for all but regulations oneducation and protection of minors also say religion cannot be used tohinder state education or to “coerce” children to believe.
Authorities in troubled parts of China, such as the far western region ofXinjiang, home to the Turkic-speaking Uighur Muslim minority, ban childrenfrom attending religious events.
But religious communities elsewhere rarely face blanket restrictions. Fearof Muslims influence has grown in China in recent years, sparked in part byviolence in Xinjiang.
The Chinese-speaking Hui, who are culturally more similar to the HanChinese majority than to Uighurs, have also come under scrutiny from someintellectuals who fear creeping Islamic influence on society. AGENCIES