Chinese Authorities have linked Halal food with extremism and said that steps should be taken to curb it. The muslim population in China was more than 21 million in 2009, majority of muslims are from China’s northwest province Xinjiang.
Wang Zuoan, China’s head of State Administration for Religious Affairs talked with Chinese Islamic Association where he emphasized the need of eliminating religious presence from schools, administration and judicial process.
[junkie-alert style=”green”] He also asked muslims not to pay too much attention to pilgrimage to Holy city of Makkah, saying the trend “irrational”. [/junkie-alert]
The Uyghur muslims from Xinjiang believe that their identity is in threat from Chinese interference. Few months ago china passed a controversial law according to which parents were punishable for motivating children to attend religious events, attending Quranic classes at homes and keeping beard at young age are also banned.
The province of Xinjiang came under Chinese occupation after Chinese Communist Revolution under Mao Zedong, at that time muslim were 75% of the population now they constitute only 45%.
