Senior official calls for steady development of Chinese Islam

Highlights of a speech by Wang Zuo'an, chief of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, at the 10th National Congress of the China Islamic Assocation:

We should respect the beliefs and customs of Muslims, and at the same time curb behaviors that intervene in administrative, judicial and education processes in the name of religious canons.

The China Islamic Association should stick to and carry forward the fine traditions of Chinese Islam, correctly identify the various ideological trends of Islam overseas and avoid blindly following the lead of religions in other countries, which will only result in the loss of direction for Chinese Islam.

The China Islamic Association should resolutely prohibit individual hajj pilgrims ... and protect the normal order of the hajj. Hajj-related work should be more transparent, and the association should further optimize the online application process and make public the use of hajj funds. Corruption in hajj-related areas should be punished in accordance with the law. The Islamic clergy should explain the hajj comprehensively and dialectically. The country's number of hajj pilgrims (allowed to the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca) has already approached its limit, and there is not much room for more. We need to lead the Muslims to treat hajj more rationally, and object to irrational behaviors such as taking on debt to make the pilgrimage or making the pilgrimage in sickness.

The China Islamic Association should understand the relationship between religious canons and the laws correctly, establish a firm concept of the rule of law and conduct activities within legal boundaries. It should learn to use the law to safeguard legal interests, instead of trying to solve problems through illegal actions such as creating disturbances.

(China Daily USA 11/28/2016 page5)