The governor of China’s restive far western region of Xinjiang wrote on Monday that Islamist militants were trying to ban laughter at weddings and crying at funerals, as he appealed to people to stamp out the “tumor” of extremism.
Writing in the official Xinjiang Daily, Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri said that acts of terror had been made possible by extremists taking advantage of people’s faith, especially “young people who have seen little of the world”.
“In order to incite fanaticism and control believers, religious extremists have blatantly distorted religious teachings, making up heresy such as ‘jihadist martyrs go to heaven,’ ‘killing a pagan is worth over 10 years of piety,’ and ‘one gets whatever one wants in heaven’,” he wrote.
“They use this to bewilder believers into what they believe is ‘jihad’ in the form of suicide terrorist attacks or other violence,” Bekri added.
People who do not follow the strictures of the Islamists are condemned by them as “traitors” and “scum”, he said.
Bekri, an Uighur himself, accused the militants of ignoring the region’s own traditions and of wanting to enforce a strict theocratic society.
“They … push the banning of watching television, listen to the radio, reading newspapers, singing and dancing, not allowing laughter at weddings nor crying at funerals,” he added. “They force men to grow beards and women to wear the burkha.”
Extremists are also demanding that not only food, but also cosmetics, medicine and clothing be halal, and push the idea that government-subsidized housing is not halal and to be avoided, Bekri wrote.
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