Islamic countries believe what China is doing in Xinjiang aims to protect the values and beliefs of the local people, said Smail Debeche, president of the Algeria-China Friendship Association.
ALGIERS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- China has guaranteed religious freedom in its northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and improved the wellbeing of Muslims there, said an Algerian scholar who had lately visited Xinjiang.
Talking about Arab states' repeated support for China's position on Xinjiang against relentless Western attempts to politicize the issue, Smail Debeche, president of the Algeria-China Friendship Association, said Islamic countries believe what China is doing in Xinjiang aims to protect the values and beliefs of the local people.
"People's right to fulfill their religious obligations is well protected. The name of stores and some documents are written in the local ethnic language," Debeche, also a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Algiers 3, said, while recalling his trip to Xinjiang in September 2023 as head of a delegation of foreign journalists and scholars.
China provides Xinjiang Muslims influenced by extremist thoughts with educational opportunities and helps them acquire life skills, integrates them into society, and enables them to secure job positions, Debeche said. This helped promote their social and economic status substantially.
Having traveled across many places in China, Debeche said he found no big difference between the development in Xinjiang and elsewhere, and that people of every ethnicity and religion are an integral part of the country's progress.
Religious groups in Xinjiang have now realized that some Western forces concocted lies and manipulated human right issues, in a bid to compromise China rather than for the promotion of democracy and freedom, according to the scholar.
The professor hailed the rapid development of Xinjiang, saying both local Muslims and non-Muslims are enjoying the progress of the nation. ■