China passes law to 'Sinicize' Islam

China has passed a new law that seeks to "Sinicize" Islam within the next five years, the latest move by Beijing to rewrite how the religion is practised, reported Al Jazeera.

China's main English newspaper, Global Times, reported on Saturday that after a meeting with representatives from eight Islamic associations, government officials "agreed to guide Islam to be compatible with socialism and implement measures to Sinicize the religion."

The newspaper did not provide further details or the names of the associations that agreed to the decree.

China has embarked on an aggressive "Sinification" campaign in recent years with faith groups that were largely tolerated in the past seeing their freedoms shrink under Chinese President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

The report came as Beijing is facing  an outcry from activists, scholars, foreign governments and UN rights experts over what they call mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang province.

In August, a UN human rights panel said it had received credible reports that a million or more Uighurs and other minorities in the far western region are being held in what resembles a "massive internment camp."

Last week, the government organised a visit to three such facilities, which it calls vocational education training centres, for a small group of foreign reporters, including Reuters.

In recent days, a similar visit was arranged for diplomats from 12 non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Kazakhstan, according to Xinjiang officials and foreign diplomats.

Senior officials, including Shohrat Zakir, Xinjiang's governor and the region's most senior Uighur, dismissed what they called "slanderous lies" about the facilities.

Speaking in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, Shohrat Zakir said the centres had been "extremely effective" in reducing extremism by teaching residents about the law and helping them learn Mandarin.

"As time goes by, the people in the education training mechanism will be fewer and fewer," he said.

Shohrat Zakir said he could not say exactly how many people were in the facilities.

"One million people, this number is rather frightening. One million people in the education mechanism - that's not realistic. That's purely a rumour," he said, stressing they were temporary educational facilities.