Erkenjan Turahun: Religious Extremism is the Greatest Danger Poisoning the Healthy Growth of Young People
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that successfully conducting work in Xinjiang is a matter of great importance for the entire Party and country, and must be examined and planned from a strategic and holistic height. He emphasized the need to focus on promoting ethnic unity and curbing the spread of religious extremist ideology, to perform religious work meticulously, and to actively guide religion to adapt to socialist society. Resisting and preventing the infiltration of religious extremist ideology into campuses is a long-term trial or strength and a struggle between us and hostile forces at home and abroad, centered on the question of "whom to cultivate and how to cultivate them." It is a serious political issue concerning the long-term stability of the state and the consolidation of the Party's governing status.
Educating and guiding the broad masses of teachers and students to correctly understand and treat religion is a highly urgent and important political task. We must ensure they recognize the true face of religious extremism; recognize the criminal acts of religious extremist forces in splitting the country, undermining stability, and damaging the common interests of people of all ethnic groups; recognize the reactionary nature of religious extremist ideology as anti-human, anti-civilization, and anti-society; recognize that religious extremists are the common enemy of people of all ethnic groups; and recognize that religious extremist ideology is the greatest danger poisoning the healthy growth of youth. Only then can they resolutely and consciously resist and prevent the infiltration of religious extremist ideology.
Building a Strong Line of Defense and Consolidating the Position for Educating People
General Secretary Xi Jinping has noted: the root of violent terrorist activities is ethnic separatism, and the ideological foundation is religious extremism. This important judgment profoundly identifies religious extremist ideology as the ideological source of violent terrorist activities. The practice of the struggle against separatism in Xinjiang has repeatedly proven that illegal religious activities and religious extremist ideology are the soil upon which the "Three Forces" [1] depend for survival, the breeding ground for illegal criminal activities such as ethnic separatism and violent terrorism, and a malignant tumor seriously affecting social stability and long-term stability. Utilizing the basic Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to recognize the erroneous essence and serious harm of religious extremist ideology from political, holistic, strategic, and theoretical perspectives is key to resisting its infiltration into schools.
The essence of religious extremist ideology in Xinjiang is to create ethnic division and overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). They advocate for the politicization of religion, resisting or interfering with the state's judicial and administrative management systems to confront the Party and government. They preach the "theory of infidels," viewing anyone who does not follow extremist ideology as an infidel to be isolated, excluded, hated, and attacked. They propagate absurd fallacies such as "martyrdom in Jihad leads to heaven," claiming that only by waging "Jihad" against "infidels" can one enter "heaven" after death. They champion "religious supremacy," opposing modern civilization and progress, and rejecting excellent traditional ethnic cultures and customs. Their distorted theories and criminal acts are fundamentally not religious behavior but are religious extremism operating under the guise and cloak of religion. For them, religion is merely a tool, a disguise, and an excuse. Islam has always advocated peace, taught people to be good, encouraged the pursuit of knowledge, and opposed the indiscriminate use of violence. To achieve their unspeakable political goals, religious extremist forces act against the trend of social civilization and progress, inciting and creating violent terrorist activities and slaughtering the innocent. This completely violates the basic tenets of Islam. Far from being the "devout believers" they claim to be, they are conspirators using the name of religion to serve their own political ends.
Religious extremism has caused serious harm to Xinjiang's social stability, economic development, the safety of the people's lives and property, and ethnic unity. Religious extremism deliberately creates estrangement and antagonism between different beliefs, different ethnic groups, and even different sects of the same religion. It falsely claims that those who do not obey their will are infidels and preaches that killing infidels is the "will of Allah." This has led some people poisoned and bewitched by this ideology to commit conscience-less and inhumane violent crimes against so-called infidels, openly trampling on the moral and legal bottom lines of human society. A large number of international and domestic facts prove that in areas where religious extremism and its activities are frequent, normal economic, work, and life orders are disrupted to varying degrees. Normal religious activities and patriotic religious figures are excluded and attacked; the progress of social civilization and the cultural and entertainment activities of the masses are affected by rampant religious extremist activities; and the safety of the people's lives and property is seriously threatened.
Religious extremist ideology is highly inflammatory and harmful. Cloaking themselves in religion, extremist forces exploit the simple religious sentiments of the believing masses, distort religious doctrines, incite religious fanaticism, and stir up hatred between different sects, religions, and ethnic groups. They create estrangement, opposition, and conflict to prepare ideologically, publicly, and organizationally for violent terrorist activities. Recently, a series of violent terrorist cases occurring inside and outside Xinjiang have proven with ironclad facts that religious extremist forces attempt to lead people down a wicked path that is anti-human, anti-civilization, and anti-society by preaching distorted theories. Their fundamental goal is to contest our dominance in the ideological sphere—to fight over educational positions, over the youth, over the next generation, and over the future. They seek to shake our ideological foundation and the basis of our governance, ultimately subverting the Party's governing status and the socialist system, and destroying the long-standing, "as close as fish and water" [2] unity and friendship among various ethnic groups. Our struggle against religious extremism is neither an ethnic issue nor a religious one; it is a life-and-death struggle to defend the unity of the motherland, maintain ethnic unity, and compete for the successors and builders of our cause.
Young people are the future of the motherland and the hope of the nation. Xinjiang’s stability, development, and future depend on education. A responsible government will never allow religious extremist ideology to infiltrate campuses and poison the future builders and successors of our socialist cause. A nation pursuing progress and a beautiful future will never allow religious extremist ideology to damage its own interests and development prospects. Every person in Xinjiang with a conscience and a sense of responsibility should keep their eyes sharp, distinguish right from wrong, and consciously and resolutely struggle against religious extremist ideology.
Strengthening Awareness of Potential Dangers and Staying Vigilant in Times of Peace
In recent years, Western hostile forces, particularly the "Three Forces," have used religious infiltration as an important means to implement "Westernization" and "differentiation" against us. The struggle to "win over" the field of education is extremely intense. Currently, the means used by hostile forces to infiltrate schools through religion are becoming increasingly concealed, the methods more diverse, the harm produced greater, and the difficulty of prevention is continuously increasing.
Our country is a socialist state under the leadership of the CPC. The purpose of our schools is to use Marxism as a guide to cultivate qualified builders and successors of the socialist cause who possess correct worldviews, outlooks on life, values, and perspectives on history, culture, ethnic groups, and religion. Religious extremist ideology preaches "religious supremacy"; if allowed to run rampant on campuses, it will inevitably distort young people's judgment of life values and weaken their pursuit of the common ideal of socialism.
The infiltration of religious extremist ideology has affected the popularization and dissemination of modern scientific and cultural knowledge. All ethnic groups in Xinjiang have a tradition of valuing education. Take the Uyghur people, for example: historically, they have been a people who highly valued education and revered knowledge, creating splendid culture and art and leaving behind precious cultural wealth. The distorted theories spread by religious extremist ideology preach the rejection of modern cultural, scientific, and technological knowledge, the rejection of modern civilized lifestyles, and use the name of religious activities to obstruct believers from pursuing a modern, beautiful life, thereby shackling people's minds. It can be imagined that a nation that does not learn or master modern scientific and cultural knowledge and does not integrate into modern civilized society is certainly a nation without a future, eventually leading only to decline and ruin. Anyone with the ability to distinguish right from wrong, with basic conscience and a sense of justice, and who is responsible to the state and the nation, will never allow such historical regression and tragedy to occur.
The infiltration of religious extremist ideology into campuses has caused a small number of teachers and students to become unsteady in their convictions and unclear in their banners. Regarding remarks that challenge the leadership of the CPC or question the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, they adopt an ambiguous attitude or blurred stance, following the crowd or parroting others. A few individuals have wavering political stances and lack the ability to discern the "Three Forces" when they carry out separatist destruction and violent terrorism under "ethnic banners" and "religious cloaks." They have an unclear understanding of the political plots and reactionary nature of the "Three Forces," and even spread negative remarks. A very small number of teachers and students have even participated in religious extremist activities, standing in opposition to the people—which is deeply distressing.
Deepening Ideological Understanding and Adhering to Bottom-Line Thinking
Currently, resolutely resisting and preventing the infiltration of religious extremist ideology into the education sector has become a key link and a strategic high ground in our struggle against the "Three Forces." The most common method used by the "Three Forces" to infiltrate schools is to use the banner of religion, utilizing the relatively scarce religious knowledge and naturally simple religious sentiments of young people to distort doctrines, confound right and wrong, and spread religious extremist and ethnic separatist ideas. Education systems must resolutely prevent the influence and erosion of youth by religious extremist ideology. We must take "fostering virtue through education" (立德树人) as the fundamental task, guiding youth of all ethnic groups to establish correct worldviews and perspectives on religion, ethnicity, and values. We must strengthen their ideals and convictions, ensure they remember national interests and social responsibilities, learn to use Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to correctly understand and treat religious issues, and earnestly fulfill the obligations prescribed by the Constitution, laws, and regulations.
We must correctly recognize the objectivity and long-term nature of religion's existence. Religion is a historical phenomenon of human society reaching a certain stage and is an objective existence. Although it has undergone long-term development and evolution, it still exerts important influence on society and religious populations today. The Marxist view of religion emphasizes that all religion is nothing but the fantastic reflection in those men's minds of those external forces which control their daily life; it is man who created God, not God who created man. In certain historical periods, religion has complex natural, social, and cognitive roots for its existence. With the development of productive forces, the progress of civilization, and the improvement of people's ideological awareness, the foundations and conditions for the existence of religion will gradually diminish and eventually disappear, but this will be a very long historical process.
We must always persist in the principle of the separation of education and religion without wavering. Our Constitution, Education Law, and Regulations on Religious Affairs clearly stipulate that the state implements the separation of education and religion, and no one may use religion to conduct activities that interfere with the state's education system. Schools are places for disseminating scientific and cultural knowledge; teachers and students are the subjects of imparting and receiving modern culture and science, and are the carriers of the socialist core value system and core values. Spreading religious ideas or engaging in religious activities on campus is an act that deviates from the state's purpose for running schools; it will inevitably impact the dominant position of state ideology, interfere with normal school educational activities, and impact the formation of students' correct worldviews, outlooks on life, and values. Adhering to the principle of separation of education and religion is a fundamental manifestation of implementing the Party's educational policy and an objective requirement for cultivating politically qualified future successors.
We must further strengthen education on Marxist religious theory, the Party's religious policies, and scientific atheism. For a long time, the education front in Xinjiang has consistently insisted that religion must not interfere with education. We have vigorously strengthened education on Marxist religious theory and the Party's religious policies in schools of all levels and types, making every effort to resist and prevent the infiltration of religious extremist ideology into campuses and its influence on students. To implement the spirit of the Second Central Work Forum on Xinjiang, the Autonomous Region will further strengthen this education alongside scientific atheism. We must clearly explain religious thoughts that are legally permitted, consistent with the spirit of the scriptures, and adapted to the requirements of social development. We must clearly explain the Islamic advocacy of patriotism, peace, unity, the "middle way," tolerance, and good deeds. This helps students understand basic religious knowledge, guides them to view religion correctly, dispels the sense of mystery regarding religion, and enhances their immunity and ability to resist the infiltration of religious extremist ideology, thereby building a strong ideological line of defense.
We must establish confidence in victory, persist over the long term, and win this tough battle to resist and prevent the infiltration of religious extremist ideology into campuses. The work of resisting and preventing infiltration is major and urgent—we cannot wait, nor can there be the slightest paralysis or laxity. However, solving problems of ideological understanding is a long-term process—we cannot be impatient, and it is impossible to "achieve success in one stroke" [3]. Resisting and preventing religious extremist ideology on campus is both a major, long-term strategic task and a meticulous educational project that "moistens things silently" [4]. Therefore, we must base ourselves on the present while looking to the long term, preparing ourselves ideologically and operationally for a protracted war. We must overcome impetuousness and resolutely prevent the simplification or one-sidedness of our work. We must keep our mission in mind and implement our work with the tenacity of "biting down on the green mountain and not letting go" [5].
Cadres of all ethnic groups and the broad masses of teachers and students in the education system must recognize the sinister intentions of the "Three Forces" in infiltrating schools. They must recognize the essence of religious extremist ideology and the true anti-social, anti-human face of violent terrorists. We must boldly and confidently expose their lies and fallacies, strip away their religious cloak, denounce their criminal behavior, and create a powerful momentum where ethnic separatists, violent terrorists, and religious extremists are spurned and attacked by everyone. Starting from the future and destiny of the country and the nation, we must adhere to bottom-line thinking, increase our awareness of potential dangers, keep our eyes sharp, and distinguish right from wrong. We must never allow religious extremist ideology to hijack education, resolutely prevent its infiltration into schools, and build schools into strong positions for anti-separatism and anti-infiltration—highlands for cultivating and practicing modern culture—to cultivate more and better outstanding talents for building a prosperous, wealthy, harmonious, and stable beautiful Xinjiang.