Xi Wuyi: Religious Extremism Challenges the Bottom Line of Human Civilization
From a professional perspective of social science research, religious extremism is a concept of political science. It is defined as an extremist ideological trend operating under the banner of religion. However, in contemporary academic research, scholars studying religious extremism primarily come from the field of religious studies rather than political science. I believe this is because religious extremism is a product of the degeneration of extremist religious sects. In examining the trajectory and characteristics of this degeneration, scholars of religion possess more professional analytical capabilities than scholars of political science.
I. Violent Terrorist Activities Trample on Human Rights and Threaten National Security
Since the end of the Cold War, along with the weakening of traditional ideologies, the ideological trend of religious extremism has become increasingly active. In 2001, the first year of the 21st century, the "September 11 terrorist attacks" in the United States became a turning point in the course of world history. Terrorists hijacked aircraft to destroy the World Trade Center, a landmark of New York, and Islamic extremism became a focus of world attention. Entering the 21st century, religious extremism bred by various fundamentalist sects has combined with violent terrorism and ethnic separatism, posing a massive security threat to international order and regional stability.
Since the 1990s, religious extremism, violent terrorism, and ethnic separatism have spread to our country’s frontier ethnic minority regions. Establishing an "East Turkestan Islamic State" has already become an important mission for international Islamic extremist forces. Recently, "East Turkestan" [1] violent terrorist activities have shown an escalating trend. There are three characteristics: first, spreading from the frontiers to the interior. There are two landmark events: one is the "October 28" Tiananmen Jinshui Bridge terrorist attack in 2013; the second is the "March 1" Kunming railway station violent terrorist case in Yunnan in 2014. Second, the frequency of violent terrorist activities is accelerating. The "May 22" Urumqi violent terrorist incident in 2014 caused a large number of innocent civilian casualties. This was one of the bloodiest incidents created by violent terrorists in China in recent years. Third, the purpose of violent terrorist activities shows a developmental trend from "ethnic separatism" toward "religious state-building."
On April 25, 2014, the 14th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee focused on the theme of maintaining national security and social stability. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: "The counter-terrorism struggle concerns national security, the vital interests of the masses, and the overall situation of reform, development, and stability. It is a struggle to maintain the unification of the motherland, social stability, and the happiness of the people. We must take resolute and decisive measures, maintain a high-pressure posture of 'striking hard' [2], and resolutely crush the arrogant bluster of violent terrorists."
By combining with violent terrorism and ethnic separatism to produce violent terrorist activities, religious extremism "disregards basic human rights and tramples on humanitarian justice, challenging the common bottom line of human civilization."
II. Religious Extremism is the Spiritual Pillar of Violent Terrorism
Professor Jin Yijiu divides religious extremist forces into three types: the proselytizing type, the violent terrorist type, and the ethnic separatist type. He points out that proselytizing organizations are the "spiritual pillar and living soul" of violent terrorist and ethnic separatist activities. From the perspective of national security strategy, the governance of the latter two types—violent terrorism and ethnic separatism—mainly utilizes hard power. Currently, ethnic separatist forces inside and outside our borders utilize religious factors to carry out disruptive activities to split the motherland. Among these, the primary forces are the Tibertan independence separatist forces led by the Dalai clique and the "East Turkestan" separatist forces under the banner of Islam. Defending the unity and integrity of the motherland's territory is the responsibility of all citizens, among whom the armed forces are the nation's important hard power, shouldering a special mission. We have already seen that patrols by fully-armed police day and night have become institutionalized in large cities. However, the governance of the first type of religious extremist forces—the proselytizing type—requires more use of soft power. Resisting the infiltration of overseas religious extremist thought is the responsibility of every patriot.
To seek truth from facts, if we objectively analyze the various religions of the world, extremist phenomena exist in all of them. These phenomena take two forms: first, the violent terrorist form. According to the records of various religious histories, some religious believers have adopted extreme means of violent terror to defend their sects' doctrines. For example, after the rise of Islam, the Kharijites split off from the main body of Muslims. The doctrine of this sect explicitly stated that anyone not a believer of their sect was an "apostate" and should be slaughtered regardless of age or sex. The Kharijites matched their words with deeds, constantly using the method of armed struggle to eliminate dissidents and slaughter non-sectarian Muslim masses.
The second is the non-violent form, namely extremist ideological concepts and lifestyles. It should be noted that the practical activities of many religious believers are the voluntary choices of the faithful, which non-religious personages often find difficult to judge or intervene in. However, if a certain type of religious extremist thought spreads widely, penetrates the fields of social and political life, and forms a force that challenges the existing social system, it transcends the field of pure religious belief. Bigoted belief and intolerance of dissidents are among the important characteristics of religious extremism. Analysis shows that contemporary religious extremist thoughts all possess a certain inherited historical origin. Various contemporary religious fundamentalist trends are the ideological roots of religious extremism.
After the end of the Cold War, with the emergence of the global hegemony of neoliberal ideology, state secular ideologies receded, and various religious fundamentalisms rose. After the "September 11" terrorist attacks in the United States, Wahhabism appeared in the discourse of the non-Muslim world alongside the name of Al-Qaeda. The elaboration of "jihad" by Wahhabi leader Osama bin Laden became a famous "fatwa" of religious extremism. With the support of American neoliberal Middle East strategic thought, the Saudi royal family rose rapidly. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established Wahhabi doctrine as the state religion. The pattern of the union of church and state between Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabi sect provided an important economic and organizational basis for the global expansion of Wahhabism. Utilizing its advantageous position as the guardian of the two holy sites (Mecca and Medina) and relying on the continuous growth of "petrodollar" income, Wahhabism spread rapidly across the globe. In the process of its global dissemination, Wahhabi ideology is primarily characterized by its opposition to Arab nationalism, communism, secularism, and atheism. In April of this year, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia promulgated a new law that defines "terrorism" as any form of atheistic thought or any act that questions Islam. The new law labels all atheists as terrorists, claiming they threaten national unity and public order. With the spread of Wahhabism in places like Xinjiang, China, the deep Sufi traditions among Muslim groups in places like Kashgar, Shadian, and Yiwu have been gradually replaced by conservative fundamentalist Salafism or even Wahhabism. Particularly in Xinjiang, the number of Uyghur people who sing, dance, and dress in a colorful manner under the influence of Sufi tradition has decreased, replaced by Muslims in black robes and veils, exhibiting strong Wahhabi characteristics. The relationship between Wahhabism and violent terrorism deserves in-depth study.
Overseas religious forces use various means to infiltrate religious extremist ideas and engage in violent terrorist and separatist sabotage activities. In particular, they use religious extremist ideas to incite some inexperienced young people to follow them blindly, even leading them down a path of no return to engage in violent terrorist activities, making them victims of their political schemes. Religious extremist forces widely preach that "jihad and martyrdom lead to heaven" and that "killing one infidel is better than ten years of cultivation and allows direct entry into heaven," using this to deceive and entice religious believers to launch so-called "jihad" through extremely brutal means such as suicide attacks. They preach theocratic political theory, inciting the masses to "obey no one except Allah" and instigating religious believers to resist government management. They preach the theory of "infidels," regarding anyone who does not follow extremist practices as an infidel, religious traitor, or national pariah, inciting insults, exclusion, and isolation of non-believers, Party cadres, and patriotic religious figures. They preach the supremacy of religion, opposing all achievements of modern civilization, and rejecting long-standing ethnic customs and traditional national cultures—forbidding people from singing and dancing, forcing young men to grow long beards, and forcing women to wear face-covering robes. Through the infiltration of religious extremist thought, they destroy ethnic unity, create ethnic divisions, provoke confrontation between religious and non-religious masses and between religious masses and the government, forming a real force to oppose the government, and attempting to create social turmoil and destroy development and stability through violent terrorist activities.
It must be pointed out that the proselytizing of religious extremism is different from the missionary work of religion. The targets of general religious dissemination may be believers of other religions or non-religious individuals. However, the proselytizing of religious extremism primarily targets the believers of the original parent religion. Therefore, patriotic religious figures shoulder a particularly important mission in the work of resisting overseas religious extremism.
Note: This text is the manuscript of a speech delivered by the author on May 22, 2014, at the seminar "Resisting Religious Extremism and Maintaining Ethnic Unity," jointly organized by the Central Nationalities Cadre Institute and the China Ethnic News. A summary of this article was published in China Ethnic News on May 27, 2014. The title set by the editor of that publication was: "Patriotic Religious Figures Shoulder a Particularly Important Mission in Resisting Religious Extremism."
Network Editor: Jia Fei