The members of the delegation of the Russian Mufties Council who returned recently from a working visit to China think that the establishment of direct contacts between regions of residence of Russian Muslims and their Chinese co-religionists will strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.

"We need to build partnerships between the republics with a large number of Muslim population of our country with such regions in China, like Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region" - was announced last Sunday at Beijing meeting by the deputy of the State Administration for Religious Affairs of PRC (GUPR) Jiang Tszyanyun. Such contacts should include both cultural and economic interaction, which may find expression in a twin and partnerships relations between regions of the two countries. "We believe that the development of relations between Muslim communities of our countries will serve to strengthen multilateral cooperation between the two countries, because that is Muslims who are the largest denominational minorities of Russia and China," - members of the Russian delegation said.  

According to them, " the cooperation of Muslims of Russia and China is becoming a model for the interaction of other religions of the two countries also because it is the Muslim organizations in Russia and China that successfully help to fight against separatism." Today, Muslims in China take part in the international competition of reciters of the Quran, they are expected on the 2nd exhibition of Halal industry Moscow Halal Expo, that will be held in Russia in May 2011, the Chinese masters will participate in the design of a new mosque of  Derbent. Besides, projects in the field of books edition and historical research in the field of Islam in China and Russia are discussed. As in number and nature of the population, and ethnic composition of Muslims, Islam in Russia and China in many ways are similar. In this regard, the Russians are sure, that the two countries should share experiences and collaborate. The Delegation of RMC during the working visit to China in addition to Beijing visited the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions of China, most people of which profess Islam. Speaking about the situation in Xinjiang, where in July 2009 rioting broke out, killing, according to official figures, 197 people, the Russians welcomed what they saw. "We saw that currently it was a rapidly economically developing region, as well as its social sectors were rapidly developing, including the field of interethnic and interreligious relations, thousands of mosques were built and restored, Muslim schools were opened, the cultural and religious heritage of Uygur people were kept "- they said. Xinjiang, where approximately 10 million professing Islam Uighurs live, is considered by Beijing as the most "hot spot" of the country.

However, many experts and observers accuse China of planting indigenous Uighur population the new way of life injected into the region by the title Han nation that threatens their national language, culture and religion. "The rapid development of China could not occur without some kind of break-up of social attitudes and stereotypes that cause separatist sentiment and social discontent" - representatives of the Russian delegation say. According to them, "it is inevitable disease of rapid growing, which China manages to overcome." After the events in Xinjiang in July last year, the RMC undertook to inform the Muslims of Russia about the events, receiving information from the PRC Embassy in Moscow. The Russian delegation included the head of the International Department of RMC Rushan Abbyasov, deputy head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in the Nizhny Novgorod region Damir Muhetdinov etc. In early August, at the regular meeting of the Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations under the President of Russia, the gathered decided to establish the Council Working Group on the development Russia-Chinese relationships in the religious sphere and development working contacts between the Council and the State Administration for Religious Affairs of the the People's Republic of China. As a result of the work of the working the signing of a memorandum of cooperation in the religious sphere between Russia and China  is planned to take place. Over 20 million Muslims, mainly from the Uighur, Kazakh and Uzbek nationalities live in China. Entire Muslim community in China is represented by 12 peoples of the country. In China today there are about 40,000 mosques.  In the prophetic tradition China is known according to one hadith advises to Muslims to seek knowledge even if they would have to go to this distant country. Today, followers of Islam from various countries look at China in terms of cooperation. Beijing reciprocate - recently the Arabic-language channel was launched, it broadcasts from China to the Islamic world.

Rushan Abbyasov:

Our visit to China took place from 15-22 August. The visit was very intense. We flew to Beijing, went sightseeing. We met with a leader of local religious community. From  Beijing we went to Urumqi - the cradle of Muslim culture - and the city of Turban. The main people of the area are Uighurs. When we met with local Muslims, we were struck by their proximity to our Tatar culture, we even communicated in the Tatar language. Here we visited the Central Mosque and Islamic University. We were delighted with the legacy of Chinese culture, architecture, hospitality of people. The next point of our visit was the town of Kashgar, which struck us by its deep history, well-developed Muslim infrastructure and heritage of great scientists, one of whom was Mahmoud Kashgar. Further our trip continued in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region . We visited the city of Yinchuan, the capital of the district, saw the National Museum, traced the history of China, which is more than 5000 years. We were amazed that the state pays much attention to the development of this area and China in general, provides support for the implementation of Islamic projects.

On Friday, we prayed with the Muslims of  the Yinchuan city. After we returned to Beijing, visited the Great Wall and admired the developed Islamic infrastructure. In the capital of China about 300 thousand Muslims and 75 mosques and more than 500 Halal restourants. Mulsims in general feel confident. They are citizens of their country, great patriots and active in Islamic activities. The state shows them its supports in every way. There are more than 23 million Muslims in China in total. All Muslims are Sunni Hanafi mazhab. During the trip our delegation met with the Deputy Minister for Nationalities and Religion. Surprisingly, he met with us in his weekend. The meeting was held in the framework agreement on cooperation between religious organizations, which was signed in 2008. The great attention was given to the cooperation in the economic field.

Recorded by Anver Agayev.