Ye Xiaowen

For today’s human rights protection, it is requisite to firmly oppose religious extremism, no matter whether in China or worldwide.

Religious extremism is a rather serious phenomenon in the political life of today’s world. In the form of religion (including banners, words, symbols and costumes, etc), it agitates for the extreme claims and fanatical behavior of certain groups and damages social stability, so that it can serve its villainous purposes.

Religious extremism is no religion, and it is often something alienated from religion. Instead, it is the distortion, profanity and damage to proper religion. Its purpose, concepts, organizational forms, activity patterns and psychological feelings are all beyond the pale of proper religion, and it spoils the dignity and authority of proper religion. However, in the name of religion, it has fanaticized actions and made faith extreme. Furthermore, it has politicized religion and mystified its organization to serve its evil purposes. So, religious extremism is no longer a religion; rather, it is the degenerate opponent of religion.

Since the beginning of this century, religious extremism has been unprecedentedly energetic. In combination with terrorism, it has posed an enormous threat to the security of the international community. Terrorism is often supported by religious extremism, and grows quickly under the banner of “holy war,” taking religious fervor as a means to incite and organize the masses. It has misled and brought together by means of coercion many Muslim believers and supporters, and has thus enjoyed abundant financial resources, and woven together a global network of terrorist activities. It has become the sworn enemy of mankind and the terminator of human rights.

Religious extremism is not religion; it does not exclusively belong to a certain nation. Rather, it is the public enemy of mankind, and also the public enemy of all religions and all nations.

In opposition to religious extremism, we must push forward.

Those who deeply suffer from religious extremism are not only the innocent masses that have been brutally hacked and killed by them, or the harmony and peacefulness that were suddenly destroyed by them. They even include the religions that extremists have professed, desecrated and harmed. Insofar as these terrorists have so maliciously, inhumanely and fiercely opposed humanity, society and religion, how dare they use the name “religion!” Which religion on earth does not yearn for peace and treasure life? And which religion on earth would bewitch its believers to harbor hatred and kill? Actually, the term “Islam” is a transliteration of an Arabian word for “peace,” so the Quran preaches, “People who believe in the faith, you should deliver the whole of yourselves into the preaching of peace.” Religious extremism is not religion at all. Unfortunately, however, it has deliberately pretended to be religion.

In practice, such phenomena can be found everywhere in the world. As it was pointed out at the 2000 Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, “Whereas our world is plagued by violence, war and destruction, which are sometimes perpetrated in the name of ‘religion’,” what can be done? Religious groups should come forward “in the name of religion.” They should not only remove the dishonor upon religion, but also more importantly clearly oppose the concept of religious extremism.

Those who suffer most from religious extremists are the Muslims with whom these extremists have pretended to be fellow believers should stand out bravely; they should not only protect themselves from such infamy as has been imposed on them, but more importantly strengthen their unity with the brothers of other nations to fight side by side and teach those cruel animals a lesson. After the bombing at the Urumqi South Railway Station this year, 11 Uyghur college students rose up in indignation, posting a public letter, “We Will Not Remain Silent Anymore.” They strongly condemned the terrorists due to the latter’s crime of indiscriminate slaughter, which has brought endless suffering and heavy disaster to compatriots of all nations, and called for “Uygur compatriots to stand up boldly to resist evil extremists and oppose extremist thought.”

In opposition to religious extremism, we are expected to be bound together against the same enemy.

The terrorist activities of religious extremists are absolutely not a matter of ethnic or religious issues, but are somewhat related to the matter of ethnic groups and religion anyhow. Therefore, we must carefully look at the differences and relations among such matters as ethnic groups, religion, society, economy and politics.

From the point of view of world history, religion often offers certain cohesion to nations, and nations in turn give vitality to certain religions. A nation can develop and give prominence to its ethos by means of religion, and religion, on the other hand, can employ the nation to extend its influence. When a faith is primarily held by a certain entire nation or a few such nations, the religion will have a special twofold role: On the one hand, it will strengthen the cohesion of a certain nation, and become a sacred banner of that nation; but on the other hand, it may worsen narrow-minded nationalism and exclusion, becoming a tool of dark influences. When it is combined with narrow-minded nationalism, religious extremism may generate enormous destructive power.

Maintaining and guaranteeing human rights should be carried out in close alignment with improvement of development and maintenance of stability. With respect to development, we should hold to one principle, namely, to concentrate on economic development and improve people’s living standards; and regarding stability, we should raise two banners high, that is, to safeguard the interests of the people and defend the dignity of law. Facing extremely atrocious religious extremists who pretend to be religious, we are more obliged to strengthen the unity of various ethnic groups, boost peaceful interaction among different faiths, and fight the same enemy together. As a very popular Chinese song says, “For a friend on a visit, we offer our fine wine, but for wolves we intercept them with a gun”

(The author is first vice-president of the Central Institute of Socialism, and vice-president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies.)