College scraps Islam lecture of speaker accused of separatism

Jinan University in Guangzhou cancelled a lecture on Islam amid criticism that the USbased speaker allegedly criticized China’s religious policy and promoted separatism.

Yao Xinyong, a professor at the university’s Chinese Language and Literature Department and the presider of the lecture, told the Global Times Tuesday that the lecture was cancelled, but refused to elaborate.

According to a department employee, Ma Haiyun, an assistant professor at Frostburg State University in Maryland, was scheduled to deliver the lecture Thursday.

Ma was scheduled to speak about the pragmatic application of Han-Kitab, a collection of Chinese Islamic texts.

After a poster of the lecture was released online, criticism flooded Jinan University’s Weibo account, asking why the university invited a professor who allegedly “blasted China’s ethnic and religious policy and promotes separatism.”

WeChat account “The voice of Chinese in North America” called Ma an “anti-China scholar that publicly smeared China’s antiterrorism campaign,” citing his remarks on China’s religious policy.

In January, Ma said a local ban on students entering religious sites in Guanghe, Northwest China’s Gansu Province violates citizens’ religious rights granted by China’s Constitution, overseas media reported.

Ma’s research focuses on Islam and Muslims in China. In the past 20 years, Chinese citizens’ religious rights have been fully protected and respected, said a commentary in the People’s Daily on Tuesday.

Religious activities are conducted orderly and “religious relations are positive and healthy” in China in sharp contrast to religious extremism and conflicts in other regions of the world, the article said.