Militants seek to ban laughter, crying: China

The governor of China's restive far western region of Xinjiang wrote on Monday that militants were trying to ban laughter at weddings and crying at funerals, as he appealed to people to stamp out the "tumour" of extremism.

Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, has been beset by violence for years, blamed by the government on militants and separatists.

Exiles and many rights groups say the real cause of the unrest is China's heavy-handed policies, including curbs on the culture and language of the Muslim Uighur people who call Xinjiang home.

China's nervousness about Islamist extremism has grown since a car burst into flames on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, and 29 people were stabbed to death last month in the southwestern city of Kunming.

Beijing blamed Xinjiang militants for both.

Writing in the official Xinjiang Daily, Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri said that acts of terror had been made possible by extremists taking advantage of people's faith, especially "young people who have seen little of the world".

China's ruling atheist Communist Party has issued similar warnings in the past about extremism, accompanied by a harsh crackdown on suspected militants.

Bekri, an Uighur himself, accused the militants of ignoring the region's own traditions and of wanting to enforce a strict theocratic society.

"They ... push the banning of watching television, listen to the radio, reading newspapers, singing and dancing, not allowing laughter at weddings nor crying at funerals," he added.

Extremists are also demanding that not only food, but also cosmetics, medicine and clothing be halal, and push the idea that government-subsidised housing is not halal and to be avoided, Bekri wrote.

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