China will rewrite the Bible and Quran to ‘reflect socialist values’ amid crackdown on the country’s religious minority .
According to a top party official ,New editions must not contain any content that goes against the beliefs of the Communist Party .
The order for the rewriting of the Quran and Bible was given last month during a meeting held by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
The meeting was supervised by Wang Yang, Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Mr Wang stressed that religious authorities must follow President Xi’s instructions and interpret the ideologies of different religions in accordance with ‘the core values of Socialism also urged the officials ‘re-evaluating’ religious books, they would prevent ‘extreme thoughts’ and ‘heretical ideas’ from eroding the country.
November’s meeting took place as China faced global criticism over its religious policy.
Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International, ‘In many ways, the Chinese government’s control, including censorship of the Bible and the Quran, has twisted the doctrines of these religious texts and thus the religions. There is simply no genuine religious freedom.”