Xinjiang and Tibet will always be parts of China and attempts to split the country will never succeed, a Lebanese scholar said Wednesday.

"I have visited northwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region," Massoud Daher, president of the Lebanese-Chinese League for Friendship and Cooperation, told Xinhua. "I saw that Muslims went to mosques to pray. It was an ordinary lifestyle of the local people. I did not find any limits on the freedom of religion."

Daher, also a history professor at Lebanese University, has visited a variety of Chinese cities, including some ethnic minority regions.

Concerning the deadly July 5 riot in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, Daher said that media have often been used by those who have ulterior motives, giving false accounts of the facts.

The rioting left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured. The houses of 633 families were damaged and 627 vehicles were smashed or torched.

"I believe that the incident would not undermine China's integrity and unity," the scholar added.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2009)