Chinese authorities are boosting investment in education for Muslim religious leaders in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. We spoke to Abudulrekep Tumniaz, the President of the Xinjiang Islamic Institute, and also a deputy of National People's Congress in this year's political season.

Islam is a peaceful religion. But that has not stopped religious extremists in Xinjiang from inciting Uyghur Muslims into hatred and violence.

During the political season, we caught up with President of China's first and only Islamic university that uses the Uyghur language as a medium of instruction.

"The Chinese government is providing massive funding in expanding the Xinjiang Islamic Institute. What role do you think will that play in solving some of the pressing issues in Xinjiang?" Reporter Han Peng asked.

"The aim of our institute is to prepare respected and authoritative religious leader that can lead the 12 million Muslims in Xinjiang in the right direction. If we lack such religious leaders, the extremists could make use of religion by distorting the Quran and incite Muslims to into terror attacks. But so far, we are still in shortage of such high-level and respected religious leaders," Tumniaz said.

"In what scale will that institute help in preparing religious leaders?" Han asked.

"Since the founding of the institute 28 years ago, we have just around 700 graduates so far. But when the new campus is completed by 2017, we will have a total of 1,000 students learning at one time, which means that each year, we will see over 200 students graduate as educated, high-level Muslim religious leaders," Tumniaz said.

Abudulrekep Tumniaz says he's confident that when dealing with religious extremism, the problem can be solved on grounds of religion, and that truth will prevail.

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