Jeddah, May 25: The head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim grouping, is to visit China for the first time in June, the OIC said on Tuesday.
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is to travel to Beijing for high-level meetings from June 17-21.
It will be the first-ever visit to the country by a head of the 57-member, pan-Islamic organisation which is based in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
It was not clear whether his trip would include the far-west Xinjiang province where the majority of China’s Muslims live.
“The secretary general will meet Chinese officials to discuss how to develop closer relations,” an OIC official said.
The visit comes just ahead of the first anniversary of the July 5, 2009 outbreak of violence between ethnic Han Chinese and mainly Muslim Uighurs in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.
The fighting over several days left nearly 200 dead and more than 1,600 injured, and drew strong criticism of Beijing from several Muslim countries.
The OIC expressed deep concern over the violence at the time, raising questions of disproportionate use of force by the Chinese authorities.
In August 2009, an OIC delegation visited Chinese Muslim population centres to gather information on the living conditions of Chinese Muslims.
The team raised questions about China’s security-rooted approach to the Muslim areas of Xinjiang, the lack of Muslims in high-level posts, lower income levels for Muslims, claims of forced abortion, and over religious freedoms, according to an OIC statement on the visit.
Estimates of the number of Muslims in China vary widely.
Energy-hungry China has been building economic ties with Muslim nations in the Middle East and Africa, especially those rich in mineral resources.
—Agencies