Academic Review of International Seminar on “Counterterrorism, De-radicalization and Human Rights Protection”

The International Seminar on Counterterrorism,De-radicalization and Human Rights protection sponsored by China Society for Human Rights Studies and organized jointly by Human Rights Research Institute of Southwest university of political Science and Law and School of politics and public Administration of Xinjiang university was held in urumqi,the Xinjiang uygur Autonomous Region,on September 3-7,2019,with the participation of more than 60 experts from 18 countries and international organizations.The seminar shared research and exchanged ideas on humanitarianism and human rights protection in counterterrorism and de-radicalization work and launched comparative research and international cooperation on counterterrorism and de-radicalization.The participants shared their understanding of terrorism and extremism and their counties experiences in combating terrorism and extremism,positively evaluated China’s work on counterterrorism and de-radicalization and the international cooperation to combating terrorism and extremism.This seminar contributed to stimulating the exchanges and cooperation in theoretical and practical research on counterterrorism,de-radicalization and human rights protection.

Root of Religious Extremist Thought and Sino-Arab Cooperation on Deradicalization

Islam is a religion that advocates peace and abides by“the doctrine of balance”.However,religious extremism is a“tumor”for the development of Islam,and leads to an alienation of Islam.After the 9/11 attacks,Islamic extremism reappeared,mainly reflected in:1)the teachings of Islam being distorted,and the civil movement of the Islamic revival leading to the mire of extremism;2)Jihad ideology of Islam being misread,and the Islamic revival tending to be politicized and increasingly extreme;3)Al-Qaeda,the“Islamic State”(IS)and other terrorist organizations were rapidly expanding,which drove Islamic extremism globally.The causes of the above circumstances are complex and have far-reaching impacts.The religious extremism has stolen the discourse right of the interpretation of scriptures,resulting in the formation of religious extremism discourse.This became the deep-rooted reason of trends of religious extremism,and also led to the necessity of launching de-radicalization policies.In global anti-terrorism activities,China showed its uniqueness in seeking to play a constructive role in coordinating efforts of three major international anti-terrorist groups.This paper holds that cooperation between China and the Middle East countries on de-radicalization activities could focus on measures such as creating shared consensus in anti-terrorism,advancing the interpretation of scriptures,improving religious dialogue mechanisms,and highlighting the unique role of patriotic religious leaders and other initiatives,in order to effectively prevent religious extremism from expanding.