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Jackie Armijo, assistant professor at New York University Shanghai, has conducted extensive research on the subject and shown that Islamic education did not radicalize Chinese Muslims.

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Over the past twenty years, throughout all of China (except for Xinjiang), mosques have organized classes in Arabic and Islamic studies for all members of their community, from three-year olds in pre-school programs to eighty-year old retirees determined to study the Qur’an and learn about their faith in their twilight years.

In addition to government-run Islamic colleges, communities have also established independent schools. Increasing numbers of Chinese Muslim students have chosen to go abroad to continue their Islamic studies. At present the most popular destinations are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia, but there are also students who have traveled to Turkey, Sudan, Libya and Kuwait. As more and more students complete their studies in China and those studying overseas return, there are increasingly more qualified teachers available to establish schools in areas where Islam has not been taught for decades, if not generations.

Based on dozens of interviews carried out between 2005 and 2006 with Chinese Muslim students and leaders throughout China as well as those studying in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Pakistan, Jackie maintains in her research that the revival of Islamic education has not resulted in radicalization of Muslims in China.

Instead, the revival of Islamic education has offered Muslims the opportunity to rebuild their faith and their religious institutions in the aftermath of the state-sponsored attacks on Islam during the Cultural Revolution. It has also allowed Muslims throughout China, even in the most remote villages, to gain access to information about issues facing not only Muslims in nearby villages, but also those in distant regions of China, as well as the world.

Also read: Challenges Muslims Face In China