Chinese Man Given 2-Years Jail Term for Teaching Quran on WeChat
This is according to a verdict published on China Judgments Online run by China's Supreme People's Court.
Huang Shike was found guilty of illegally using information and the Internet, said the verdict released by the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture branch court of Higher People's Court of Xinjiang.
Huang, by preaching and teaching the Quran at non-religious venues, disturbed the administrative order of normal religious activities, severely violated China's laws on regulating religious affairs and greatly harmed society, the verdict read.
Huang, a 49-year-old member of the Hui ethnic minority, established a WeChat group in June 2016, and taught its roughly 100 members, mostly his friends and family members, how to pray via voice messages.
Huang then explained the Eid al-Adha festival in another WeChat group in August 2016. This WeChat group also had more than 100 members, according to the verdict.
Clauses regarding illegally using information and the Internet were added to the Criminal Law in 2015, which ban establishing websites or online groups to conduct illegal activities such as committing fraud, teaching people how to commit crimes and selling prohibited articles.
Huang was detained on August 24, 2016 and his sentence will end on August 23, 2018.
To better regulate social media groups, including WeChat, QQ and Weibo groups, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) recently issued a new regulation which will take effect on October 8.
Group creators should regulate the behavior of members as well as posts in groups in accordance with the law, user agreements and platform conventions, according to the regulation.
Service providers should set a limit to the number of members a group can have and the number of groups each user can create and join. Service providers should also verify the identities of group members and establish a credibility rating system.
Global Times
