China launches anti-halal campaign in Xinjiang

FILE PHOTO: An Uighur vendor cuts meat at a street market in Kashgar, Xinjiang province August 3, 2011. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The capital of China's Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority, has launched a campaign against halal products to stop Islam penetrating secular life and fuelling "extremism".

In a meeting on Monday, the Communist Party leaders of Urumqi led cadres to swear an oath to "fight a decisive battle against 'pan-halalization'," according to a notice posed on the city's official WeChat account.