BEIJING, June 05 (INP): Overseas Muslims residing in China celebrate the Holy Month of Ramzan with religious fervor in a free environment. Muslims are free here to follow their religion, said Dr. Imran Nawab, who studied medicine and surgery in Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou, the capital city of central China 's Henan Province. He has spent Ramadan five times in China and "had a very good experience" during his stay. There was no sign of ban on fasting. "Local Chinese Muslims were very practical Muslims; they kept the fast and also used to go to mosques for praying. There were around four mosques in the city that I know," Nawab said in an interview with local Chinese media. Hj Rahmat, a Malaysian business man, said he had spent Ramadan thrice in China, one in Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, and the other in Urumqi, the capital city of northwest China's Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region. He said that the Muslims there performed the religious obligations freely, and there was no ban on Ramadan as reported by some irresponsible media recently. Abdul Wadud mullah Farhan mullah, an Emirati now studying in Guangzhou Civil Aviation College, dismissed the rumors that the Chinese government implements restrictive policies on Muslims to conduct the fast, saying that the Muslims in Guangzhou are very friendly and that they spent Ramadan just as what the Muslims do in Arabian countries. Over ten million Muslims in China and there are thousands of Mosques in China, mostly in Xinjiang region which make special arrangements for ‘Salat and Taraweeh’ during the month. “We enjoy compete freedom in observing religious rites in the month, said Imam Abu Hanif, head of a Central mosque in Urumqi while talking with this correspondent on telephone. The Chinese government facilitates us to do so, he added. A Uyghur woman named Khadija said that the central government has given us enough protection and respect and it is untrue that Ramadan in Xinjiang has restrictions, her family has always observed an easy and comfortable environment here. A continuous propaganda was flooding from vested interests in West that the Chinese Muslims are not free to perform their religious practices as per Quran and Sunnah. An announcement for the protection of religious rights in China by the central government and far-western region of Xinjiang authorities have brushed aside the propaganda that Muslims in China are facing curbs and restrictions in the holy month of Ramadan. Last year, the State Council Information Office published a white paper titled Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang which has totally rejected the false and unauthenticated claims of the west about restrictions on Muslims community regarding fasting and other Islamic rituals. Chinese Muslims are disturbed with the false accounts relating to restrictions and curbs on Islamic practices, and regrets the un-objective propaganda was backed by western countries and some rights groups funded by them, said Dilmurat Omar, Dean Xinjiang Normal University. Law-abiding religious activities are fully protected in China and the Muslims are free to perform their religious practices as per Quran and Sunnah, he added. Religious activities in China are growing with a passage of time. Overall there are about 35,000 mosques and more than 50,000 teaching faculties in various parts of the country. Accordingly, the number of Islamic clergies has increased to 28,000. INP/J/SB