“False news in China about Muslims being oppressed could trigger a wave of sympathy to the oppressed and affect relationships,” Mujahid said in a speech he delivered at the Beijing Foreign Studies University yesterday.
He then made comparison to claims of Hindus in Malaysia being mistreated.
“While false news about Hindu followers being treated unjustly by Muslims in Malaysia, for example, could trigger hatred towards the Muslim minority in India,” he added.
The remarks come in the wake of criticism of Mujahid’s use of the term “training centre” to refer to a controversial camp set up to “re-educate” Muslim dissidents in the restive Xinjiang province.
Following his visit, Mujahid wrote on Facebook: “This centre carries out industrial training activities and teaches a variety of skills such as sewing, legal class, arts and flower arrangement,” he wrote on Facebook in a post accompanied by pictures of his visit.
The post immediately drew criticism from Facebook users, who said Mujahid was parroting Chinese propaganda in describing detention camps in Xinjiang as “training centres”.
China recently denied the existence of such camps, but later said they were “vocational centres” to help “save” people from extremist influences.
Rights bodies have long accused China of cracking down on dissent in Xinjiang under the guise of fighting Muslim extremism.
In his speech, Mujahid said Malaysia and China shared similar approaches in integrating different ethnic groups.
“Malaysia practices national integration through preserving each ethnic group’s own culture and traditions but are united as one big family of being a Malaysian.
“Peoples Republic of China (PRC) resembles the same approach of keeping each ethnic group with their own identity but integrating towards a big family unit as one.”
He said both the constitutions of Malaysia and China provided their citizens the right to practise their religions.
“The only difference being that the Malaysian constitution stipulates Islam as the religion of the federation while PRC does not consider any religion as a state religion,” he said.
Mujahid also praised China’s efforts to combat extremism.
“PRC too is actively resorting to such an approach on her long journey of creating a peaceful and harmonious world.”