Allah will punish the rioters, says imam

People who committed crimes in the July 5 riot in Urumqi - especially those who took the lives of others - will be punished not only by the courts but by Allah, said Haji Ibrahim Xue Tianli, president of the Beijing Islamic Association and an imam at the Niujie Mosque of Beijing.

"Homicide is an unforgivable sin. According to the teaching of Islam, killing one innocent person equals killing the whole human race," he told China Daily at the mosque on Friday after the Jum'ah or Friday's congregational prayer.

Some 1,000 Muslims attended Friday's Jum'ah at Beijing's most famous mosque, which dates back more than 1,000 years.