The number of mosques and religious leaders in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region can fully accommodate local Muslims' normal religious activities that are protected by law and fundamentally different from religious extremism, the deputy director of the Xinjiang Islamic Association said on Monday.

Abudulrekep Tumniaz, also a religious leader and the dean of Xinjiang Islamic Institute, said such extremism has threatened the region's stability.

"Religious extremism is a political issue rather than a religious one. As a border region with people from various ethnic groups following different religions, many social problems in Xinjiang are intertwined with religious and ethnic issues," he said.