BEIJING – In the latest crackdown on its Muslim minority, China has jailed a member of the Hui Muslim minority accusing him of forming online discussions groups to teach about Islam.

Huang Shike was arrested in 2016 in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, three months after he formed a discussion group about Muslim worship on the messaging app WeChat, according to the official website China Judgments Online, AP reported on Tuesday, September 12.

Huang, 49, taught about the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, in another WeChat discussion group. More than 100 people were members of each group, the website said.

The discussion groups “disturbed normal religious activity” and violated laws about using the internet to discuss religion, the website said.

Huang is a member of the Hui minority. There are more than 20 million Muslims in China, mainly among Uighur, Hui and other ethnic minorities.

China’s 10.6 million Hui, descendants of Muslim settlers and Chinese who converted to Islam, have long endured strained relations with the Han, who constitute more than 90 percent of China’s 1.37 billion people.