AP, BEIJING:Aug 14: Authorities in Muslim-majority northwest China detained a religious teacher and her 37 students for studying the Quran at her home, an activist group said Sunday.

Aminan Momixi, 56, a member of the Uighur ethnic group, was taken from her home by police on Aug. 1 and remains in detention, according to the Germany-based World Uighur Congress.

Her 37 students - ages 7 to 20 - were also detained, though some were released after their parents paid fines, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the congress, said by phone from Sweden. He didn't know how many remained in detention. "We don't understand why studying religion during a school break is illegal," Raxit said. China forbids any religious activity outside of government control.

Aminan Momixi, who isn't a member of China's officially sanctioned Muslim groups, has been denied access to a lawyer, Raxit said.

Police who raided her home in Tuoyipu, a town in China's restive Xinjiang region, also seized 32 copies of the Quran, 56 books about the Quran, handwritten notes and history lessons, the World Uighur Congress said. A public security officer in Tuoyipu, reached by phone Sunday, denied the incident. "There is no illegal teaching of the Quran here," he said. He gave only his surname, Wang.

China says it is fighting terrorism in its Muslim northwest, "but young students have nothing to do with terrorism," Raxit said. "They were learning about their religion to build values, such as saying no to drugs, crime and prostitution."

The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims.

China says it is battling separatists in Uighur-dominated

Xinjiang. Diplomats and foreign experts doubt Beijing's claims of an organized Islamic campaign in the region.