China Restricts Islam

[FatimaAsSideqah]

As Salaam Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu

With prayers banned in public areas, private hajj trips not allowed, teaching of the Noble Qur'an not allowed in private and students and government officials forced to eat during Ramadan, China is enforcing laws and regulations restricting the practice of Islam.

"Of course this makes people angry," Mohammad, a teacher, told The New York Times on Sunday, October 19.

"Excitable people think the government is wrong in what it does. They say that government officials who are Muslims should also be allowed to pray."

In recent week, Chinese authorities have enforced laws restricting the ability of Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang from practicing their faith.

In Khotan, signs posted in front of the grand mosque say the weekly Friday prayer sermon must not extend beyond than a half-hour.

Prayers in public areas outside the mosque is forbidden and residents are banned from worshipping at mosques outside their town.

Under the rules, imams are banned from teaching the Qur'an in private and only official versions of the Qur'an are allowed.

Studying Arabic is only allowed at special government schools.

Government workers are banned from showing the slightest sign of religious devotion.

For example, a Muslim civil servant could be sacked for donning hijab.

Many of the rules have been on the books for years, but local authorities have publicly highlighted them in recent weeks with banners hanged in towns.

They began posting regulations mandating women not to wear hijab and men to shave their beards.

Uighur Muslims are a Turkish-speaking minority of more than eight million in Xinjiang, a northwest vast area that borders Central Asia.

Atheist China recognizes five religions — Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Taoism and Buddhism — and tightly regulates their administration and practice.

Official Hajj

Under the rules, two of Islam's five pillars – the Ramadan fasting and hajj – are strictly controlled.

Students and government workers are compelled to eat during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

China has also revived a law prohibiting Muslims from arranging their own trips to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj.

Signs painted on mud-brick walls in the winding alleyways of old Kashgar warn against making "illegal" hajj.

"Implement the policy of organized and planned pilgrimage; individual pilgrimage is forbidden," reads a red banner hanging on a large mosque in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang.

Authorities have also confiscated passports of Uighur Muslims across Xinjiang to force them to join government-run hajj tours rather than their own trips.

Once a person files an application, the authorities do a background check into the family.

If the applicant has children, the children must be old enough to be financially self-sufficient, and the applicant is required to show that he/she has substantial savings in the bank.

To get a passport to go on an official hajj or a business trip, applicants must leave a deposit of nearly $6,000.

Now virtually no Uighurs have passports, though they can apply for them for short trips.

This has made life especially difficult for businessmen who travel to neighboring countries.

Critics say the government is trying to restrict contacts with world Muslims, fearing that could highlight the sufferings of Muslims in Xinjiang and possibly build pressures on China.

Source from http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/S...News/NWELayout

[FatimaAsSideqah]

Jazaak'Allah Khair for approved.

[Amadeus85]

I would risk a statement that until China sells weapon and make buisness with Sudan, Iran or Syria, they would be still seen as the friends.

[brotherinfaith]

god said the jews and the unbelievers will be the worst enemies of muslims but we seem to ignore god's words and we are paying for that

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[Hamayun]

That is really sad to hear. We should consider ourselves lucky that we have the freedom to practice our faith the way we want.

Jazakallah for sharing.

[AvarAllahNoor]

China bans all Religion. Don't fret too much.

[nocturnal]

China bans all Religion. Don't fret too much.

That's one aspect of Marxist theory that they're zealously cleaving to. They have a very bipolar approach to religion. It's either state sanctioned, or it's proscribed and liable to prosecution.

[Ar-RaYYan]

and yet the population of the muslims are increasing in China....

[nocturnal]

and yet the population of the muslims are increasing in China....

Thats possibly attributable to the fecundity in the Uighur population, and not necessarily high conversion rates. It's very hard to proselytize in a country like Chine where every facet of public life in tightly controlled and centralized.

[AvarAllahNoor]

That's one aspect of Marxist theory that they're zealously cleaving to. They have a very bipolar approach to religion. It's either state sanctioned, or it's proscribed and liable to prosecution.

Religion is an oppostion to their regime. So it's best suited (to them) to ban it, or like you say, control it.

[north_malaysian]

I'm not pro-China.... but I think that those restrictions are for the Uyghurs... the Huis have less restrictions...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgGQwyciZFI

[north_malaysian]

More than 8,000 people in China's largest Muslim region pay pilgrimage to Mecca

www.chinaview.cn

2008-07-07 16:49:51

YINCHUAN, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A total of 8,288 Muslims in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the largest Muslim region in the country, have made the pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest site in Saudi Arabia, a religious official said.


A pilgrimage to Mecca, also call the hajj, is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so.

Before 1978, only seven Muslims from Ningxia traveled to Mecca for the hajj. At that time, the cost of the trip was just 8,000 yuan, said Ma Zhanquan, an imam.

Since China resumed organizing the hajj trip in 1985, the number of pilgrims from Ningxia grew from 15 in 1988 to 1,655 in 2007, which reflects a loosened religious policy and a sharp increase in per capita income of local farmers, said Hei Fuli, vice chairman of the Islamic Association of Ningxia.

Ningxia is home to 2.17 million Muslims, accounting for over one third of the region's total population and more than one tenth of China's 20 million Muslim population. Currently, Ningxia has 3,760 mosques.

China's growing material prosperity has had a knock-on effect in the spiritual lives of its Muslim citizens. As mud houses have given way to brick homes, as brackish water has been transformed into tap water, and as motorcycles and computers have replaced the sewing machine as the latest machines that every home seems to possess, Guo Tingjiang, 70, a farmer in Dongtasi Town, Wuzhong City, has realized his dream of going to Mecca.

"I was a cowherd. I didn't go to school and never knew the Arabic language. But I went to Beijing and Mecca. It was a miracle for me," he said.

Guo spent 30,000 yuan (4,323 U.S. dollars), a huge sum for people living in the poverty-stricken area, and made his trip to Mecca in 2000. The 40 days in the regional capital Yinchuan, Beijing and Mecca means his life now has no regrets. Guo's wife also became a hajj pilgrim in 2005.

The pilgrimage to Mecca is not only a religious activity for the Muslims, but also broadens their vision and promotes understanding among different Muslim sects, Hei Fuli said.

A total of 1,970 Muslims from Ningxia and neighboring Shaanxi Province went to Mecca last December on direct charter flights from Yinchuan. It cut the trip to eight hours and 40 minutes, saving at least 2,000 yuan for each hajj pilgrimage.

More than 10,000 Muslims went to Mecca for the pilgrimage in 2007, according to the China Islamic Association.

Around 1,700 Muslims in Ningxia and 13,000 in the whole country are expected to go to Mecca this year, Hei said.

According to incomplete statistics, there are over 100 million followers of various religious faiths, more than 85,000 sites for religious activities, some 300,000 clergy and over 3,000 religious organizations throughout China.

In addition, there are 74 religious schools and colleges run by religious organizations for training clerical personnel.
"We used to pray on the goat fur in our mosque. Now we pray on woolen carpets. More and more people can afford the trip now as they get richer," said Yang Yuming, imam in Tongxin Mosque, the largest mosque in Ningxia.
Editor: Wang Hongjiang

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_8505548.htm

[north_malaysian]

Government Increases Controls Over Muslim Pilgrimages

Chinese Muslim pilgrims may now only receive hajj visas at the Saudi Embassy in Beijing and only if they are part of a Chinese government-sponsored trip, according to an announcement from the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) reported on October 4 in Ta Kung Pao and October 12 on the SARA Web site. The new measures were established in an agreement signed in May between the state-controlled Islamic Association of China (IAC) and the Saudi Ministry of Pilgrimage.

SARA publicized the agreement after a group of Muslims from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) attempted to obtain Saudi visas via a third country in August and September. As part of the agreement, the IAC will organize a second overseas pilgrimage each year in addition to the main annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Despite existing legal regulations on pilgrimages and a general policy urging Chinese Muslims to travel only on officially sponsored trips, as late as January 2006 the government had indicated some limited tolerance for pilgrimages made outside official channels. The May 2006 agreement and announcement the same month that the IAC would establish an office to manage pilgrimages to Mecca indicate new efforts to strengthen government control over pilgrimages.

Some of the sources cited in an October 24 South China Morning Post article (subscription required) suggest that the change in policy is intended in particular to increase government control over Muslims from the XUAR. According to the article, XUAR pilgrims regularly have received visas to Saudi Arabia from Saudi consular officials in a third country. A spokesperson from the U.S.-based Uyghur American Association cited in the article suggested that the new policy may aim to limit the number of Uighur pilgrims or better supervise those who participate in the pilgrimage. A scholar from the Xinjiang Academy of Social Science noted that the Chinese government is concerned that independent pilgrims could make contact with terrorists, separatists, and religious extremists - groups the Chinese government labels as the "three evil forces." The government has tightly controlled religious practice in the XUAR as part of its campaign against the "three evil forces."

For more information on Islam in China, see "Religious Freedom for China's Muslims" in section V(d), "Freedom of Religion," in the CECC 2006 Annual Report.

http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAca...owsingle=77037

[The Khan]

You're right north_malaysian, the restrictions are mainly for the Uyghurs, not the Hui. The Hui are not demanding separatism, in fact, the Han have a lot of respect for them as they stood up against tyrannical Manchu rule and revolted, with the end result 80% of them were massacred. On the other hand, the Uyghurs meekly surrendered to Manchu rule, in fact, the only Manchu today who was made a diverged dialect of their nearly-extinct tongue (approximately 70 speakers in Manchuria) are the Xibe of Uyghuristan. Although the mainstream Manchu, excluding the Xibe, have assimilated towards Han society, there's still a lot of Bias against them, due to the racial superiority system which has existed in China since the Han dynasty. I guess the sympathy the Uyghurs had for the Manchu is one reason why the Han dislike them, apart from racism.

[north_malaysian]

China Islamic Association

In April 2001, the government set up a China Islamic Association which was described as aiming to "help the spread of the Qur'an in China and oppose religious extremism".

The association, according to the China Daily, is to be run by 16 Islamic religious leaders who are charged with making "a correct and authoritative interpretation" of Islamic creed and canon.

It will compile and spread inspirational speeches and help imams improve themselves, the paper said.

The committee of imams will also vet sermons made by clerics around the country.

This latter function is probably the key job as far as the central government is concerned. It is worried that devout, anti-secular clerics are using their sermons to spread sedition.

Some examples of the religious freedom granted to Muslims are:

• In areas where Muslims are a majority, the breeding of pigs is not allowed, in deference to Muslim sensitivities
• Muslim communities are allowed separate cemeteries
• Muslim couples may have their marriage consecrated by an Imam
• Muslim workers are permitted holidays during major religious festivals
• Chinese Muslims are also allowed to make the Hajj to Mecca, and more than 45,000 Muslims have done so in recent years.

Statistics are hard to find, and the number of Muslims in China today is somewhere between 20 and 100 million; it depends on whose figures you trust.

According to government figures, there are 20 million Muslims (1.4% of the population), 35,000 Islamic places of worship, and more than 45,000 imams in China.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religi.../china_4.shtml

[north_malaysian]

Year of the Pig: In respect for Islam pigs banned

The central government order aims to show respect for minorities. However the move is also intended to put a stop to disagreements with the Han and to win the favour of oil-rich Muslim countries.

By Asia News Monday, February 12, 2007

In a week’s time, the Chinese world will celebrate the New Year under the zodiac sign of the Pig. But for the Year of the Pig, the Chinese government has banned all adverts showing this animal. Beijing is hoping to gain kudos from Islamic states for its sensitivity and respect for their religious convictions even if it continues repressing the Muslim minority, especially in Xinjiang.


In letter to advertising agencies, the main state television CCTV warned that “since China is a multi-cultural country, out of respect for the religious convictions of Muslims, images of pigs must be avoided in 2007.”

TV sources said: “This was indicated to us from top government quarters... to protect harmony between different religions and ethnic groups”.


It seems that the order has come from the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party that wants the Year of the Pig (starting on 18 February) to be celebrated without offending the country’s 21 million Muslims.


The order has created problems for big firms: they had already designed their publicity spots, focused on the presence of pigs, but now they must create new ones within a few days. Nestlé had prepared a cartoon of a beaming little pig celebrating a “Happy Year of the Pig”. Coca Cola had two cartoons, one with a panda and the other with a pig, but they will not broadcast the one with the pig in areas with big Muslim communities.


The media have given the news importance and reported the enthusiastic response from Muslim communities. For example, Huo Engjie, director in Shanghai of the Association of Minorities, said: “Even if we [Muslims] are less than 2% of the Chinese population, this ban shows how much the government respects us. It’s really moving.”


The Muslim population in China is divided into Hui – Chinese who have converted to Islam – and Uighurs.


The Hui, around 15 million, are present especially in Ningxia (Central China), Shaanxi, Qinghai and Beijing.


Beijing has always displayed considerable tact towards them. For decades, while Catholics were forbidden from going to Rome, the government subsidized Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca.


However, China implements a repressive and colonizing policy towards the Uighurs (of Turkish origin, around eight million), aimed at putting a stop to autonomist aspirations and fundamentalist infiltrations from Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a Xinjiang daily, in 2005 China arrested 18,227 Uighurs on charges of “threatening national security”. Hundreds have been condemned to death. In January, police attacked a training camp and killed 18 Muslim Uighurs, claiming without proof that that they were terrorists.


For some years, tension has also been growing with the Hui, above all for social reasons. The Han – the Chinese race par excellence – are preferred in employment and trade and this has created resentment among the Hui and consequent clashes. There has also been a growth of Muslim integralism among the Hui, owing to the influence of pilgrimages and the meeting of the “Chinesized” Islam of the Hui with more fundamentalist Pakistani and Saudi doctors of the Koran.


The decision to ban images of the pig is an attempt to show, at home and abroad,

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=7889


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