The ancient country of China which has been the centre of the world’s oldest civilization, its cultural history goes back to thousands of years, is house to a significant number of Muslims in a way that at present the Muslim population of this country is counted as the third largest religious minority of China. They are mostly Turks of Uighor race, being ruled by a communist regime.
Islam was introduced to China as early as the 7thcentury (during the Tang Dynasty) when merchants from Arabia and Persia came to China to trade via the Silk Road. In AD.651, the third Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan (Allah be pleased with him), sent an envoy to call on the reigning Tang Emperor Gao Zong, and since then Islam began to be found in many parts of China.
In the midst of trade and cultural exchanges across the Asia-Europe continent for the next few centuries, streams of Muslim immigrants from central Asia settled permanently in China. They had contacts with local Chinese Muslim converts. They carried on their faith, built mosques and cemeteries and gradually created a unique social unit of their own.
However all these exchanges gradually diminished during the Ming and Qing (Manchu) Dynasties and they came to a stop with the establishment of the Communist government. It was only in the 1980’s under the leadership of Deng Xiaopeng that China slowly open up to tourists from all over the world.
Muslims in the present day era
China has ten Muslim nationalities, numbering more than 30 million Muslims. They are the Hui, Uighur, Kazakh, Dongxiang, Khalkhas, Salar, Tajik, Uzbek, Baoan and Tartar. These nationalities have their own written and spoken languages and cultures and their unique ethnic traditions.
When the Republic of China was formed in 1911 the Muslims were recognized as a Race in China. Now the Communist Government calls all Muslims as the HUI race. The national constitution testified to the freedom of faith.
Beijing has about 200,000 Muslims, Xian — 60,000, Shanghai – 100,000 and Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, a modest 30,000.
The Muslims in China have always been facing discrimination and inequality; that is way they have seen complete independence of their autonomous region of Sen Xiang as the only hope to come out from their current situation; and they have come up for this cause.
What was happened in July 2009 in Sen Xiang region of China was one of the deadliest battles between Muslims and the Communist and Anti-Islam regime of China. In this tragic incident they were brutally suppressed by Chinese security forces being supported by hard-line Chinese of Han race who like the migrant Jews in Palestine have usurped the motherland of Uighor Muslims. This act of Chinese security forces was followed by worldwide criticism from Muslims as well as a small number of world’s Muslim leaders like Receb Tayyeb Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey.
Nevertheless, unfortunately most of the Muslim leaders preferred diplomatic relations of their country over this dreadful incident and remained apathetic towards it; while international pressure is the only effective instruments for the support of Muslims in historical China.
By: Yaqoub Shahbakhsh
Abbreviated by: Neday Islam Magazine
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