Provinces of China and the Muslim Times’ collection on Separation of Mosque-Church and State
Source: Time Magazine
Aug. 12, 2014
Beijing bans some Muslims from observing Ramadan, or boarding public transport while veiled, but it allows millions of others to practice their religion without hindrance
The road to Linxia, in China’s vast, sere northwest, is known locally as the Quran Belt, with a profusion of newly built mosques and Sufi shrines lining the motorway. Some are built in a traditional Chinese style, with pagoda-like eaves; others, with their green tiled domes, echo Middle Eastern architecture.
The Great Mosque of Xi’an, one of China’s oldest mosques
With violent unrest affecting northwestern Xinjiang, a spotlight has been cast on that area’s Muslim Uighurs, who have long chafed at rule from Beijing. But the Uighurs, some of whom yearn for autonomy from the People’s Republic, are not the biggest Muslim population in China, which has more adherents to Islam than the European Union. That distinction belongs to the Hui, a 10.5 million-strong group that is also the second largest of China’s 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. One of the Hui centers of Islamic learning is the Wild West town of Linxia, in Gansu province, where Sufi traditions remain vibrant.
Additional Reading
December 2011 Alislam-eGazette: A watershed moment for China: Islam or Christianity?
Islam for the West: Sun rises from the West
Enjoyed the article and I agree with many things discussed as I have not been in China for over ten years. However, I disagree with building Saudi-style mosques in different cultures–it is an invasion. Islam has always blended into the culture in which it is introduced, but it did not attempt to Arabize (culture) the faith. As it relates to Islamic education, the type of salafist training that has been promoted and supplemented by Saudi oil money, (take the students, train them, send them home, build them a mosque and pay them their salaries), is indoctrination. The very foundation of Islamic faith is being forced into “presentment” (outward “signs”) rather than a “spiritual” (internal) fulfillment. Quran speaks to blindly following in the footsteps of our forefathers, as well as basing it upon which direction one turns their head, East or West as a sign of being a good Muslim. Such thinking and narrowly proscribed mindsets bring with it injustice and oppression by Muslims. When Islam is politicized, Muslims tend to loose their spiritual bearings. Look at ISIS and in other regions of the MENA, a politicized Salafist ideology has manifested in hundreds of thousands of Muslims dead, other faiths murdered, and muslims blinded by a political ideology. I sincerely hope more Muslims will recoginze that those actions are not the best ayyat/signs of the Islamic faith that calls all to peace…and speak out against Muslim on Muslim killing and hegemony.
Well said Dr Zia Shah.
@Daayiee Abdullah:
muslims blinded by a political ideology. I sincerely hope more Muslims will recoginze that those actions are not the best ayyat/signs of the Islamic faith that calls all to peace…and speak out against Muslim on Muslim killing and hegemony.
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That is true. And I personally observed the work of Saudi paid clerics working in Qatar (and other UAE states). There was one in Doha who used to make speech in Urdu in a big mosque after Juma prayers on the pretext of explaining to poor Indian/ Pakistani Muslims the context of Juma sermon of the Arab Imam.
I listened a few days. He was exhorting the listeners towards Wahabism and the listeners were all Sunnis. I listened a few times and one day, I confronted that Mulla (Indian from Bombay), I said these are all Sunnis and you are teaching them lessons of Wahhabism. He became worried.
After that day, whenever that Mulla passed by me in a nearby mosque, he used to bow low and solute me humbly.
The Saudis have built mosques and planted paid Mullas as Imams in Karachi and many other places. They are spreading Wahhabism popularly called Ahle-Hadith. But I checked, they are anti-Hadith. They do not believe in any well known Hadith. They deny or distort the following Hadith:
1. ……… There is no Mahdi except Isa. (Ibne Majah)
2. O believers, how happy you will be when Isa Ibne Maryam will arrive amongst you and (he) will be an Imam from amongst you.
These Mullas preach the form of violent Jihad.
May Allah save the Ummah from such idols.
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Choun Kufr as ka’abah barkhaizad, kujaa maanad Musalmaani!
Trans: When Kufr i.e. enmity of true faith will sprout (spread) from ka’abah then where will be Islam and Muslims! The Muslims will not exist.