The Muslim Hui are an anomaly inChina, an ethnic minority
grantedsignificant autonomy and allowed to devoutly follow their
religion in a region where Islam thrives.
The ancient Silk Road trade route cut through what is today the
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, luring Muslim traders from afar.
Descendants of Arab and Persian merchants travelled here in the 7th
century and many settled, planting the roots of Islam in the heart of
China.
About half the country's 20 million Muslims are from the Hui ethnic group.
Muslims were persecuted in Ningxia during Mao Zedong's Cultural
Revolution in the 1960s and '70s, but today Islam flourishes. More
than 400 mosques dot the region, and Islamic schools have produced
some 7,000 imams - or Islamic clerics known locally as ahongs.
While Muslim Uighurs of Turkic descent in the far west face
harshreligious restrictions and repression, the Hui have been afforded
much more political andreligious freedom by Beijing. Observers say it
is their friendly historical relations with the ethnic majority Han
that is the difference.
"The different cultures have merged in this place harmoniously," says
Ma Zhang Wen, the imam of Xinhua Mosque.
Ma, 38, has been an imam for the last 15 years in Yinchuan, Ningxia's
capital, about 1,300 kilometers northwest of Beijing.
"The government gives people a religion-training program to develop
Islam. The Han respect us, and we respect them, too," Ma says.
Economic revival
According to official data, there are 6.3 million people in Ningxia,
and 2.2 million are Hui.
The impoverished region faced hard times but has seen a revival in
recent years. Islam has helped rejuvenate the economy, and Ningxia has
developed economic ties to Arab and Muslim countries.
Ningxia's halal food industry, for example, is worth about $700m
ayear, according to government statistics.
The region's gross domestic product reached 206 billion yuan (US$33bn)
in 2011, an annual increase of 12 per cent.
"Peoples' lives in Ningxia are getting better and better. We don't
feel discrimination or inequality," says the imam Ma.
The government's move to nurture the region's economic growth has
helped. "The westerndevelopment policy encourages us to develop the
economy, and we have witnessed a dramatic change," he says.
Bao Hongbiao, a researcher at theNingxia Academy of Social Sciences,
says gearing products toward Islamic markets has paid off for
Ningxia's Muslim community.
"Muslim food and religious goodsare showing fast growth, providing
products to other provinces and exporting them to Central Asia and
other Muslim regions," says Bao.
Muslim Uighur repression
While Hui Muslims enjoy freedom to practice their religion, Muslim
Uighurs face strict government repression in far-western
Xinjiangprovince. Bao says while the Hui have happily assimilated with
themajority Han, the Uighurs have not.
Part of the problem is language differences. While the Hui and Han
both speak Mandarin, the Uighurs speak their own Turkic dialect and
write in Arabic script.
Others say the Uighurs' strong desire for autonomy explains the
difference in treatment.
But others highlight the government's policy of offering incentives
for Han Chinese to migrate west as a main cause of friction.
Alim Seytoff, president of the Uyghur American Association, says the
government routinely blocks Uighurs from practicing Islam.The Han
population in Xinjiang has skyrocketed from 6.7per cent in 1949 to 40
per cent in 2008, fueling ethnic tensions overresources and jobs.
"It is meant as a message to the Uighur people telling them to abandon
their faith or face charges of extremism, even for simple expressions
of religious belief. All these measures do is further alienate
Uighurs, if that is possible," says Seytoff.
Violence erupts
In July 2009 riots erupted in Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi,
leaving about 200 Uighurs and Han dead. China's government cracked
down - a situation that continues to simmer to this day.
While Beijing supports the Muslim religion in Ningxia, that isfar from
the case in Xinjiang. Minors under the age of 18 are forbidden from
participating in Islamic practices, and thousands are detained every
year for"illegal religious activity", according to a report by Human
Right Watch.
It is strictly prohibited to celebrate religious holidays and study
religious texts at state institutions, including schools, said the
2005 report titled "Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs
in Xinjiang".
"For Beijing, Xinjiang falls into thesame broad category of political
concerns as Taiwan and Tibet," the report says. "Demands for
separation and/or autonomy are seen in Beijing as a threat to the
continued viability of the Chinese state."
During Ramadan, the Islamic blessed month, notices were posted banning
or discouraging fasting by Communist Party members, civil servants,
studentsand teachers.
"Religious extremism is closely related to violence and terrorism,and
cracking down on these is one of our top priorities," spokeswoman Hou
Hanmin was quoted as saying in the state-run Global Times newspaper. A
regional government spokeswoman denied that fasting was banned, saying
the notices only encouraged people to "eat properly for study and
work".
Amnesty International researcherCorinna-Barbara Francis says the
situation continues to deteriorate "very badly" in Xinjiang.
"There is a much tighter level of control for all Uighurs, and the
religious repression has intensified," she says.
PHOTO CAPTION
A file photo of Muslim Uighur men emerging from the Id Kah mosque
after prayers, in Kashgar,in China's western Xinjiang province Friday
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