Results tagged “muslims”

Selling sex may be the oldest profession in history, but selling virginity? That's new. Chinese naughty toys company Gigimo (motto: Let's play!) has advertised an artificual hymen kit throughout the Middle East that has sparked controversy in Egypt.

Short 50 second report on CCTV with footage from Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Beijing showing how Muslims across China are celebrating Eid Al Adha, the holiest feast in the Islamic calendar conducted to mark the end of the Haj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca.

"Pakistan's foreign minister said yesterday China has signed an agreement with Pakistan to help it build two more nuclear power plants."

Western news outlets are rife with reports that Chinese officials in the Xinjiang province have imposed a set of heavy-handed restrictions on the observation of the month of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. The restrictions are said to include, among others, a ban on fasting by government officials, Communist Party members, teachers and students, and measure to have men shave off their beards and women to remove their veils. AFP quotes from the websites of several county governments in the Xinjiang province:

"Faced with recent violent and disruptive activities by religious extremists, separatists and terrorists, we must... step up ideological education of religious leaders and followers," [from the Zhaosu county website]

Continue reading "Ramadan restrictions in Xinjiang?"

We've previously noted how Al-Jazeera's treatment of the Tibet issue tends to be somewhat lopsided, but this latest report on Islam in China which features interviewees from both ends of the political spectrum does exhibit cognisance of the various sensitivities and the interplay of a variety of complex factors. The heterogeneity of Muslims in China makes them a highly fascinating group to study, if we can even consider them as a "group" to begin with. The longstanding suspicions among Uyghurs of the Hui's are underscored by activist Rebiya Kadeer's assertion that many of the spies employed by Chinese intelligence in Xinjiang are Hui Muslims — an ethnic group that accounts for about half of China's 22 million Muslims. The main distinction that sets the Hui's apart from the Han's is derived from their practice of Islam and in many cases, there is no genetic distinction between the Hui's and the Han's due to a decision by the Communist Party in the 1930s to define Hui's as an umbrella group for all Sinophone Muslims.

This report from France 24, an international 24-hour news channel, profiles the Hui community in Ningxia province in Northern China. Of the 20 million Muslims currently living in China, half belong to the Hui community, and one fifth of this community lives in Ningxia. The episode shows the special schools where Hui children learn Arabic and the Koran along with the regular Chinese curriculum. It also describes the Hui healthcare system, which blends treatments based on the series of ablutions performed before entering a mosque with traditional Chinese medicinal techniques. An interesting look at the way Hui culture has absorbed Chinese influences into an Islamic base.

Jesus seems to be making a comeback in the PRC. Since the introduction of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries to China, many of them to Shanghai, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Christianity has been a popular minority religion. While practice abated during Mao’s hay day, China has experienced a resurgence in past years. Just two weeks ago, we reported that Orthodox priests were allowed to lead a service in Shanghai for the first time in over four decades. An article by the Chicago Tribune shows this incident may be indicative of a larger trend of successful Christian advocacy, some of which may challenge the Chinese government’s role as supreme authority over its citizens:

As China's Christian population has climbed to an estimated 70 million, a growing number of lawyers and scholars have converted to Christianity and turned their skills to the issue of religious freedom. They are teaming up with churches to challenge the government in court, suing for the rights they believe are guaranteed under China's constitution.

Continue reading "Jesus Christ Superstar! (and other religious news)"

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