Pallavi Aiyar
.........Reliable data are difficult to obtain but China's estimated 20-30 million Muslims may, in fact, be the country's second largest religious community, after the 100 million or so Buddhists. Islam in China is moreover currently in the process of a strong revival, spurred on by increasing trade links with the Middle East that have ended the centuries-long isolation of Chinese Muslims from the wider Islamic world.
Greater orthodoxy amongst Chinese Muslims is on the rise as ever-larger numbers go on Haj and youngsters return from their studies abroad in Muslim countries........
Certain restrictions continue to apply to Islam in China. For example, proselytising is strictly forbidden and Muslims who work for the government are not allowed to pray in their offices. Moreover, children below the age of 18 are not permitted to receive religious instruction at all. Nonetheless, as a visit to virtually any part of Ningxia will reveal, the Hui are embracing their faith with enthusiasm.
In recent years, Ningxia has benefited from donations worth millions of dollars from the Islamic Development Bank, which has enabled a facelift for The Islamic College in the provincial capital Yinchuan, as well as the establishment of several Arabic language schools. Interest in Arabic is booming so much so that even the Ningxia Economic Institute has begun to offer 3-4 year Arabic courses.
A hundred miles east of Yinchuan in the small town of Ling Wu, 50 other women, their heads covered with scarves, sit in a room reciting verses in Arabic from the Koran.......While the women are granted the title of Imam they are still not allowed to lead men in prayers. Their role is more that of a teacher and their students are exclusively women.
Ling Wu's Tai Zi mosque has been rebuilt four times in the last 20 years. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), most places of worship were demolished and Tai Zi suffered the same fate. Since the 1980s, however, a religious renaissance accompanied by increasing prosperity has led to the local Muslims donating enough money for four major expansions of the building.......the stronger sense of group identity...fostered by these renewed linkages with the Islamic world, is leading to new challenges.
In the past, the Hui were amongst the least orthodox Muslims in the world. Many smoked and drank, few grew beards, and Hui women rarely wore veils. Increased contact with the Middle East has, however, wrought changes. Thousands of Hui students have returned from colleges in Arab countries over the last few years and they have brought with them stricter ideas of Islam. Mosques in Ningxia have now begun to receive worshippers five times a day, more Hui women have taken to wearing head scarves and skull caps are in wide evidence.
There is a strong identification among the Hui community today with the wider problems of the Islamic world. "It is American policy that has given all of us Muslims a bad reputation," says Yang, Tai Zi mosque's woman Imam, quivering with indignation.
For many Han, this identification of the Hui with communities outside of China is problematic. "Earlier the Hui were just like us except they didn't eat pork. Now they think they are very special. They think of themselves as foreigners," a Han foreign office official in Ningxia complained. .......
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