Hui poet fears for his people as China ‘Sinicizes’ religion

The State ^ | December 28, 2018 07:37 AM | SAM MCNEIL

[Zhang Fei]

JINAN, China

Cui Haoxin is too young to remember the days of his people's oppression under Mao Zedong.

The 39-year-old poet was born after the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, when the Hui — China's second-largest Muslim ethnic group — were among the masses tormented by the Red Guard.

In the years since, the Hui (pronounced HWAY) generally have been supportive of the government and mostly spared the kind of persecution endured by China's largest Muslim group, the Uighur.

There are signs, though, that that is changing. Cui fears both that history may be repeating itself and for his own safety as he tries to hold the ruling Communist Party accountable.

In August, town officials in the Hui region of Ningxia issued a demolition order for the landmark Grand Mosque in Weizhou, though they later backed off in the face of protests.

More recently, authorities in nearby Gansu province ordered closed a school that taught Arabic, the language of the Quran and other Islamic religious texts. The school had employed and served mainly Hui since 1984. And a Communist Party official from Ningxia visited Xinjiang, center of Uighur oppression, to "study and investigate how Xinjiang fights terrorism and legally manages religious affairs."

China under President Xi Jinping is clamping down on minorities, tightening control over a wide spectrum of religious and political activity. In some places, a campaign to "Sinicize" religion has prompted authorities to seize Bibles, remove the "halal" designation from food products, demolish churches and strip mosques of loudspeakers and Islamic crescents and domes.

Cui has spoken out against government intrusions. He is working on a novel with a nightmarish plot: believers are brutalized by demons in a Cultural Revolution in Hell. "The Muslims resisted and tried to protect the mosque," he said, describing the work. "They failed."

[Telepathic Intruder]

I have trouble feeling sorry for a minority that persecutes other minorities when they themselves have power.

[Gene Eric]

Islam is a war plan.

The Arabs are not inventors. They’re believers, thieves, and arguably curators. But show me anything other than repression and horror that Islam has accomplished.

[GraceG]

[ I have trouble feeling sorry for a minority that persecutes other minorities when they themselves have power. ]

I agree with this statement, A minority that adhere to a policy of supremacy when they are no longer a minority is still as dangerous as a majority with the same ideals.

[Jacquerie]

As opposed to nearly all Western societies, the Chinese believe they have a culture worth defending.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Communists vs. Muslims. Which is the lesser evil? I don’t care. They’re both destroyers of cultures.

[Chickensoup]

As opposed to nearly all Western societies, the Chinese believe they have a culture worth defending.

__________________

Boy that is so good it should be a tagline.

POST OF THE DAY!!!!

[kearnyirish2]

Didn’t the Red Chinese attempt to erase their culture? Or are you referring to the culture promoted by the Reds after they won the civil war in 1949?

[oldvirginian]

“As opposed to nearly all Western societies, the Chinese believe they have a culture worth defending.”

Mao destroyed the Chinese culture with his “Great Leap Forward”. His cultural revolution of the 60’s and 70’s finished off the culture we think of as Chinese.
Their temples are not taken care of and falling down.
Their Lost Generation (the teens and twenty somethings of Mao’s day) have no connection to actual Chinese culture.
You want to experience actual Chinese culture?
Go to Taiwan.

The Lost Generation
https://youtu.be/X9Dh2gFX4Mg