Posted on 12/14/2001 9:26:40 PM PST by Hopalong
History and other information about China's little-known Muslim population
China's Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlement and Sects by Michael Dillon. Pub: Curzon Press, Richmond, UK, 1999. Pp: 208. Hbk: UK40.00.
By Leila Juma
Twenty years ago, few Muslims realised that they were huge Muslim communities in what was then Russia. On western-drawn maps, the Muslim areas of Central Asia - which have gained 'independence' by default after the collapse of the Soviet Union - were all shown as part of communist Russia and effectively divorced from the 'Muslim world'. A few better-read Muslims knew that Russia had a 'Muslim minority', but that was about the extent of our understanding.
Far greater awareness of Muslim populations around the world has been one of the benefits of 'Islamic revival' since the Islamic Revolution in Iran. There remains, however, a general ignorance about the Muslim community in China which is similar to that of the Muslims under Russian rule 20 years ago. People have become aware that the Muslims of north-western China are in fact Central Asian Muslim peoples living under Chinese occupation - as Muslims of other parts of Central Asia lived under Russian occupation for most of this century - and that there is a growing jihad against Chinese rule in these areas.
What is not generally realised is that there is also a far larger community of indigenous Chinese Muslims living in China proper, the descendants of both Central Asian settlers in China, and of Chinese people who converted to Islam centuries ago, under the influence of Muslim settlers, traders, ulama, teachers and others who travelled through the country or settled there during the period when Muslim countries represented the leading edge of world civilization. It is these Muslims, ethnically indistinguishable from the rest of the Chinese but with a very distinct cultural and religious tradition that has developed over centuries, which has been studiously maintained despite the aggressive atheism of the communist period, that are known as the Hui, while the non-Muslim Chinese are known as the Han.
Michael Dillon, a lecturer at Durham University in Britain, is an established student of the Hui Muslims. His 1996 book China's Muslims, part of the Oxford University Press 'Images of Asia' series, is an excellent short book on the subject. (The pictures with this review are taken from it.) His new book China's Muslim Hui Community, pulls together much of what other writer's have discovered about the Hui, with his own research.
The main section of the book traces the history of the Hui from the earliest days of Islam in China, to the present day. Unlike some writers on the subject, Dillon emphasises the importance of settlement in the origins of the Hui ahead of the conversion. He links the migration of early Muslims from Persia and Central Asia to earlier migrations by pre-Islamic peoples, which seems tenuous. He emphasises also the importance of the Ming period (1368-1644) for the emergence of the Hui as a permanent community rather than an immigrant one, and traces the stories of key early Muslim leaders, many of them warriors who helped the rise of Ming rule.
Dillon also continues his survey through Manchu rule and into the present century, tracing the changing role of the Hui in society and, in particular, the emergence of Sufism. He has a detailed chapter on the Hui 'insurrections' in the nineteenth century, through which Muslims tried to establish Islamic rule in key areas. These jihad movements, which lasted for decades and established functioning states in parts of China, were brutally suppressed, with the Muslims virtually exterminated in many areas. However, Dillon does not elaborate on the impact this had on the Hui, focusing instead on individual experiences and episodes rather than the larger picture. The same is true of his discussion of the present century.
The second main section focuses on Sufi orders in China, and is informative and detailed; however, Dillon's knowledge of China is not matched by his knowledge of Islam; hence errors such the statement that the word 'Salafiyya' derives from the Arabic 'sharif'. Despite the obvious breadth of Dillon's research, such errors raise doubts.
This book is a useful survey on a subject which few people know very much about. This compensates for its shortcomings. Muslim readers will find much of it informative and fascinating, but it should not be taken as authoritative. However, t he sad and unavoidable fact is that Muslims have no place else to go for such knowledge at this time.
Muslimedia: February 1-15, 2000
Best regards. S&W R.I.P.
I certainly believe that, yes.
Islam is not a threat toward CCP and look at those middle eastern countries, most of those ruling goverments have absolute power. Islam is not WESTERN and it had a long history in Chinese culture. It is also the 4th largest race in China.
World Tibet Network News
Published by the Canada Tibet CommitteeFriday, October 5, 2001
3. Muslims Fear Backlash in China's Restive Northwest
By Jeremy Page
BEIJING Thursday October 4 (Reuters) - In a Russian restaurant in
Beijing, a young Chinese Muslim woman gaped in horror as the television
over the bar flashed CNN's live pictures of the World Trade Center
crumbling to the ground.
She brought her hand to her mouth and gasped. Later, recounting the rush
of emotions that gripped her in those seconds, she said her first
thought had been for the thousands of trapped office workers.
Then another chilling notion occurred to the ethnic Uighur woman from
China's far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
"They will blame Muslims for this. They will think we are all
terrorists," said the woman, who declined to be identified. "I worry for
my friends and my family in Xinjiang."
Judging by China's response to U.S. calls for a global war on terrorism,
her fears may be justified.
Beijing has backed the American-led war on terror but Chinese analysts
say it wants support for a campaign against what it sees as its greatest
militant threat -- Uighurs fighting for an independent homeland in
Xinjiang.
Uighur militants have been blamed for sporadic attacks in China,
including bus bombs in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, that killed nine
people in 1997.
Western and Chinese analysts say some Uighurs have been trained in camps
in Afghanistan (news
- web sites) linked to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites -- Washington's
chief suspect for the attacks on the United States.
But Uighur leaders overseas and security experts say those links are
minimal and there is little sympathy in Xinjiang for bin Laden, the
Taliban or other Islamist groups.
"I don't think there's a strong ideological appeal in the Taliban and
the Islamic shariah law for Uighurs in general," said Dru Gladney, an
expert on Chinese Muslims and professor of Asian Studies at the
University of Hawaii.
"Very few of them would be attracted to radical Islam unless they were
pushed in that direction by extreme government policies or ethnic
tensions."
UIGHURS AGAINST BEIJING
China's roughly eight million Uighurs are mainly Sunni Muslims, like the
Taliban, but many are Sufi, a tolerant form of Islamic mysticism which
the Taliban opposes, experts say.
Uighur aggression is directed primarily at Beijing and driven by a
desire for greater cultural, religious and economic freedom rather than
the establishment of an Islamic state spanning Central Asia, they say.
And despite their faith, many Uighurs see the United States as a
champion of their human rights and religious freedom.
U.S. attacks on Afghanistan alone would not unleash a "jihad" -- holy
struggle -- in Xinjiang, but a simultaneous crackdown on Chinese Muslims
in the name of counter-terrorism could provoke a backlash, they said.
"There's a kind of transnational Islamic front in China that will be
galvanized when Muslims feel they're being persecuted," said Gladney.
He cited two recent examples: Chinese Muslim support for Saddam Hussein
in the Gulf War and multiethnic Muslim protests in 1989 over publication
of a Chinese book called ``Sexual Customs'' which compared Muslim
architecture to sexual organs.
"My concern is that if there's a backlash against Muslims in China it
could help unite them all," he said. "This has happened time and time
again in Chinese history."
The Turkic-speaking Uighurs are China's second largest Muslim minority
after the nine million-strong Hui, who are spread out over China, speak
Chinese and have ethnic Chinese ancestry.
The vast majority of Uighurs live in Xinjiang and activists are fighting
for an independent state of East Turkestan in the area they have
inhabited for more than 1,250 years.
Incorporated as a province of China in 1884, the region enjoyed a brief
period of virtual independence from 1938, during which it sought aid
from the Soviet Union. China regained control of the region after the
Communists came to power in 1949.
Beijing has since settled millions of ethnic Han Chinese in the
resource-rich region and fought a prolonged low-intensity campaign
against Uighur independence activists.
SNUFFING OUT SEPARATISM
Many in Beijing see a global war on terrorism as the perfect chance to
snuff out Uighur separatism for good.
"This is a very good opportunity to intensify the fight against
separatists in Xinjiang," said Zhu Feng, director of the International
Security Program at Peking University. "China is also a victim of
terrorism."
``There is a connection between Xinjiang separatists and terrorists in
Afghanistan. Some separatists got training in Afghanistan and then were
dispatched into China.''
Security experts say such links may well exist.
``It is quite possible there would have been meetings between some of
bin Laden's followers and militants in the Uighur movement,'' said Paul
Wilkinson, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and
Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
``I suspect it's very small scale and the links so far are modest, but I
don't doubt the bin Laden network would be interested in making those
connections,'' he said.
But they say China has already stifled the separatist movement through
cooperation with Central Asian neighbors, zero-tolerance policing and
relatively fast economic development in the region.
``The religious and ethnic threat within Xinjiang is limited and has at
present very little likelihood of disrupting China's hold on the
region,'' said Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor of Jane's Defense
Weekly.
``What China is reacting to is trying to contain a potentially much
greater problem while it's still at a containable stage.''
NO ORGANIZATION
Unlike the bin Laden's al Qaeda network, the Uighur movement lacks
organization, leadership and unity -- some want greater autonomy, some
full independence.
A disparate and poorly funded group of Uighurs in Canada, Australia, the
United States and northern Europe run a loose network of Web sites
providing information about Xinjiang.
Perhaps the closest they have to a natural leader is Erkin Alptekin,
whose father was the late Uighur leader Isa Yusuf Alptekin -- often
compared to Tibet's Dalai Lama.
Alptekin, who lives in Germany and describes himself as a lobbyist
rather than a leader, says he has little control over Uighurs in
Xinjiang.
``The Tibetans are lucky because they have the Dalai Lama to pacify his
people,'' he said. ``We have difficulties pacifying our countrymen.''
He espouses nonviolence and adamantly denies any links between Uighurs
and the Taliban or bin Laden.
But he says ethnic discrimination and economic disparities between the
Uighurs and the Han have made Xinjiang a fertile recruiting ground for
extremists.
``They are hopeless, they are desperate and they are frustrated,'' he
said. ``If you are hopeless, you have nothing to lose.''
``Young Uighurs say to me: 'In the coming decades, we will disappear
from the historical scene. Do you want to see us just die like cowards
sleeping in our beds?'.''
Articles in this Issue:
- Dalai Lama puts off European tour due to Afghan tensions
- Press statement from Kalon Tripa
- Muslims Fear Backlash in China's Restive Northwest
Specifically, on April 13, 2000 – as a direct result of the review of a court document involved in the Wen Ho Lee prosecution – the identity of the Lawrence Livermore scientist contacted by Lee in 1982 became known. The scientist was Gwo-Bao Min. It was also clarified that the neutron bomb Chinese espionage investigation was active in the late 70’s (under the Carter Administration.)
Neutron-bomb spy suspect is key link to Wen Ho Lee San Jose Mercury News 4-13-00 DAN STOBER
Lee had called a man under investigation for allegedly providing secrets about the neutron bomb to China in the late 1970s. Today, Lee is in jail awaiting trial on charges of illegally downloading nuclear secrets from his lab's computers.
Now, for the first time, the man whose phone the FBI bugged has been identified through a court document obtained by the Mercury News. His name is Gwo-Bao Min, 61, of Danville, a former nuclear weapons engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory…
To the FBI, Min is known as ``Tiger Trap,'' the code name given to the investigation of his activities.
In the late 1970s, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Min had given China information about the neutron bomb, a nuclear weapon that could be used to kill humans while minimizing damage to buildings. Exploded in the sky above a town or battlefield, the W-70's deadly radiation would reach people on the ground, while the powerful shock wave from the blast would dissipate high above…
Min left the lab on Feb. 10, 1981, according to laboratory records. The former co-worker said he was told by administrators that Min had been ``allowed to resign.''
The FBI continued its investigation of Min after his dismissal. Under the authority of a special warrant approved by the secretive United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington, the FBI conducted electronic surveillance of Min, including a wiretap on his home phone in Danville…
Exactly how the government discovered the loss of neutron bomb secrets to China and what led investigators to Min remain a secret. Sources outside the FBI say the agency is protecting its source, which could be a spy or the clandestine interception of an electronic communication…”
I have no intention of “mud-wrestling” with anyone over any subject or of continuing a futile debate. However, for the Downside Legacy, I choose to update information as facts become known and periodically confirm sources and details.
I have as much a right without censor of my reply to express my opinions on this thread as the author of reply #131, especially since sonofliberty also invited me to continue in his reply #129. And I have a right without censor of my reply to disagree with and constructively criticize the lack of completness of the information presented in reply #131, no matter who the author is.
A critiscism of lack of completeness and my characterizing reply #132 as really opinion does not constitute a personal attack that could be used as an excuse for censor of my reply. I have also not attributed any personal motive for the lack of completeness of reply #132.
Win Ho lee had phone converstations with BOTH Peter Lee and Gwo-Bao Min. Win Ho Lee's conversations with Peter Lee began with Peter Lee when Peter Lee worked for TRW at Lawrence Livermore and they continued when Peter Lee went to Los Alamos where Wen Ho Lee worked.
CIA agent George Carver stated he believed Peter Lee helped transfer the neutron bomb tech to the CHinese. The inventor of the neutron bomb Sam Cohen has written and provided interviews that former President Bush approved the transfer of the US neutron bomb tech to the Chinese, and then had the US help the Chinese build and test neutron bombs (interview with Cohen and photos provided in a 1999 article by David Breshnahan in World Net Daily).
There is a well established fact (which would stand up in a court of law-it was presented in court) in all this and that is that Win Ho Lee's wife worked directly for the FBI and CIA for years and at the time her husband held the phone conversations with Peter Lee and Gwo-Bao Min. And this was at a time when former President Bush and former Vice President Bush was in a position to know about and appove of transfers to China of the US neutron bomb tech.
It still is my opinion that the US neutron bomb technology was transferred to China by the aid and decision of former President George Bush and as such was an act of high treason.
For those who disagree about my assessment about the Chinese transfers, I take note that Bush Sr and now his son GW Bush have not taken actions to more thoroughly investigate and prosecute those implicated by the COX report and others in the USG and Congress with respect to nuke transfers (including neutron bomb tech) to China. In fact GW Bush has gone out of his wsy to say that he would "move on" when it came to illegal tech transfers with China. To me it is irresponsible and criminally negligent for the Bushes not to have taken more decisive action to investigate, prosecute and alter US-Chinese relations given the severity of loss of US nuke technology to China.
I do not overlook what I believe was the treason of former President HW Bush for his arranging the transfer of neutron bomb tech to CHina and weapons of mass destruction to Iraq before the Gulf War (FACT) just because GW Bush happens to be popular and a Republican. I am a conservative Republican Christian like Alan Keyes who has also voiced strong criticisms of both Bushes ( I did not vote for Keyes and I have been voicing my position on Bush long before I ever knew of Keyes opinions)
The fact that Clinton was guilty of transgressions as bad or even possibly worse than Former President Bush does not excuse Bush's senior's treason. In fact I believe that Clinton and Bush cooperated heavily with each other with respect to coverup of their illegal China & Iraq policies and illegal tech transfers to China & Iraq.
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