Bad news in China

Hui Muslim farmers threshing wheat

In today's economically vibrant and politically self-confident China bad news is no news, unless it is really bad. So, things must have gone really badly for China's official news agency to report ethnic clashes in the central province of Henan, where martial law has been imposed. It may take weeks for the full picture of the incidents, in which 10 people were killed and scores injured, to be pieced together. Beijing's decision to declare the province off-limit for foreign journalists is not going to help.

What seems certain is that a group of farmers from the majority Han ethnic community, attacked the villages of the Hui Muslims minority, setting fire to homes, farms and shops. A series of battles ensued in which rival gangs used farm equipment as weapons. The Hui Muslims in Henan have been victims of persecution for centuries. During the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, triggered by Mao Zedong in the 1960s, Muslims were forced to abandon their faith, were prevented from performing religious rites, and press-ganged into Communist Party "correction" centers. During the darkest days of the Cultural Revolution, with the printing and possession of the Qu'ran made a capital crime, Muslims learned the text by heart, each man or woman specializing in one or more surahs. Called "the walking texts", they were in great demand for secret religious ceremonies.

The city of Xian, a major Islamic center for over 1,000 years, and the starting point of the famous Silk Road, was, for more than a decade, treated by Maoist zealots as enemy territory.

It is only in recent years that China has acknowledged the existence of Muslims among its citizens. But even then every effort is made to keep Muslims at bay. Official statistics put their number at around 10 million whereas most experts offer an estimate of 50 million. Muslims are discriminated against when it comes to the better jobs created since China's conversion to economic capitalism. Muslims have virtually no presence in the ruling Communist Party that has been transformed into a political and business elite in recent years. And that means that one finds hardly any Muslim in the civil service or the leadership echelons of the armed forces. In areas such as the far west province of Xinjiang, or East Turkestan, where Muslims still form a majority, Beijing is trying to alter the demographic balance by bringing in large numbers of Han settlers. Restrictions are also imposed on the building of mosques, the creation of religious schools, and the training of Muslim religious leaders. The more radical Chinese leaders have seized upon the global trend in which Islam is often equated with violence and terrorism as an excuse for repressive policies vis-a-vis ordinary Muslim citizens.

The new Chinese ruling elite, although Communist by provenance if not by persuasion, has been intelligent enough to understand the inevitability of diversity in a large and multiethnic society. Mao's nightmare of a dream to turn all citizens into robots waving his red book and singing his praises produced nothing but tragedy on an unprecedented scale. New China is blossoming because it has allowed a measure of economic liberty and diversity. It should go further and also allow religious, cultural, and ethnic freedom for all its citizens, including Muslims.

Arab News