#7

"America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

-Barack Obama

When faced with the topic of the global spread of Islam, one immediately may conjure up beliefs of war and forced conversions. Now it may be true to a certain extent that Islam was spread martially with the rise of certain empires, but this is not true for the entire sphere of Muslim thought. In many regions, China being one, Islam was spread through knowledge and peaceful trade.

If we look at modern China we will notice that the majority of Chinese Muslims (the Uyghur & Hui) live in the western and northwestern parts of the country, particularly Xinjiang. What does this imply about the history of Islam in China? Surely it must imply that Islam was introduced to the country by the merchants and missionaries traveling from Central Asia.

It is a Chinese Muslim legend that Islam was first introduced to China as early as 650 C.E. when the uncle of the prophet Muhammad sent an official envoy to the Chinese Emperor. Now the validity of this statement will forever be uncertain due to a lack of evidence. It is unfortunate that the early Chinese were so negative of foreigners as now we are left with hardly any information on Islam in China before the 17th century.

Of the information we are left with we can notice that it was not always very easy for Muslims to mix into regular society. At first they were segregated in their own port towns. At first they were not culturally assimilated either maintaining Arabic and Persian as vernacular. The Mongol founded Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) saw them gain more freedom and power. The Mongols even went as far as giving them elevated status over the ethnic Han majority. Finally Chinese Muslims could work for the government and gain higher incomes.

It now would appear that this Chinese minority was finally assimilating culturally into society, by adopting Chinese dialects and names, but just as the kinship of China was regularly changing, so were Chinese-Muslim relations. By the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Muslims were faced with many problems. Many of their cultural and religious practices were outlawed such as their ritual animal slaughter and pilgrimage to Mecca.

This oppressive rule was put to an end after the fall of the Qing Dynasty by Sun Yat Sen, but just as soon as things were looking to clear up, the Communist Cultural Revolution occured and Muslims were once again targets of abuse. Mosques were destroyed and citizens murdered. As we move to our modern time we can notice that since the 80s the Communist government has relaxed its policies towards the Muslims and there is a Islamic revival taking place.

As with other regions of recent Islamic upsurge, many wrongful actors present themselves such as terrorist organizations promoting war and separatism. Some of this is occuring currently in Xinjiang by the purpotrators of the alleged East Turkestan independance movement. Calls for the Muslim-majority areas of Xinjiang to be allowed sovereignty from the rest of the nation have caused ethnic tensions in the region.

Though at times sad, the Islamic history of China is very diverse and expansive. When referring to Global Islamic history in general, one can notice that China is in fact one of its largest contributors. Though only 1-2% of the national population, there are around 20 million Muslims in China, making it one of the top 20 nations with the highest populations of Muslims. Islam is constantly growing in China and its future seems bright.