Chinese Philosophies & Religions --- Islam

Islam came to China mainly from Central Asia, where it was practiced by many of the Turkic peoples. Today, there are believed to be more than 4 million Chinese Muslims. One autonomous region, Ningxia Huizu, has been designated for Islamic adherents.

This unusual mixture of Islamic religious practice, ancient Chinese culture and modern Communist dedication may seem incongruous at first. But Islam, in fact, has been practiced in China since the seventh century when Arab traders, riding the monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean began to introduce the new faith in the coastal cities of China. In the next 200 years, Islam spread through the interior as other Muslim traders traveled along the old Silk Road. Today, it is the religion of 10 of China's 55 minority nationalities: the Uighur, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Uzbek, Tatar and Sala, all Turkic peoples; Tungxiang and Paoan, of Mongol origins; the Iranian Tajik; and the Chinese Hui.

Government statistics for these minorities add up to about 14 million people but some unofficial outside tallies put the Muslim population of China much higher. While figures of all religious minorities in China are somewhat questionable since they are usually computed based on ethnic origin rather than religious affiliation, there is no doubt there is a substantial Muslim population in China.

In the Xinjiang region which covers 16 percent of the total land area of China, Muslims now hold a majority of government posts. Four of the seven members of the regional government and 26 of the 37 members of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Xinjiang are members of national minorities who mostly practice Islam.

Muslims, most of whom are farmers or herdsmen, seem to be prospering economically too since the Chinese government introduced more liberal agricultural policies and stepped up industrial investment in the under-developed , and relatively autonomous, outlying areas where they live. Capital investment by the central government in such autonomous regions including the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region has totaled about $9.2 billion since 1978 and in 1983, when agricultural production peaked in China, farmers in the autonomous regions produced 39.7 million tons of grain and 180 million head of livestock.
The result of this increased prosperity was dearly visible last summer at Turpan, where Muslim farmers said they earned far more than the average city dweller and the sight of motorcycles parked in the vine shaded courtyards of their walled, mudbrick homes wrung looks of envy from visitors from Beijing.