Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak to everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to the readers in USA.

(Image Source: Astiak)

6th Brass Crescent Awards

Voting for the 6th Brass Crescent Awards has started and just like last year, this blog has been nominated as the blog in the Asian Blogs category. Jazakallah for nominating this blog. You can vote for your favorite blog in this and other categories at the following URL:

http://brasscrescent.org

“First Muslim Minority” Thinking considered harmful

Sometimes I get the impression that all this discussion about fiqh of minority and Muslims living in non-Muslim lands is extremely short sighted especially in USA. It seems to be predicated on the unstated premise that Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim majority countries is an unprecedented and new phenomenon and thus we have to address questions related to this phenomenon afresh as if there are no precedents. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While it is true that Muslims voluntarily leaving Muslim majority countries en masse and settling non-Muslim majority countries is a relatively new phenomenon which does not have many precedents before the 1950s, Muslims have lived in non-Muslim majority countries and have discussed questions of fiqh that we think are relevant to the situation in American Muslims before. Thus consider the following non-Muslim majority countries and how long have Muslims lived there as minorities.

China: 1350+ years
Russia: 500+ years (I am considering the time after when the fall of the Golden Horde.)
Mongolia: 750+ years

The point is that Muslims have not lived in these countries for hundreds of years without encountering or discussing some of the issues that are being discussed amongst American Muslims e.g., working in the army, relations with other religions, family related issues etc. Thus Muslims have lived in China for almost as long as the advent of Islam. There is even evidence that Muslims were employed in the service of the Chinese Emperor even as far back as the time of the Abbasids. The greatest Chinese admiral Zheng He was a Muslim. At this moment if anyone is thinking about raising any argument about Communists then let me point out that Communists are a recent phenomenon and Muslims have lived peacefully under many dynasties in China. Just because scholars in Muslim majority countries have historically have had a certain opinion about al wala and al bara does not mean that all scholars have had such an opinion. One of the reasons for this post was the discussion going on here and here. Without taking any sides in the debate I will just state that one of the arguments that people are making is that Muslims have had such an opinion for hundreds of years. While I am disputing this I would like to point out that there is another set of Muslims who have had a different opinion also for hundreds of years. Just because they lived hundreds of miles from the centers of Muslim power does not mean that their opinion is any less valid. Just because Muslims in the Middle East have historically envisioned dar-ul-Islam in a certain way (which makes sense given that the European were less than amicable towards Muslims in the Middle Ages) does not mean that Muslims in China have also done so in a similar manner.

To summarize, the point is that Muslims living in these areas have had such debates that we are having now in America, they have lived their lives as peaceful and pious Muslims. Trying to reinvent the wheel or overly relying on Muslim scholars from Muslim majority countries who almost no idea about living in non-Muslim majority countries is borderline arrogant.

Blog of a Chinese American Muslim

Amir Khalid or Anke Jiang (蒋安可) is a Chinese American Muslim who blogs at “Allah is in China”  (http://allahisinchina.wordpress.com). Here is an excerpt from one of his blog posts on Ramadan.

I fasted today, tightening the notches of my belt from sunrise to sunset, abstaining from any food throughout the entire day. Unlike most Muslims I admit I did consume water, but only because my health obliged me to. Nonetheless, I did get a feeling of what Ramadan is supposed to be. The holy month is a time of reflection, remembrance, and charity. As my belly ached for long hours, I thought of the people around the world who don’t have the things I have, things like a comfortable home, leisurely activites, indoor plumbing, fresh food, or even running water. I thought of all the hardships of my life, labouring day-by-day to reach my next paycheck. Never had I thought before of the people who labour day-by-day just to reach the next tomorrow. As I said my five prayers, I remembered them and prayed for them, yearning for my chance to help such people. Thank God for Ramadan. Never had I thought my own hunger could fuel my hunger for charity.

P.S: I will be at Northwestern University for the weekend, if anyone around Evanston wants to meet up, drop me a line at wangdaiyu at gmail.

The Chinese Islamic Root Islamic in Arabic!

Tianfang Xingli is considered to be a classic islamic text in the Chinese language. It is divided into three parts and one of the parts is known as the Root classic. Recently I was surprised to find out that the Root Classic was translated into Arabic in 1898 by a Chinese Muslim scholar Ma Lianyuan also known as Abd al Hakim al Hajj al-Sayyid Muhammad Nur al-Haqq ibn al-Sayyid Luqman al-Sini. It was published in the Yunnan province as Al’Lataif (The subtleties). What is even more fascinating is that an Arabic commentary on the Root classic by the same author was published in Kanpur in India in 1902. This just makes me wonder how many other Chinese Islamic texts or their commentaries have been translated into Arabic, Persian or other lanuages spoken by large number of Muslims.

Brass Cresent Awards 2009

Alright folks, its that time of the year. Brass Crescent awards are upon us. You have until this Friday to cast your vote for your faviorite Muslim blogs. Here is the URL:

http://www.brasscrescent.org/

Change in Beijing’s Muslim Population Over Time (1959-2000)

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I would be posting quantiative data about Muslims in Beijing. (This of it as a Razib style post.) The table below shows changes in Hui Muslim population over time. The source of information is the same as before (Beijing’s Hui Muslim Community). One can definitely see some general trends e.g., while the Muslim population has increased by 75,000 in terms of absolute numbers but its percentage of the overall population has declined. Many districts show a decline in Muslim population, Chaoyang, Haidian and Fengtai are exceptions though. Another interesting thing is that if we compare the absolute numbers of many districts in 1959 nad 2000 then the numbers are more or less the same. Since these numbers should increase by natural birthrate then this actually means a relative decline because of migration.

District	1959	1964	1977	1982	1990	2000
Dongcheng	15,141	17,468	16,059	19,488	17,845	15,035
Xicheng	16,884	19,089	18,344	21,470	20,510	18,202
Chongwen	9,535	11,525	10,582	12,789	11,720	8,350
Xuanwu	28,024	31,442	28,014	32,102	31,090	27,668
Chaoyang	15,915	18,754	22,175	27,037	36,108	50,185
Haidian	8,467	10,567	10,228	14,037	20,702	28,981
Fengtai	5,720	5,082	5,424	6,880	11,200	21,563
Shijingshan		1,462	1,736	2,247	3,322	5,145
Mentougou	716	1,165	1,009	1,089	891	767
Yanshan				893
Hui Population	100,402	116,554	113,571	138,032	153,388	175,896
% of Beijing’s	2.35	2.49	2.40	2.47	2.33	2.04

 Given below is the same data but in a graphical form to make comparison between different districts and eras more comprehensible.

Arabization in Xi’an

I was reading an article about Fashion amongst Chinese Muslims when I came across the following paragraph which I found particularly striking. It talks about the phenomenon of Arabization amongst some Hui in China. It is basically the confusion amongst some people of equating being a better Muslim with adopting Arab cultural norms.

When Lanlan had her hijab made in 1999, Xi’an Muslims no longer called this kind of veil “gaitou.” Their new name was shajin or “Saudi kerchief.” Over the next five years, the number of women wearing Arab style headscarves increased slowly but steadily. When I revisited the Xi’an Muslim district in September of 2004, the young women who covered their heads almost all wore “Saudi kerchiefs.” Veils were almost as common as white caps among women who chose to cover their heads. One reason that helps explain why more Xi’an Muslims were wearing the Saudi headscarf was the increase in the number of locals who made the pilgrimage. Between 1994 and 2000 the number of pilgrims from the Muslim district doubled, and the numbers have continued to rise each year. Imitating the costume, architecture, and eating practices of Arab Muslims has become an important way for local Hui to show their authenticity as Muslims. The Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, carries a special significance as the originating point of Islam, and many locals conflate contemporary Arab practices with the Islam practised by the Prophet. Xi’an Muslims also admire the prosperity and technological advancement of Saudi Arabia. Locals who made the pilgrimage came home with tales of six lane highways, skyscrapers, and air-conditioned tents.

Wang Daiyu in Emel!

Emel, the Muslim lifestyle magazine has a feature on Muslim bloggers in their current issue. I am also featured in that feature. Be sure to check it out if you have access to the print edition. The URL of the magazine is as follows:

http://www.emel.com

Hui Muslims in Beijing in 1928

I am currently reading “The Development and Decline of Beijng’s Hui Muslim Communitty” by Zhou Chuanbin and Ma Xuefeng. It has a some statistical data on the history of the Muslim community in Beijing. I will be posting this info here from time to time. Here is  the first post.

According to the 1928 Chinese census there were 36,678 Hui Muslims in Beijing which translates into 2.76% of the total population. Here is the population breakdown by districts.

Inner District	% Hui	Outer District	% Hui	Suburb	% Hui
1	1.82	1	1.27	Eastern	3.51
2	1.95	2	1.44	Western	1.65
3	2.23	3	3.94	Southern	0.59
4	1.37	4	14.27	Northern	3.44
5	1.27	5	1.76
6	0.96

From the table above it is clear that Muslims were distributed in all the neighborhoods of Beijing but were especially concentrated in Outer District 4. This is where Ox Street is located so this makes sense. Nearly half of the Muslims settled in the Outer district. Another fact which is not appearent from this data is that Muslim in general tended to live close to the Mosques.