Ramadan Crackdown & the use of Terminology: Chinese Muslim vs. Uiygar vs. Hui vs. Han Muslim

Before delving into the issue regarding Ramadan restrictions in Xinjiang I wanted to clarify some terminology which most people outside of China get wrong. Thus for example the media often uses the term “Chinese Muslims” as if there is a monolith of 25 million people in China, or when the media announcs the restrictions on [...]

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Islamic Chinese Wallpapers Galore!

Here are a few Islamic wallpapers with Chinese themes that I created recently. The map of the China is present in all the three wallpapers and the first two also have the name of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Chinese. You can click on the images to see the full scale wallpapers. [...]

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Chinese Origin of Paper Money in the Islamic World

Paper money was first invented in China in the 13th century and soon made its way to Islamic world. In both of these places it did not survive for long. Paper money was first introduced in the Islamic world by the Mongol ruler Gaykhatu of the Il-Khan dynasty who ruled the present day Iran, Iraq [...]

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Chinese top political advisor calls for prosperity in Muslim region

A recent news story from Xinhua
BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese top political advisor Jia Qinglin called for prosperity in the northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Monday.
Jia, chairman of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks when deliberating the government work report [...]

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Xiao’erjing: Chinese Language in Arabic Script

Xiao’erjing 小儿经/小儿锦 is the name given to the Arabic script when it is used to write any of the Chinese Languages by Chinese Muslims of different ethnicities and also by the Dungan (descendants of Chinese Muslims in Central Asia). The Dungans were however forced by the Soviets to convert to the Cyrillic script. Xiao’erjing should [...]

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Sheikh Liu Zhi on Gender Equality in Islam

Here are a few sayings of the Chinese Muslim scholar Sheikh Liu Zhi on Gender Sheikh Liu Zhi excerpted from The History of Women’s Mosques in Chinese Islam by Maria Jaschok.
“… parents follow God’s will when they bring children into the world, is this not the case? So all children should be treated in the [...]

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Jonathan Lipman on Chinese Muslims

For a change, I will be occasionally talking about academia’s take on Chinese Muslims and Islam in China. One person who occasionally has written about Islam is Jonathan Lipman who is a professor at Mount Holyoke College in Boston South Hadley, Massachusetts. He is also the author of the book Familiar Strangers: A History [...]

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