China toughens up against Islam

Large parts of the population living in Xinjiang province have become radicalised and the Chinese Government is only now realising the gravity of the situation.
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Making China’s State policy of intolerance towards Pan-islamic tendencies very clear, President Xi warned Chinese citizens “not to confuse themselves with non-CCP approved tendencies“ and to “never find their values and beliefs in this religion or any religion.“ Communist Party Officials strongly backed President Xi’s statements and cautioned citizens to be vigilant against Islamic tendencies like Halal products. They made it clear that Halal products will remain banned in China as these “promote religious segregation.“
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China has already declared 2016 as the “Year of Ethnic Unity and Progress”, a move aimed squarely at ridding the nation of Islamic influences.
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In Xinjiang, there is already considerable resentment over the control being exercised over the practise of Islam, such as the growing of beards, observation of fasts during Ramazan, the wearing of the Hijab, dietary restrictions like consumption of Halal food, prayers five times a day and so forth. These practises are perceived as “anti-state“ and are the subject of crackdown by the authorities.

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The emergence of social media has changed everything. Recently, some netizens have been expressing dissatisfaction, in some cases quite aggressively, with China’s supposedly “soft” policy toward its Muslim population. Some netizens even took to humiliating and insulting Muslims in China and the Middle East. This anti-Muslim sentiment found on social media poses new challenges for China’s regulators tackling ethnic and religious issues.
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In addition to events overseas, however, China’s domestic policy has also been responsible for the hostility toward Muslims online. As was mentioned earlier, China has been trying to maintain the cohesion between different ethnic groups and religions over several decades, but this has now sparked a backlash on the social media.

For example, China is building large numbers of mosques in its western region, and construction has even extended to Shenzhen, a developed city on the east coast. Some Muslim communities in the western region have started learning Arabic at school, and road signs now have Arabic along with Chinese. Some Muslim women in China have adopted the wearing of the hijab or even black burqas. The spread of visually identifiable signs of Muslim identity has led to criticism online. Some netizens blame these changes on China’s misguided ethnic and religious policy; some even went so far as to compare Beijing’s policy toward Muslims to the appeasement of the Nazis before World War II. They believe if this tendency is not curbed, the Han Chinese position as China’s dominant ethnic group will be at stake.

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