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In China, minorities are not a minor issue
Palatial: The museum inside the China Hui Culture Park in YinchuanThe Chinese government recently invited representatives of several think-tanks and journalists, including The Jakarta Postâs Dwi Atmanta and Ina Parlina to visit Beijing, Yinchuan and Guangzhou to observe the life of minority Muslims and to observe development in the autonomous region of Ningxia
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Palatial: The museum inside the China Hui Culture Park in Yinchuan
The Chinese government recently invited representatives of several think-tanks and journalists, including The Jakarta Post's Dwi Atmanta and Ina Parlina to visit Beijing, Yinchuan and Guangzhou to observe the life of minority Muslims and to observe development in the autonomous region of Ningxia. The following are their reports.
On the road: A Muslim Hui man speeds off on his motorbike outside the Najiahu Mosque. JP/Ina Parlina
A board showing pictures of 28 senior residents who have performed the haj pilgrimage stands at a park at the village gate.
Sixty-eight families comprising 620 people from the Hui ethnic group live in the village, which last year was renovated under a government program devoted to the minority group.
Residents are Muslim Chinese, who make up nearly 36 percent of Ningxia's population of 6.4 million.
At a glance, there are no differences between the Hui and the majority Han Chinese. Members of both groups speak and write Chinese, wear Chinese attire and celebrate the Lunar New Year.
'We live in coexistence with the Han people here,' says 41-year-old Hui Muslim Guo Zhanwu, a farmer who now rents his land to others.
He is of the third generation of his family to live in the village, sharing his house with his parents.
Guo says that as a member of a minority group, he has never endured discrimination. Hui Muslims are different from the Han only in habits, marriage traditions and diet, he says.
There are also several privileges, he adds. Hui Muslims are one of 56 ethnic minorities exempt from the government's one-child family planning policy.
He has three children: two daughters, 17 and 12, and a 5-year-old son.
The Chinese government recognizes religious freedom, allowing the nation's more-than 1.3 billion people, including an estimated 23 million Muslims, to profess a faith as long as it is in line with the law ' although limitations have also been reported in some areas.
Mosques boasting either Middle Eastern or Chinese architecture dot Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, and its surroundings. A six-century-old mosque in Tongxin county in Wuzhong has even been named a national cultural heritage site.
Ningxia has special autonomy, allowing the introduction of several preferential policies for the Hui Muslims, including those related to boosting the local economy.
The government here has declared Idul Fitri a holiday, established graveyards for Muslims and allowed the Hui to appoint their own governors.
Wang Yuzhen, a Han Chinese woman working at WanTini, a family-run Muslim clothing factory in Wuzhong, says religious tolerance is evident in the factory, as well as the city.
'It's very pleasant to work here, where we interact like a family. We have lunch together in the factory's kitchen, which serves Muslim food,' says Wang.
The factory, which exports its products to Egypt, Malaysia and Pa-kistan, employs more than 60 people, including about 30 Han Chinese.
'We coexist very, very, well. There is no difference, except for our habits,' says Wang, who lives in the city. She earns more than RMB 2,000 per month, higher than the standard living cost of RMB 1,500 in the city.
Yang Faxiang, the owner of WanTini, says that as part of a minority group he bought land for his factory in 1998 at a quarter of the normal price.
Ma Changbing, an official of Wuzhong city, says that the Hui and Han live in harmony in the city and have not been affected by the recent attacks in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, home to a Muslim community in China's far west.
The government has blamed the violence on extremists aspiring for independence, while the Uyghurs say that restrictions on their faith have fueled anger at the Han.
'We live in unity here and [such incidents] do not concern us, because we are among those demonstration zones, ' Ma says.
For Yang Wenyuan, Muslims should refrain from violence, as Islam teaches peaceful coexistence. He condemns the attacks in Xinjiang, which he says were perpetrated by terrorists.
'For me ethnic unity is the key to China's progress,' says Yang, who also uses his Islamic name, Sulaiman.
In Yongning, Muslims also say that live in peace with other ethnic groups, facing no restrictions in performing their religious duties.
'It's easy to express our religious belief here,' says Ma Yuefang, 70, on a visit to Najiahu Grand Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in China built in traditional Han style.
According to Ma, men come to the mosque to pray, while most women pray at home. However, a group of 20 to 30 women sometimes pray and recite the Koran at a separate hall in the mosque's compound.
An official of the mosque, Ding Yaoxian, says on normal day about 300 people visit and pray at the mosque, a figure that can swell to 1,000 on Fridays.
Jin Chunzi, the deputy director general at the Department of Policies and Laws at State Ethnic Affairs Commission, says protection of minorities, including Muslims, is the constitutional mandate of the Chinese government.
Preferential policies for the minorities were introduced to keep the national unity of the world's most populous country.
'We practice three main principles with regard to relationship between the majority and minority groups. First is equality among Chinese nationals. Second is respect and protection of religious groups, believes and minority groups. Third is assistance for minority groups and those who are backward to develop,' she says.
She says her office has drafted laws and regulations to protect minorities and their religious beliefs in accordance with UN treaties on the protection of minority and indigenous rights.
For China, minorities are not a minor issue. As an old Chinese saying goes, minorities cannot live without the majority, the majority cannot live without the minorities and minorities cannot live without fellow minorities.
