Does China fear Islam? Beijing orders Arabic signs, Muslim symbols to be taken down. Why is it so scared?
China apparently wants to erase all traces of Islamic culture and Muslim identity from its public spaces. But that's not how a vibrant and self-confident power should be.
China is busy ‘Sinicizing’ its population of over 138.64 crore people, which means they are being made one — in character and in form. As part of that project, authorities in the Chinese capital have ordered halal restaurants and food stalls to remove the Arabic script and symbols associated with Islam from their signs.
According to a Reuters report, the staff of at least 11 restaurants and shops in Beijing have been told to remove images associated with Islam.
While China claims to provide freedom of religion to all its citizens, including its 20 million Muslims, the government has been trying to bring the faithful to fall in line with the ideology of the Communist Party.
Chen Quanguo has been at the forefront of driving this policy — Chen, who was reportedly responsible for a security clampdown in his prior post in Tibet, is now leading the charge on this ‘Sinicizing’ project.
China has stated no clear reason for its newest directive. The country hardly cares to spell out reasons behind policies, thereby closing the doors for dialogue.
Reuters quoted Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Washington, who studies Xinjiang, to explain what could be the reason behind the move. “Arabic is seen as a foreign language and knowledge of it is now seen as something outside of the control of the state... They want Islam in China to operate primarily through Chinese language,” Byler told Reuters.
But how will cultures grow and evolve without interacting with other cultures?
China has shown an increasing intolerance towards its Muslim population. The recent incident is just one of its manifestations. The country is running notorious detention centres that it euphemistically calls 're-education camps'. Chen is believed to be the mastermind behind these centres. A vast majority of these camps are running across the Xinjiang region. When international condemnation around the detentions grew, China reacted by announcing a mass release of inmates.
There, however, exists no credible proof on the ground that such a release indeed took place.
Muslims have come in for particular attention from the Chinese state authorities since the 2009 riots between mostly Muslim Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese in the far western region of Xinjiang — home to the Uighur minority.
Given China’s growing international influence and economic ties with West Asia, there has been very little outcry about this war on Islam.
Islamic countries, such as Pakistan that are dependent on China for financial aid, have never spoken out against the atrocities. Pakistan PM Imran Khan, in fact, feigned ignorance when asked about the issue.
But voices of dissent are rising nevertheless from within China, drawing the country towards a stricter clampdown on Uighurs and Muslims across the country.
Zha Xi, an official from the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, said, “Currently, our country’s halal food regulation is managed locally, every local government’s relevant department administers it according to the local dietary habits and customs.”
The problem is that a government has no business telling people what language they should read, write or put up sign boards in.
China’s bid to ‘Sinicize’ would end up alienating it from the rest of the world globally. History is proof to the fact that such civilisations eventually wind down to an end, isolated and bereft of fresh intellectual and cultural energy, becoming in fact a lesson for others on how to not run a country.
China must read this writing on the wall — in whichever language it wants to.