Islam with Chinese characteristics

[Randy W]

in the Global Times

 

Muslims must practice Islam with Chinese characteristics

 

 

As a result of complicated and ever-changing religious dynamics around the world, Islam in China has prompted concerns that should not be ignored, such as Chinese mosques conspicuously imitating foreign architecture and some areas mass-adopting the concept of halal.

Yang Faming, who heads the China Islamic Association, made the remark on Saturday during the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held in Beijing.

"Religion interferes with the secular lives of the people, with some people paying more attention to religion than to national laws, whom solely label themselves as believers not [Chinese] citizens," Yang said.

Overemphasis on religious ways of life would cause religion to expand into other social spheres, including secular society, and eventually lead one group to separate from the rest of society, Shen Guiping, a religious expert at the Central Institute of Socialism, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"It would be a public problem by then and result in societal division," Shen said.

When religious Chinese people strictly follow the Islam that originated in the Middle East without sinicizing it, the types of doctrines stemming from this form of Islam challenge China's national laws, Shen added.