People may think Al-Qaeda is stupid to say this, including my fellow Chinese, but I think they are not. Besides catching eyeballs, I suppose they intend to stir Xinjiang waters, to call (more) diehard Uyghur separatists to stand in line with them. Some already lodged at Guantanamo. To some extent we need take them seriously.
Some people talked about unfriendliness towards Muslims in China. I don't know on what basis this conclusion is drawn. I dont know if you'll get shocked to know that more than 20 millions Muslims live in China, spanning a score of ethnic groups and around whole Chinese territory. Among them Uyghur is not even the biggest Muslim community. In most big Chinese universities, canteens supply foods for Muslim students exclusively.
Across my life I have many classmates that I never realized they are not like me, for this I mean they are not Han people, until they told me they are Muslims. Since they dont live in centralized Muslim inhabitant areas, instead they scattered in many (possibly all of) cities, they dont abide by their religion and traditions too seriously. I trust if we count people like them in, the Muslim population in China could be much larger.
So saying China is not friendly to Muslim is, per se, clueless and meaningless, since more than 20 million Chinese are Muslims.
And people (obviously not my fellow Chinese people) like to pontificate that there is no religion freedom in China. Once again I have no idea on what basis this conclusion is drawn.
My mother believes in Buddhism, along with many of my village members, she goes on pilgrimage to one of the most famous buddhist temple frequently, and to other small temples occasionally.
To some extent, most Chinese believes in Buddhism since Buddhism is in fact ingrained in Chinese culture, more as a philosophy than a religion, along with Confucianism and Taoism. I myself like to read Buddhist books, Taoist books, and I read many books about Christianity and Islam.
One of my grandmother believes in Christianity, and one of my primary school teacher is local priest. Though not many, there are still many believing in Christianity even in small area around my home village.
I never see anyone has interest to intervene in their beliefs and actions.
Traditionally and currently China is not a religious country.China is always a mundane society and mundane culture. Spiritual life of Chinese is different from people from truly religious countries. That's it and that's all.
In fact in the history China had many religions like even Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Most of them faded away naturally owing to lack of believers not under duress.
To judge and blame other countries and other people is a job too easy. My opinion is before knowing enough, don't make judgement. That's easily too biased and nonobjective, if not very stupid.
You may get embarrassed through embarrassing others.
Some people talked about unfriendliness towards Muslims in China. I don't know on what basis this conclusion is drawn. I dont know if you'll get shocked to know that more than 20 millions Muslims live in China, spanning a score of ethnic groups and around whole Chinese territory. Among them Uyghur is not even the biggest Muslim community. In most big Chinese universities, canteens supply foods for Muslim students exclusively.
Across my life I have many classmates that I never realized they are not like me, for this I mean they are not Han people, until they told me they are Muslims. Since they dont live in centralized Muslim inhabitant areas, instead they scattered in many (possibly all of) cities, they dont abide by their religion and traditions too seriously. I trust if we count people like them in, the Muslim population in China could be much larger.
So saying China is not friendly to Muslim is, per se, clueless and meaningless, since more than 20 million Chinese are Muslims.
And people (obviously not my fellow Chinese people) like to pontificate that there is no religion freedom in China. Once again I have no idea on what basis this conclusion is drawn.
My mother believes in Buddhism, along with many of my village members, she goes on pilgrimage to one of the most famous buddhist temple frequently, and to other small temples occasionally.
To some extent, most Chinese believes in Buddhism since Buddhism is in fact ingrained in Chinese culture, more as a philosophy than a religion, along with Confucianism and Taoism. I myself like to read Buddhist books, Taoist books, and I read many books about Christianity and Islam.
One of my grandmother believes in Christianity, and one of my primary school teacher is local priest. Though not many, there are still many believing in Christianity even in small area around my home village.
I never see anyone has interest to intervene in their beliefs and actions.
Traditionally and currently China is not a religious country.China is always a mundane society and mundane culture. Spiritual life of Chinese is different from people from truly religious countries. That's it and that's all.
In fact in the history China had many religions like even Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Most of them faded away naturally owing to lack of believers not under duress.
To judge and blame other countries and other people is a job too easy. My opinion is before knowing enough, don't make judgement. That's easily too biased and nonobjective, if not very stupid.
You may get embarrassed through embarrassing others.