Islamophobia in China

Islamophobia in China refers to the set of discourses, behaviors and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in China.^[1][2]

A Han Chinese man holding a self-defense weapon during the July 2009 Ürümqi riots

Negative views and attitudes towards Muslims in China are widespread, and some Muslim communities in China face legal restrictions on their ability to practice.^[3] Muslim prisoners in detention centers and internment camps have faced practices such as being force-fed pork.^[4] Prohibitions on fasting during Ramadan are couched in terms of protecting residents' free will.^[5]

In the 21st century, coverage of Muslims in Chinese media has generally been negative,^[6] and Islamophobic content is widespread on Chinese social media.^[7] Anti-Muslim attitudes in China have been tied to both narratives regarding historical conflicts between China and Muslim polities as well as contemporary rhetoric related to terrorism in China and abroad.^[8][9]

History

See also: Antireligious campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party, Persecution of Uyghurs in China, and History of Islam in China

Recent scholars contend that historical conflicts between the Han Chinese and Muslims like the Northwest Hui Rebellion have been used by some Han Chinese to legitimize and fuel anti-Muslim beliefs and bias in contemporary China.^[8][10] Scholars and researchers have also argued that Western Islamophobia and the "War on Terror" have contributed to the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim sentiments and practices in China.^[11][12][13]

Middle Easterners in China interviewed by the Middle East Institute in 2018 generally did not report discrimination. However, a Yemeni student said that he received unfavorable reactions from some Chinese when he stated he was a Muslim.^[14]

It has been reported that Muslims were being forced to eat pork in detention centers and in the Xinjiang internment camps.^[4] Since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, campaigns against Islam have extended to the Hui people and Utsul community in Hainan.^{[15][16][17][3]} In 2023, NPR reported on ways that the Chinese government is actively preventing Chinese Muslim from going on the Hajj such as confiscation of passports.^[18]

News coverage

 

Mosque with dome removed due to Sinicization policy

Traditional media in China were used to be very cautious on the coverage of ethnic issues—particularly Muslim issues, to foster a positive environment both for solidarity among China's different ethnic groups and religions and China's diplomatic relations with Muslim countries. Starting in 2015, hostility towards Muslims and Islam surged after series of terrorist attacks and the emergence of the European refugee crisis.^[19] Some observers contend that although negative stereotypes about Muslims have long existed in China, a global rise of Islamophobia, the influence of fake news, and the actions of the Chinese government towards their Muslim minorities have exacerbated Islamophobia in the country.^[20]

US-based researchers Rose Luqiu and Fan Yang contend in The Washington Post that anti-Muslim sentiment has been spurred by Chinese news reports, which tend to portray Muslims as prone to terrorism, or as recipients of disproportionate aid from the government.^[21] A 2018 study by the two researchers found that Chinese news coverage of Muslims and Islam was generally negative. The study found that non-Muslim Chinese hold negative views towards Islam and Muslims, and that some Chinese Muslims report discrimination and awareness of negative portrayals of themselves in the media.^[6]

Online

The same two researchers analyzed over 10,000 posts on Weibo in 2019 relating to Islam and found that anti-Muslim sentiment was a common frame. Chinese Muslims users on the site reported that they faced challenges in attempting to have others understand their faith, due to the prevailing Han-centric discourse and government censorship.^[22]

In 2017, Gerry Shih of the Associated Press described Islamophobic rhetoric in online social media posts as due to perceived injustices regarding the Muslim minority advantages in college admissions and exemptions from family-size limits.^[7][23] In 2018, a South China Morning Post article similarly described online Islamophobia in China as "becoming increasingly widespread" particularly due to news of institutional preferential treatment for Muslim minorities and news of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang.^[24] A 2018 UCSD study of 77,642 posts from Tencent QQ suggested that online Islamophobia was especially concentrated in provinces with higher Muslim populations.^[25] An online movement against the spread of halal products in the country has also been reported.^[26][27]

According to Tony Lin of the Columbia Journalism Review, many users utilize popular sites like Weibo and WeChat to spread anti-Muslim fake news taken from western far-right media.^[28] He wrote that after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, the most liked comments under Chinese social media posts and various mainstream media sites covering the incident were explicitly anti-Muslim or in support of the shooter. However, he also wrote that the comments were not representative of the Chinese population.^[28] Other articles have reported on the more varied netizen responses to the mosque shootings.^[29][30][31]

See also

• History of Islam in China
• Islam in China (1912–present)
• History of Xinjiang
• Xinjiang conflict
• Xinjiang internment camps
• Persecution of Uyghurs in China
• List of Islamophobic incidents in China
• Shadian incident

Further reading

• "China's repression of Islam is spreading beyond Xinjiang". The Economist. 2019-09-26. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2019-11-10.

References

1. Richardson, Robin (2012), Islamophobia or anti-Muslim racism – or what? – concepts and terms revisited (PDF), p. 7, (PDF) from the original on 2016-10-25, retrieved 10 December 2016
2. Hogan, Linda; Lehrke, Dylan (2009). Religion and politics of Peace and Conflict. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 205. ISBN 9781556350672. from the original on 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
3. Baptista, Eduardo (2020-09-28). "Tiny Muslim community becomes latest target for China's religious crackdown". South China Morning Post. from the original on 2020-10-16. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
4. Regencia, Ted (4 December 2020). "Uighurs forced to eat pork as China expands Xinjiang pig farms". Al Jazeera. from the original on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
5. "What Ramadan is like in Xinjiang". The Economist. 11 April 2024. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
6. Luqiu, Luwei Rose; Yang, Fan (2018-03-28). "Islamophobia in China: news coverage, stereotypes, and Chinese Muslims' perceptions of themselves and Islam". Asian Journal of Communication. 28 (6): 598–619. doi:10.1080/01292986.2018.1457063. ISSN 0129-2986. S2CID 149462511. from the original on 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
7. Gerry Shih (2017-04-10). "Islamophobia in China on the rise fuelled by online hate speech". The Independent. Associated Press. from the original on 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
8. Qian, Jingyuan (2019-06-06). "Historical Ethnic Conflicts and the Rise of Islamophobia in Modern China". University of Wisconsin-Madison. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3450176. SSRN 3450176. from the original on 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2021-05-23. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
9. Myers, Steven Lee (2019-09-21). "A Crackdown on Islam Is Spreading Across China". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
10. Theaker, Hannah (2019-08-02). "Wounds that fester: Histories of Chinese Islamophobia". University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute. from the original on 2021-05-23. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
11. Hammond, Kelly Anne (24 May 2019). "The history of China's Muslims and what's behind their persecution". The Conversation. from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
12. Tazamal, Mobashra. "Chinese Islamophobia was made in the West". www.aljazeera.com. from the original on 2021-05-23. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
13. Brophy, David (2019-07-09). "Good and Bad Muslims in Xinjiang". Made in China Journal. from the original on 2021-04-20. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
14. Yellinek, Roie (10 April 2018). "Middle Eastern Students and Young Professionals in China: A Mutual Investment in the Future". Middle East Institute. from the original on 20 March 2022.
15. Myers, Steven Lee (2019-09-22). "A Crackdown on Islam Is Spreading Across China". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
16. Emily, Feng (September 26, 2019). "'Afraid We Will Become The Next Xinjiang': China's Hui Muslims Face Crackdown". NPR. from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
17. Feng, Emily (November 21, 2020). "China Targets Muslim Scholars And Writers With Increasingly Harsh Restrictions". NPR. from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
18. Feng, Emily (August 17, 2023). "China makes it harder for its Muslim citizens to go to Mecca, or anywhere else". NPR. from the original on August 18, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
19. Mu Chunshan (2016-09-13). "Anti-Muslim Sentiment Is Taking Over China's Social Media Scene". The Diplomat. from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
20. Johnson, Ian (2019-05-14). "Islamophobia in China". ChinaFile. from the original on 2021-01-15. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
21. Luqiu, Rose; Yang, Fan. "Analysis | Anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise in China. We found that the Internet fuels — and fights — this". Washington Post. from the original on 2019-02-26. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
22. Luqiu, Luwei Rose; Yang, Fan (2019-12-09). "Anti-muslim sentiment on social media in China and Chinese Muslims' reactions to hatred and misunderstanding". Chinese Journal of Communication. 13 (3): 258–274. doi:10.1080/17544750.2019.1699841. ISSN 1754-4750. S2CID 213492511. from the original on 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
23. Gerry Shih (2017-04-10). "Unfettered online hate speech fuels Islamophobia in China". AP NEWS. from the original on 2019-10-19. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
24. Laurie Chen (2018-10-25). "Chinese man jailed for Koran burning as Islamaphobia spreads online". South China Morning Post. from the original on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
25. Bailey Marsheck; Mark Wang (2018-09-25). "Islamophobia on Chinese Social Media". China Data Lab. UCSD. from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
26. Koetse, Manya (July 21, 2017). "The Anti "Halalification" Crusade of Chinese Netizens". What's on Weibo. from the original on 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
27. "China: The problem of growing anti-muslim sentiment". DW News. Jan 28, 2019. from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2020-12-03 – via Youtube.
28. Tony Lin (March 21, 2019). "After New Zealand massacre, Islamophobia spreads on Chinese social media". Columbia Journalism Review. from the original on 2019-10-17. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
29. Koetse, Manya (March 2019). "Chinese Netizens' Response to New Zealand Mosque Attacks". What's on Weibo. from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
30. Alice Su (2019-03-16). "The Christchurch shooter's manifesto praised China's values. That's sparking debate in China". Los Angeles Times. from the original on 2021-01-10. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
31. "Is Chinese media using the New Zealand mosque shooting as a political opportunity?". ABC News. March 18, 2019. from the original on 2020-11-27. Retrieved 2021-05-21.