Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CHENGDU100
2007-04-12 06:00:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

LOCAL RELIGIOUS FIGURES ON ISLAMIC RESURGENCE IN CHINA'S

Tags:  PGOV SOCI PHUM KIRF CH 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000100 

SIPDIS

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DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/12/2027
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM KIRF CH
SUBJECT: LOCAL RELIGIOUS FIGURES ON ISLAMIC RESURGENCE IN CHINA'S
YUNNAN PROVINCE

REF: A) CHENGDU 34 B) 06 CHIANG MAI 131

CHENGDU 00000100 001.2 OF 004


CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General , Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000100

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/12/2027
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM KIRF CH
SUBJECT: LOCAL RELIGIOUS FIGURES ON ISLAMIC RESURGENCE IN CHINA'S
YUNNAN PROVINCE

REF: A) CHENGDU 34 B) 06 CHIANG MAI 131

CHENGDU 00000100 001.2 OF 004


CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General , Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: During a series of informal discussions in
southern Yunnan Province along China's borders with Vietnam and
Laos, local Muslim leaders described with pride the resurgence
of Islam in their communities. A recently-completed mosque and
religious training school in Najiaying has attracted Muslims
from throughout the province, and, while mosque authorities are
not keen to advertise the fact, Arabic teachers from northwest
China as well as perhaps Pakistan and Thailand. According to a
Najiaying senior Koran recitation instructor, an ethnic Uighur
originally trained in Arabic in Xinjiang by a Saudi teacher,
Yunnan provincial officials in general take a far more relaxed
attitude towards religion than government authorities in
northwest China. In the small town of Shadian, site of a 1975
rebellion against the Communist Party, the largest mosque in
China is soon to be completed. A local Arabic instructor in
Shadian, recently returned from ten years of training in Saudi
Arabia and four in Pakistan, told CG he looks forward to working
with and guiding a new generation of believers. End Summary.


2. (C) CG and Congenoff made brief stops at the small towns of
Najiaying and Shadian, known for their historically predominant
Muslim populations, while on an April 1-7 road trip in southern
Yunnan to assess transportation infrastructure developments
along China's borders with Vietnam and Laos (to be reported in
septels). Yunnan Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) officials in the
provincial capital of Kunming cancelled at the last moment a
meeting we had requested with Najiaying's official Islamic
association, but indicated orally they had no objection to an
"informal" visit to the local mosque. Government officials did
not accompany us to any meetings or send along an obvious
"security escort" to shadow our vehicle.


-------------- --------------
Najiaying's New Mosque and School
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) Standing dominant over the center of Najiaying, a small
town of officially only 8,000 residents approximately 130
kilometers southeast of Kunming, the four-story, green-domed
mosque was completed in 2004 and has four minarets each
appearing to be about 100 feet in height. The entrance of the
mosque compound was decorated with quotations from Chinese
President Hu Jintao calling for "social harmony" and united
action against "splittism and extremism." A series of
photographs taken of students from the mosque's religious school
participating in a military reserve training program were also
displayed on a large bulletin board in front of the mosque. The
students were flanked in the photographs by People's Liberation
Army (PLA) noncommissioned officers as well as local religious
leaders. Female students in camouflage uniforms and matching
headscarves appeared in separate photographs.


4. (SBU) Wandering between the mosque and its religious school
located in a separate neighboring building, we introduced
ourselves to an elderly man who turned out to be a senior local
member of the official Islamic Association. He volunteered to
escort us to the mosque's prayer hall, describing on the way how
growing demand to use the facility has already outstripped its
size and that prayer services held during weekends usually
attract spill-over crowds of over one thousand worshippers.
While he himself can not speak it, the man indicated the
principal purpose of the mosque's religious school is to teach
Arabic to young local Muslims. The school currently has several
hundred students and 22 teachers. The man noted he had been on
the Hajj twice and that over 400 people from Najiaying had also
been able to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. He did
not comment if local Muslims who cannot get an Islamic
Association-supported Chinese slot for the Hajj travel
individually through Southeast Asia.


5. (C) At the prayer hall, the man left us alone with a
college-age student who was memorizing the Koran by listening to
a recording of it in Arabic. The student said he supported his
studies by working at a small iron and steel plant in Najiaying
with close ties to the mosque. Although he claimed to have

CHENGDU 00000100 002.2 OF 004


already learned many chapters of the Koran, the student's
conversational Arabic was poor and he preferred to speak mostly
in Chinese. In response to a question from CG, the student
noted he sometimes has the opportunity to practice Arabic with
foreign teachers -- specifically Pakistanis and Thais -- who
visit Najiaying. The student noted that only through Islam can
young people in the region hope to solve their problems and
develop meaningful lives. Conceding that he had never been out
of China, the student exclaimed that more and more people around
the world are turning to Islam.

-------------- --------------
We Don't Need No "Marxist Opiate"
-------------- --------------


6. (C) Hurriedly taking us off the hands of the student, upon
whose appearance the student said very little, a local man who
looked to be in his mid-thirties showed up and introduced
himself as a leader of the mosque school. He led us away behind
the new mosque and past the school dormitory. Young college-age
men standing together on the dormitory balconies who had been
eager earlier to exchange greetings with the CG in Arabic,
disappeared into the building as we passed. When asked by the
CG, the school leader asserted that there were "of course" no
foreign instructors at the school as it would be impossible to
get necessary government approvals. In fact, he continued,
almost all the school's instructors are from Muslim communities
in Yunnan. According to the school leader, Nijiaying has
approximately 6,000 Muslims in its official registered
population, but an additional 10,000 Muslims who have come to
the town as migrant laborers. He did not indicate, however,
what exactly could generate that scale of additional employment
in the town as there were no obvious building or construction
operations taking place.


7. (C) As we arrived at where the school leader was taking us,
the old original Najiaying mosque dating back to the 19th
century and located well away from the front entrance of the new
mosque compound, he appeared to relax and loosen up a bit. The
old mosque is currently used as an Islamic school for girls and
young women. The school leader stressed that Islam has
historically played an important role in Yunnan. Although few
local people of his generation can speak or read Arabic,
Najiaying's youth welcome and need to be taught Islamic precepts
in Arabic. As he talked, what appeared to be middle school-aged
girls wearing head scarves and shoulder-to-foot robes crossed
the old mosque court yard to attend classes. One girl was
dressed in full black chador and veil. The school leader
asserted that it was time for Islam and religion in general to
reemerge in China. Communists used to deride religion for being
the "opiate of the masses." Now, the era of the "Marxist
opiate" is over, he said. According to the school leader, the
building of Najiaying's new mosque was financed strictly from
local donations. Although the Chinese government sometimes
likes to make token contributions to the construction or
refurbishment off religious buildings for propaganda purposes,
Najiaying did not accept anything.


8. (C) Citing the official provincial governmental statistic for
number of Muslims in Yunnan at 550,000, the school leader said
that making an accurate estimate, whether higher or lower, is
difficult. He remarked, however, that Islamic institutions are
far more dynamic in Yunnan than in Sichuan Province (see ref a).
Rather than emphasize growth in numbers, the Najiaying mosque
school tries to focus on developing the character of Muslims.
As there is a dearth of educational materials on Islam available
in China, Muslim schools must rely on foreign sources including
recordings of the Koran. The school leader noted he hopes his
students upon graduation will be able to use their Arabic skills
in other parts of China, referring specifically to the provinces
of Zhejiang and Guangdong. In response to a question from the
CG, the school leader said local Muslims think well of Americans
as being a "religious people," but are strongly opposed to the
"slaughter" by U.S. forces of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When asked, he claimed that his school does not pick up
Al-Jazeera or other Arabic satellite stations, noting that to do
so would violate government regulations.

--------------
A Local Taste of Kashgar
--------------


CHENGDU 00000100 003.2 OF 004



9. (C) As the school leader escorted us out of the main mosque
compound, an ethnic Uighur approached CG and introduced himself
in Arabic as
a Koran recitation instructor by the name of Muhammad. Speaking
in clear classical Arabic that he indicated he learned from
years of instruction from a Saudi religious teacher in the city
of Kashgar in Xinjiang in northwest China, Muhammad said he has
never left China and finds his calling to be teaching the young
people of Najiaying about Islam. He stressed the building of
new mosques or religious schools in Xinjiang would be impossible
due to tight political controls and repression. Many of his old
friends from Kashgar have left China for either the United
States or Europe. Yunnan authorities, on the other hand, do not
appear to be particularly strong-handed in dealing with Islam or
other religious faiths as long as "peace" is maintained. When
asked specifically why authorities in Yunnan are so flexible,
Muhammad replied that local Muslims play an active and positive
role in local business development. Muhammad added that there
were other instructors at the Najiaying mosque school from
Xinjiang as well as some from Ningxia in northwest China. After
CG noted he had heard the Najiaying mosque is the largest in
Yunnan, Muhammad said that that honor in fact should go to
Shadian and suggested we pay it a visit as it was along our
route to the Vietnam border.

--------------
China's Largest Mosque
--------------


10. (SBU) Shadian lies just outside Mengzi, the capital of
Honghe (Red River) Prefecture, about 150 kilometers south of
Najiaying. As we approached what turned out to be an unmarked
turnoff for Shadian along the Kunming Expressway, we went by a
construction site for a large multi-structure Islamic school
that appeared to be near completion. Shadian is a town of
approximately 30,000 people and was the site of a rebellion
against Community Party rule in 1975 at the tail end of the
Cultural Revolution that ended in the deaths of at least 800
local residents when military units were sent in to restore
order. A large memorial stone marking the incident is visible
on a hill overlooking the town. Driving through Shadian, we
went by a number of small mosques and were told by a passerby
that there were over ten mosques in the town. Many signs and
posted announcements along the town's main road were written in
Arabic.


11. (C) Stopping by an Islamic school, we spoke with one of its
teachers, a local man in his thirties. The teacher introduced
himself in Arabic by the name Muhammad and alternated during the
discussion between fluent Arabic and pretty good English. He
said there are currently 100 boys and 100 girls at the school.
He described how he had just returned to Shadian from living
overseas and learned Arabic during ten years of training in
Saudi Arabia and English while living four years in Lahore,
Pakistan. Smirking, he told the CG in Arabic that it could be
dangerous to be an American in either Saudi Arabia or Pakistan,
but that Shadian welcomed Americans as most were people of the
Book ("ehl al Kitab").


12. (C) Muhammad claimed the new Shadian mosque will be the
largest in China when completed, and that the over-RMB 100
million (approximately USD 13 million) investment is being
entirely financed by local donations. (Note: a donation board
in front of the school listed local metallurgy and mining firms
as principal contributors. End note). He stressed the mosque
will attract many followers and that he will hold a leadership
role in it. Muhammad added he looked forward to contining to
work with Shadian's youth and to teaching them about Islam,
although he seemed somewhat embarrassed that none of his
students could understand basic conversational Arabic. Located
on the edge of town, the new mosque was still surrounded by
scaffolding but appeared to be almost complete. The domed
mosque's dimensions were indeed impressive. With its four
massive minarets, it appeared to be at least several times the
size of the mosque in Najiaying.

--------------
Comments
--------------


13. (C) Islam's arrival in Yunnan dates back to the Mongol Yuan
Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries. Yunnan's Muslim

CHENGDU 00000100 004.2 OF 004


communities are concentrated in Kunming, Yuxi, Xishuangbanna,
Honghe, Zhaotong, and Shimao, but can be found scattered
throughout the province including in traditionally Tibetan areas
in the west. Local government authorities appear for now not to
be interfering with a resurgence of Islamic religious
instruction. The province is also known to have active
Christian missionary groups -- particularly from South Korea --
and proselytization. Particularly in light of Yunnan's status
as a sensitive border area, however, link ups between local
Muslims and Uighurs or the introduction of foreign Islamic
instructors could very well at some point result in a more
forceful response from security organs.
BOUGHNER