LOCAL RELIGIOUS FIGURES ON ISLAMIC RESURGENCE IN CHINA'S

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 �00A;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