Ningxia Muslims, Part 3: The Sufi King of Tongxin County:

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 001699 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2033 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV PTER KIRF PK EG CH SA SUBJECT: Ningxia Muslims, Part 3: The Sufi King of Tongxin County: Government Co-opts, Empowers Charismatic Local Leader of Hierarchical Sufi Order Ref: BEIJING 1691 Classified by Deputy Political Section Chief Ben Moeling. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Hong Yang, a Peking University-educated imam in Ningxia's Tongxin County, heads a Sufi order which he says has over 2,000 imams, serving at 1,500 mosques with a total population of over one million Hui followers. An entourage of imams surrounded Hong as he entertained PolOff on an April visit to Ningxia. His younger brother chauffeured PolOff in Hong's black Lexus SUV to schools funded by Hong's order, where he was greeted like a munificent father-figure. Also funding advanced education for local imams at universities in Ningxia and abroad, Hong hopes to broaden the local imams' understanding of the "outside" world and better equip them to respond to local development challenges as well as to the spiritual needs of their followers in a modern society. Hong holds that his relationship with the local Government has been the key to his order's success in taking on such active leadership in the community, and suggests that the rejection of political activism is a prerequisite for government support. Hong attributed trouble met by Uighur Sufi Muslims in Xinjiang to "East Turkestan" forces and other "political" movements taking advantage of Sufis' "distance" from society. Not everyone is a Hong fan: one Yinchuan-based professor decried the Sufi leader's willing acceptance of money from his impoverished followers to support a luxurious lifestyle for himself and his family. End Summary. Charismatic Imam Leads 2,000-imam Strong Sufi Order -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) Hong Yang, leader of the "Hongmen" Khufiyya Sufi order, hosted visiting PolOff in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region's Tongxin County in early April. Hong, a Peking University- and Pakistan-educated ethnic Hui native of Tongxin, has one foot in the mosque and one foot in city hall, concurrently serving as the Vice Chairman of Wuzhong City People's Political Consultative Conference (PPCC) and as a member of the 38-person Standing Committee of the Ningxia People's Congress. He inherited the reins of the Islamic order through bloodlines. Hong's grandfather, Hong Shoulin (also known as Hong Hairu),was the founder and namesake of the Hongmen order, because he allegedly brought the Khufiyya Sufi "menhuan" teachings back from Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region's Aksu area in the early twentieth century. (NOTE: "Menhuan" is a term used for Chinese Sufi sects.) According to Hong Yang, the Hongmen order has over 2,000 imams, serving at 1,500 mosques with over one million Hui followers, most of whom reside in Ningxia or Xinjiang's Yili Prefecture. ¶3. (C) Hong's high stature in the community was evident throughout PolOff' one-day tour of Tongxin. Hong took PolOff to various project sites in his black Lexus SUV, which his youngest brother (out of seven siblings) drives for him. As Hong entertained PolOff at a feast of local halal foods for lunch, three of his entourage of imams sat down to eat, while the other dozen or so lingered around the table in their long, black jackets and white caps smiling and nodding as they followed the conversation at the table. Hong said he refuses to call ahead before making an appearance at one of his project sites, and at each school PolOff visited, Hong was greeted and received like a beloved father-figure. Hong described the importance of hierarchy in Sufism, with the "Murshid" as a sort of a "great teacher" who communicates the teachings of Allah and Muhammad to his people. Hong concedes that he is not technically a Murshid, but says with a grin that he "plays the role of one." ¶4. (C) PolOff toured the "Hong Gang Zi" Mausoleum where Hong's great-grandfather, grandfather and father have been laid to rest. According to Hong, 300,000 Hongmen followers visit each year over the course of several days marking the lunar calendar anniversary of Hong's great-grandfather's death to pray and pay their respects. The massive complex has repeatedly been forced to expand its capacity to offer space for prayer, washing and dining for the huge number of pilgrims. The local Public Security Bureau even has an office at the Mausoleum from which they assist in "maintaining public order" during the annual event. The site, which looks somewhat like a run down Disneyland with a combination of Chinese and Middle Eastern architecture, is an eye-catcher from miles away, as there is nothing but pebbly, barren desert in the surrounding landscape. Imam Plays Prominent Role in Education, Social Development -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) Enjoying the apparent confidence and support of the local Government, Hong has followed his father's lead in spearheading a range of social development projects. According to contacts in BEIJING 00001699 002 OF 003 Ningxia, few imams in the province have been able to play such a prominent social role (reftel). Hong took PolOff to a "Muslim" kindergarten built by his order with the goal of offering three years of high-quality, affordable pre-school education for Tongxin children. When the Muslim Kindergarten opened its doors several years ago, the RMB 720 (USD 100) annual tuition was just over half the cost of local public kindergartens. Administrators at the school brag that because of the opening of the Muslim Kindergarten, all the government-run schools had to lower tuition fees in order to compete. Hong worked out an arrangement with the local Government stipulating that if he funded construction of the school, the Government would supply teachers. Now the Government assigns and pays the salaries of about half the school's 70 teachers---90 percent of which claim to have graduated from college---while the school recruits and compensates the other half. In line with government policy, the school does not teach religion. However, children learn how to read, write and speak basic Arabic and English. Sayings in both foreign languages adorn the walls in "language" classrooms, and students are trained to greet visitors in unison in Chinese, Arabic and English. ¶6. (C) PolOff also toured the Hairu Girls School, a boarding junior high school (seventh to ninth grades) originally founded by Hong's father in the late 1980s for girls from rural areas of central and southern Ningxia. (NOTE: Several years ago the school agreed to take male students in order to relieve the burden of an over-populated public junior high school elsewhere in Tongxin. Almost half the students are male today.) The school was apparently set up using a model similar to that of the Muslim Kindergarten: the Government pays the teachers' salaries while Hong is responsible for providing the facilities. Tuition is free. Though the school is privately-run, teachers follow the same curriculum as the public schools including the ban on religious education in the classroom. Administrators at the school proudly stated to PolOff that 75 percent of the Tongxin County students who successfully test into senior high schools in the provincial capital, Yinchuan---where they will presumably have greater educational resources and opportunities---come from the Hairu Girls School. The school principal told PolOff that the school is now receiving 900 applications per year to fill the roughly 400 places in an incoming class. Mystical to Modern: Bringing Sufis in Step with the Times -------------- -------------- ¶7. (C) Hong's Aiyinke Great Mosque houses an imam-training school for seventy young men, who study for three years before being assigned to area mosques. Each year, Hong will pay for twenty graduates who have served at mosques for several years to go to university for a four-year degree. Degrees are typically done in the fields of literature, history or philosophy, but not religion, said Hong. Of these twenty, Hong will send four or five abroad to Pakistan, Egypt or other Muslim countries for further studies. According to Hong, his investment in the advanced education of his young imams has two purposes. First, Hong hopes that broadening the imams' understanding of the "outside" world and fields of study will enable them to better understand development problems faced in Ningxia and how best to take on these challenges. Second, in receiving a modern education, learning how to use computers and the Internet and increasing their awareness of popular culture and contemporary society, imams will be better equipped to respond to the spiritual of needs their followers and the problems their followers face in a modern, globalized society. ¶8. (C) Zhou Yushan, a subordinate imam and cousin of Hong Yang, expounded upon Hong's ideas for the development of Chinese Sufism as he gave PolOff a tour of the mausoleum at Hong Gang Zi. Zhou explained that Sufis have a reputation for being "mysterious," partly because Sufis have a history of "withdrawing" from society when faced with a social or political landscape whose ideals and practices (corruption, for example) they do not support. Hong's goal is to "narrow the gap" between the Sufis and society through increased interaction with the "outside" world. He seeks to bring the Hongmen Sufis "in step with modern society." Good Government Relations, Noninvolvement in Politics the Key -------------- -------------- ¶9. (C) Though he credits himself for bold ideas and clever programs, Hong believes that his relationship with the local Government has been the key to his Hongmen order's success in taking on such active leadership in the community. He admits that "in the past" the Government had expressed some "opposition" to his activism, but that the success and obvious benefits of the development programs have quieted such resistance. Hong emphasized repeatedly that he and his followers have no interest in and do not participate in political movements, suggesting that rejection of political activism is also a requisite for government support. Hong acknowledged that Uighur Sufis in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region tend to "run into BEIJING 00001699 003 OF 003 trouble." Both he and Zhou in separate conversations with PolOff asserted that the involvement of Uighur Sufis in political movements in Xinjiang is a major factor in their poor treatment. According to Zhou, political movements such as those of the "East Turkestan" groups have taken advantage of the Sufis' "distance" from society described above to use them for the movements' political aims. "Such movements have no relation to Islam or Sufism, just as the Dalai Lama has nothing to do with Buddhism," Zhou stated. ¶10. (C) One contact's comments on Sufis in Xinjiang could suggest that Hong's intention to bring his Sufis "in step with society" is for the good of the order's survival. Ahmadjan Hasan (strictly protect),a Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences scholar of Islam and member of the Xinjiang PPCC, told PolOff that the local Government views Sufism as a problem in Aksu, a southern Xinjiang city northeast of Kashgar. According to Hasan, the Sufis' emphasis on living a basic, impoverished lifestyle and their lack of a "willingness to work or make money" pose obstacles to social and economic development, which many view as the cornerstone of the Government's effort to tame and develop the predominantly Uighur southern Xinjiang. Hasan noted to PolOff in February 2008 that he heard Sufism was recently banned in Hotan ("Hetian" in Mandarin),but said he did not know the reason. Hasan observed that authorities probably wanted to extend the prohibition to his own hometown, nearby Yarkand ("Shache" in Mandarin),but that they likely feared such a move might upset stability because of the strength of Sufism in the oasis city. Ties to CCP's Long March Do Not Hurt -------------- ¶11. (C) The rosy relations between Hong and the Ningxia CCP can be traced to 1936 when the Communist leadership passed through Tongxin during the fabled "Long March." Apparently, upon the Red Army's arrival, Hong Shoulin welcomed them with open arms, offering food, water and shelter and declaring them to be the protectors of the people of Tongxin. A Chinese-language online account of Tongxin's importance to China's revolutionary history also describes Hong Shoulin's courageous risking of his own life to save the life from two Communist soldiers by hiding them at Hong Gang Zi, the current site of his mausoleum. Hong Yang told PolOff that the CCP offered his grandfather, Hong Shoulin's son, the position of Vice Chairman of the Ningxia PPCC out of gratitude for the elder Hong's early support of the Communist cause. Despite the nostalgic relationship between the Hong family and the Party, Hong Shoulin's descendants were not spared from the wrath of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. During that time Hong's grandfather was sent to work on a farm in northern Ningxia, while his father was sent to work "picking up trash" in a village outside Tongxin. When Reform and Opening returned a degree of freedom to Ningxia's Muslims in the early 1980s, Hong's father led the movement to rebuild area mosques which had been destroyed during the decade of upheaval. Skeptic -------------- ¶12. (C) Professor Zhou Chuanbin (strictly protect),an ethnic Hui professor of law and religion at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, was the one sour note in this symphony of hosannas for the Hongs. Zhou told PolOff that he "does not really like" Hong Yang. Zhou looks down on Hong and his order for accepting large donations from the impoverished but devout followers, which enable Hong to enjoy a wealthy, luxurious lifestyle as evidenced by his large, well-furnished house and fancy vehicle. PICCUTA