ISLAM ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU - TWO LOCAL PERSPECTIVES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000039

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, NEA, SCA, AND INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/5/2033
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI CH
SUBJECT: ISLAM ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU - TWO LOCAL PERSPECTIVES

REF: A. A) 07 CHENGDU 267 B) 07 CHENGDU 219

B. C) 07 BEIJING 733 D) 07 BEIJING 732

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




1. (C) Summary: According to a Tibetan active in Lhasa's Muslim
community who studied Islam in Nepal and Pakistan, the inflow of
Muslim businessmen and laborers from other parts of China into
traditionally Tibetan areas has sometimes caused tension and
"incidents" with local Buddhists, but for economic rather than
religious reasons. Foreign Islamic organizations have helped
fund some Chinese mosques, including one in Lhasa and what is to
be China's largest mosque currently under construction near the
borders with Laos and Vietnam. Many young Muslims in China view
knowledge of Arabic as a route to finding good jobs at the
increasing number of Middle Eastern firms with offices in the
country. A young Pakistani-educated Muslim in Xining in Qinghai
Province travels around China to teach Islam and build ties
between local Muslim groups. He is also careful, however, to
inform government security officials whenever he invites foreign
teachers to the prayer hall he runs out of a small Xining hotel.
End Summary.


2. (C) During a recent Consulate and Embassy joint visit to
Qinghai Province and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR),CG met
with two young Muslim activists to discuss the current state of
Islam on the Tibet Plateau as well as anecdotal and other
reports (ref b) of possible tensions between the Buddhist and
Muslim populations. Although Islam as a minority religion in
Tibet has a history dating back centuries, labor migration in
China during the past decade has brought increasing numbers of
Chinese Hui and other Muslims into traditional Tibetan areas.
Both of the men CG met with appeared to be in their early
thirties and spoke fluent Arabic that they learned while
studying or working abroad.

In Search of Islam (and a Job) Overseas
--------------


3. (C) On February 28, a Tibetan Muslim named Musa (strictly
protect) gave CG a private tour of Lhasa's two mosques, located
in the center of town near the Jokhang -- Tibetan Buddhism's
most holy temple. Musa described himself as an "Arabic language
adviser" to the mosques, stressing he does not possess the
necessary qualifications to be an imam or "ahong." He noted the
larger of the mosques, which are only about two blocks away from
one another, has been the traditional place of worship for
Tibetan Muslims whose families came from inland China, while the
smaller mosque was originally oriented to Muslim families who
reached Tibet from Southwest Asia. Nowadays, however, the main
distinction is that the smaller mosque has an Arabic speaking
imam who trained abroad and is more popular with younger Muslims
than his older counterpart at the large mosque. Musa referred
to the older imam as "dull."


4. (C) Musa described how he decided to leave his home in Lhasa
during the 1990's to study Islam at a school in Nepal. He
wanted to learn more about his religion and also felt he had
little opportunity to find a good job in China. The current
head of Lhasa's smaller mosque is a former classmate of Musa's
in Nepal. Upon his return to Lhasa after five years in Nepal,
Musa was unable to find work and decided to accept a scholarship
to study at the International Islamic University of Islamabad
(IIUI) in Pakistan. He traveled to Pakistan via a flight from
Nepal. While at IIUI, Musa was able to meet Muslims from around
the world, including Europe and the United States. After two
years at IIUI, he landed a job in Dubai where he remained for
four years working as an Arabic and Urdu interpreter for the
China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC). Although
SINOPEC paid him well and he enjoyed working in the Gulf, Musa
returned to Lhasa to help take care of an ill family member.

It's Just Business, Not Religion
--------------


5. (C) Not wishing to go into detail, Musa acknowledged there
have been "incidents" of rising tension between Buddhists and
Muslims in Tibet within the last several years. He stressed,
however, that this has not had anything to do with religion nor

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involved the between 5,000 - 8,000 officially recognized Tibetan
Muslims whose families have lived in Tibet for generations.
Rather, problems have sometimes arisen due to the increasing
numbers of Hui and other Muslims who have migrated to Tibetan
areas to work on construction projects or engage in business.
Tibetan Buddhists, who often lack the commercial background and
networks of Muslim migrants, feel both jealous of and threatened
by the newcomers. Musa would not speculate on the total number
of Muslims who have settled in the TAR in recent years. He
stressed there is no way to know for sure as many only stay for
part of the year.


6. (C) Disputes over the harvesting of the lucrative caterpillar
fungus ("chong cao") on the Tibetan Plateau, Musa continued,
have sometimes resulted in violent clashes between Buddhists and
Muslims. The large presence of Hui Muslims from Qinghai
Province transiting the Tibetan city of Shigatse (four hours by
car west of Lhasa) on commercial trips to Nepal has sometimes
resulted in "problems." (Note: the imam at Shigatse's only
mosque -- located near the famed Tashilhunpo Buddhist Monastery
-- told CG in September 2007 only about 300 Muslims live
permanently in Shigatse, but that many Muslim businessmen pass
through the city. End Note.)

And Business is Booming
--------------


7. (C) According to Musa, the increasing number of Middle
Eastern firms doing business in China is a major boon for Muslim
communities throughout the country. Young Chinese Muslims try
to learn Arabic not just to read the Koran, but also to find
well-paying jobs as interpreters. Many of the 150 students at
the madrassa attached to Lhasa's large mosque want to find work
in eastern China. The cities of Ningbo, Yiwu, and Guangzhou in
particular have become major centers for trade with the Middle
East and have attracted numerous Chinese Muslims in search of
employment. (Note: Yiwu's Iraqi-owned firms were featured in an
article that appeared in the February 9 edition of the
"Economist." End Note.) Musa also mentioned he had heard a
number of Arab countries intend to open consulates in Guangzhou.
Chinese imams who study in the Middle East can make use of
their "foreign "contacts" to bring in outside money to build and
refurbish local mosques. Musa said his friend who is the imam
at Lhasa's small mosque received money to rebuild it from an
organization in Dubai. According to Musa, a Saudi charity is
financing the current construction of China's largest mosque
located in the town of Shadian in Yunnan Province (ref a).


8. (C) Asked by CG how it is possible to avoid Chinese
Government oversight and elicit foreign funding and support for
religious activities, Musa replied local authorities often turn
a blind eye to anything that does not "cause incidents." He
remarked that so long as Chinese Muslims are focused mostly on
making money they should not encounter significant difficulties
from government officials. Connections and money can solve many
problems. Citing himself as an example, Musa remarked he has a
brother in the Lhasa police and did not have any trouble getting
approval from the TAR bureaucracy to take part in the Hajj.
Musa added, however, that it would be very difficult to bring
foreign imams to lecture in Lhasa because of the attention it
would attract given the relatively small size of the city's
Muslim population.

Qinghai Activist on the Move
--------------


9. (C) On February 25 in the Qinghai Province capital of Xining,
Wang Zhixiang (aka: Yousef bin Ali -- strictly protect)
described to CG his background and religious work. Embassy
Poloff, Congenoff, and Tibetan LES also participated in the
meeting. A local Muslim who speaks Tibetan, Wang runs a prayer
hall located on the sixth floor of a small hotel in the city
center across the street from the much larger Muslim Mansions
Hotel (ref c). Wang did not claim any direct ties to Xining's
Dongguan Grand Mosque nor refer to himself to as an imam or
ahong. He stressed, however, he has dedicated his life to
teaching proper Islamic practice and behavior to what he
referred to as China's rapidly growing Muslim population. Like
Musa in Lhasa, Wang studied at Pakistan's International Islamic
University of Islamabad where he learned Urdu as well as Arabic.


10. (C) According to Wang, there are currently over 1.5 million

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Muslims in Qinghai, well above the official estimate of 500,000.
(Note: the total population of Qinghai Province, birthplace of
the Dalai Lama, is approximately five million people. End
Note.) Initially somewhat guarded in his comments, Wang claimed
that Chinese government authorities value the positive role
Islam can play in promoting morality and respect for the law.
Like Christians, Wang continued, Qinghai's Muslims believe in,
"rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar," and
maintain excellent relations with local government officials.
Not commenting on an August 2007 incident in which Tibetans
attacked a mosque in Qinghai's Maqin County following a dispute
at a Muslim restaurant (ref b),Wang characterized
Buddhist-Muslim relations in Qinghai as "good." He remarked,
however, he had heard of "disputes" occurring in the TAR.


11. (C) Wang said he feels strongly about the importance of
exchanging ideas and "movement" (Chinese: "liu dong"; Arabic:
"haraka") between Muslim communities and organizations within
China as well as abroad. He recently led a "tour group" of Hui
Muslims from Qinghai to Bangladesh to meet with religious
leaders in Dhaka. Wang described how he is also frequently on
the road within China in such provinces as Hubei and Guangdong.
According to Wang, the main area of China where Muslims
encounter significant government interference is Xinjiang.
Xinjiang authorities are especially wary of events that bring
together large numbers of young men. While not common, it is
possible to bring in imams from abroad to lecture at mosques in
Xining. Wang has sometimes invited "foreign teachers" to his
lecture hall. While he does not apply for approval, he is
careful to inform local security officials so they do not think
he is trying to do anything secretly. Wang observed that
Qinghai's security structures do not like to be "surprised."

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


12. (C) Two local Muslims whom Congenoff met on the street in
Xining also remarked on the dense network of business and
religious ties that exist between Chinese Muslims and the Middle
East. Although mosques in Xining receive foreign financial
support, the two Muslims stressed private local funding is also
considerable. Perhaps spurred on by different motivations, Musa
and Wang appear to have made good use of foreign-funded Islamic
educational scholarships to give themselves an extra competitive
edge back home in China. Their characterization of government
officials turning a somewhat blind eye to a resurgence in the
study and practice of Islam -- so long as "incidents" or
"problems" are avoided -- coincides with what we have been told
by Muslim leaders in Yunnan Province.


13. (C) Our Tibetan LES observed it is unclear whether Wang, who
speaks fluent Tibetan, would be considered by other ethnic
Tibetans to be a Tibetan. As he is a follower of Islam in
Qinghai, a province in which there are many Hui Muslims, Wang
would likely be viewed to be Hui. Nevertheless, his traditional
ties to the Plateau and linguistic abilities would allow Wang to
blend in and be accepted by Tibetans. Neither Wang in Xining
nor Musa in Lhasa would necessarily be associated with the
"newcomer Hui."


14. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Beijing.
BOUGHNER