The Chinese Revolution
The Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty was the last Chinese dynasty (in terms of old Chinese government). They were in power from 1644—1912, until the Chinese Nationalistic Revolution. They were a group called the Manchu who were closely related with the Mongols, which is why the Han hated them and the main reason the Chinese revolution happened. They were also very unfavorable to the Muslims so much so that many of the revolts were lead by Muslims because there rights were taken away. In south of the Yunnan province of China which was one of the main bases of the Muslims, Yunnan was where many of the revolts happened.
The Fall of the dynasty
In 1911 the Han stood up against the Qing dynasty, and rather than putting up another dynasty with an emperor, instead they had a nationalistic revolution. They wanted to get rid of the emperors and dynasties, and put up a secular nation forth. This revolution was lead by a man named Sun Yat Sen, who is regarded as the father of modern China. His main goal was to establish a democracy. His political party was the Kuomintang who were later defeated by the Communist and then fled to Taiwan.
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San Yat Sen was a Christian who allied with the Muslims in the west. At this time the Muslim World started to open up, for most of the centuries the Muslims in China didn’t interact with the other Muslim world. The furthest they would go was Persia or South Asia, but not really any further than that. But in the 19th century Muslims in larger numbers started to perform Hajj. Many of them started to adopt Islamic Ideologies especially those from West of China. The group known as the Yahawani which comes from the Arabic word Ikwani “Brotherhood”. The Yahawani supported the nationalistic revolution. Another group known as the Gadamor which comes from Gadimo, were an old school type of Muslim group. The Yahawani came and told them what they were doing is bidah (Innovation) by mixing Confucianism and Islam together, because Yahawani wanted to purify Islam. Due to this there were many conflicts amongst the Yahawani and the other Sufi groups.
Unfortunately the Yahawani became corrupt over time. The Ma Group took over the Yahwani; the word Ma in Chinese means Muhammad. The Ma group had conquered about 1/5 of China. The nationalistic government even though they were ruled by a Christian they were still very traditional Confucianist. They would come to the Yahawani for support and Yahawani would show their support by bowing down to a picture of San Yat Sen. Which is Shirk (polytheism) and 100% forbidden in Islam, but due to their corruption and ignorance they did this. Many of them started to twist the religion unfortunately.
Unfortunately the Yahawani became corrupt over time. The Ma Group took over the Yahwani; the word Ma in Chinese means Muhammad. The Ma group had conquered about 1/5 of China. The nationalistic government even though they were ruled by a Christian they were still very traditional Confucianist. They would come to the Yahawani for support and Yahawani would show their support by bowing down to a picture of San Yat Sen. Which is Shirk (polytheism) and 100% forbidden in Islam, but due to their corruption and ignorance they did this. Many of them started to twist the religion unfortunately.
After the Chinese revolution many of the Chinese Muslims as well as the Kuomintang migrated to Taiwan, which is why many of the Taiwanese Muslims are originally from Yunnan. After the revolution has subsided the Muslims were divided into many different groups. Another group was formed known as the Salafi which in Arabic means “The one who follows the pious predecessors of Islam”. This new group became very hated upon just as the Yahawani in the beginning. The Yahawani united with the nationalistic government to attack the Salafi.
The Communist
But then the communist started to come, and generally the communist were Atheists. But the strange thing was that the Salafi group started to support the Communist. The Salafi were lead by a man named “Ma De Bow”. The Salafi group still exists in China to this day.
But unfortunately the PRC they the communist really started to outlaw religion, Due to this many Masajid (mosques) and Qurans were destroyed. Basically Islam became regulated by the government. The government started to have strange laws like having only women mosques were only women were allowed who would read behind women Imam (leader of prayer). They made it illegal to attend the Masajid if you were 18. Most of these laws still exist to this day.
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During the Cultural Revolution the government would get the Muslims in the university in Beijing and eastern China during Ramadan and they would force them to drink and eat in front of the entire class. Some were even forced to eat pork.
After 1978 the government started to open up and improve. The Chinese economy started to increase by trading with the Middle East. So they Chinese realized they would have to chow the Muslims in their land some respect otherwise they would get no trade. So the Chinese had different astronomical years, such as the year of the duck, year of the ox, etc…. One of these years was the year of the pig. During this year they outlawed pigs from being displayed so that the Muslims wouldn’t get offended.