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[Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
As the Chinese Communist Party is a totalitarian entity, it views any other authority or object of loyalty as a competitor that must be destroyed. That’s why the Chinese government has cracked down so brutally upon the Uighur Muslims, and now a leading ChiCom official has announced the end goal of that persecution: the “Sinicization” of Islam. The U.S., and the West in general, can learn a great deal from what the Chinese are doing: it’s a grand lesson in what not to do.
Reuters reported Thursday that Ma Xingrui, the Communist Party top dog in Xinjiang, declared confidently that the inexorable march of history toward the dictatorship of the proletariat and pure Communism would take care of China’s little problem with Islamic jihadis. “Everyone knows,” he asserted, “that Islam in Xinjiang needs to be Sinicized, this is an inevitable trend.”The Sinicization is already well underway. Reuters reminds us that “rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in Xinjiang, including denying Uyghurs full religious freedoms. Beijing vigorously denies any abuses.” Also, ChiCom President Xi Jinping has on many occasions called for the “Sinicization” not only of Islam, but of Christianity and Buddhism as well, so that all religious expression becomes just another way of demonstrating one’s loyalty to the Communist state.Sinicization, in the case of Christianity, has involved rewriting parts of the Bible to remove or alter passages that might inspire readers to think critically about Communism, forcing Christians to celebrate as heroes Communists who betrayed the Church, and requiring Christian teachers to attend Communist indoctrination sessions.
Will similar measures, applied to Islam, defang the Religion of Peace and end the possibility of jihad terror in China? That’s what Chinese Communist leaders are banking on. But they’re being short-sighted.What is likely to happen in China, given the lessons of history, is that the “Sinicization” of Islam will proceed, and initially it will appear to be a comprehensive success. Muslims in China will appear to be practicing an Islam with Chinese characteristics, and to have assimilated completely into Communist Chinese society.The Communist victory celebrations, however, will be premature. When the Communist Party begins to weaken, suddenly and unexpectedly, traditional Islam will begin to reemerge. Eventually, the Chinese Communists will discover that despite all their efforts, Islam has not become “Sinicized” at all, but is still pretty much what it has always been.
The reason why this is a sure bet regarding what will happen in China is because we have seen all this unfold in the West in the relatively recent past. One hundred years ago, Islamic societies were largely Westernized. After World War I, Turkey and Iran rejected the rule of Islamic law and actively patterned their new governments after Western secular models. The Westernizing trend continued: by mid-century, Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser was laughing at the prospect of asking Egyptian women to wear hijabs.
Even as late as the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Western “experts” were confidently predicting that Islamic societies would secularize and Westernize after the pattern of secular Turkey. Since then, however, everything has gone awry for the “experts,” although they still enjoy their tenured professorships and media adulation despite having been proven wrong about everything.
Turkey has re-Islamized, and Western influences have receded drastically in Islamic societies. Where Nasser joked about the impossibility of getting Egyptian women to wear hijab, now virtually all women wear the hijab.
We are likely to see the same trajectory in China, but Ma Xingrui and his colleagues are almost certain to ignore all the indications of what’s to come. Ma Xingrui and his ilk are atheists who don’t understand the religious impulse. Under Communist pressure, it will recede, but it won’t disappear, and it will return when it can.
The lesson for the West is not to follow China in its repressive measures. Western countries should uphold the freedom of conscience while drawing a firm line at violence that finds a justification in religious texts and teachings.
The real lesson for the West is that the bland confidence that Islam will Westernize, discard its violent and supremacist doctrines, and become benign is just as baseless and potentially dangerous as the confidence that Islam will “Sinicize.” Islam will continue to be Islam. Western leaders will ultimately have to stop lying to themselves and their people and face that fact, or prepare to submit.
With all due respect, this essay is more about wishful thinking that China will not be able to continue to control Muslims within China. We should be more concerned about Muslims working with Hussein Obama to undermine the US. As an example, Hussein Obama and his puppet Biden effectively lifted sanctions on Iran. This has enabled Iran to both fund terrorism to kill American soldiers and to enrich its uranium. Another example of Hussein Obama working with Muslims and killing Americans is our defeat in Afghanistan and leaving $85 billions of military equipment to the Taliban terrorists.
Sadly, China has not only “sinicized” its Muslims but has also succeeded in its “elite capture” of Americans and its institutions. This short list includes Biden, Obama, Kerry, McConnell, tech companies, corporations, universities, and Hollywood. For more details of China’s “disintegration warfare” of the US leading to our destruction without China firing a shot, read the new book “Blood Money” by Peter Schweitzer.
never quite understood that the west differentiates islam and islamism . islam is a death cult . regardless whether its adherants a mild mannered or ready to cut your throat . muslims will do as they are told and if they dont they are regarded as apostate and they to are killed . the left have the same modus operandi , the only difference is you dont have your throat cut . imprisoned , shot , or ostracised yes . islam , the left and communism are authoritarian , toe the line or we will make sure you are removed or dont exist . all three are cancers in society .
It’s a little like communism in the Democrat Party and Totalitarianism in the United Nations they are inevitable too.
I dont know about this. The West (being stupid with tolerance) gives Islam victories. In the superstitious minds of muslims, a victory is a sign from Allah that Islam is in the right. More victories=more right. Our stupid leaders have made one heck of a problem by giving in.
I doubt the Chinese will be so stupid as to show any tolerance. Not so much as a crumb. No Ramadan, no Halal meats, not one eastern facing prayer to Allah a day will be permitted.
Muslims are human, all humans can be broken. They were weak minded enough to fall into Islam, they will be weak minded enough to be removed from it.
Agreed.
When we consider how deftly they have infiltrated the USA and other western countries, it would be a mistake to underestimate their approach to Islam.
It would mean nothing to them to eliminate one or two or more millions of people they view as dangerous to their dominance. China has been working on this for a few thousand years. IF anyone can counter Islam, it will be China.
I would disagree only in that the “Leftist Progressive” impulse could be defined as a religion for people who would otherwise never allow themselves to have a religion. Similarly messianic–“We are going to perfect mankind, and achieve heaven (utopia) here on earth, and if you resist, we are then justified in annihilating you”–hence the mass graves of the 20th century. Right now, the Left is trying to make common cause with Islam. As Robert Spencer opines, we will see how long that lasts.
The way to stop Islam is freedom of speech, real freedom of speech including the ability to criticize Islam.
Mohammad was clearly a false prophet.
Muslims kill, rape and torture whoever doesn’t follow islamic rules.
To undo islam just the opposite must be done.
There is no other way around it.
“The opposite” being what? Unconditional love? Would that work? I’m not so sure.
Thanks Mr. Spencer. I always enjoy your articles. I would like to suppose an alternate scenario.
“Sinicization” of Islam”
What would it take to accomplish this? First all Korans and books on Islam would be destroyed, every Imams would be arrested and locked away or killed outright. Every Mullah and Islamic Scholar would suffer the same fate. All Mosques would be razed to the ground. Then highly restrictive laws would be enacted and brutally infourced. This may need to continue for decades until the last vestige of Islam is forgotten and replaced.
The big difference of what you describe that happened in the west is in how China would accomplish the demise of Islam, and I think they might employ the very tactics employed by Islam itself, especially in it’s, so called, “Golden Age” to defeat it, namely extreme brutality and forced conversion or death. (fighting fire with fire?)
In other words for Islam to be Sinicizatized(?) it must be completely destroyed and brutal punishments enacted to insure it could not return. This would, of course require China to perform without any remorse whatsoever, similar to the conduct of Islamic terrorists now infecting the globe. (again, fire with fire)
But this isn’t something new for communists who eliminated twice as many people in Russia without a second thought.
But I do agree that Islam would return as in Turkey and Iran, if outside influences (The Muslim Brotherhood for instance) are allowed to infiltrate. Also, in Turkey and Iran, Islam was never completely eliminated. They were allowed to keep their religion, just a more subdued version, making it far easier to bring back the true evil and radical teachings of the past.
Or they could just follow Stalin’s lead, kill them all and be done with it.
”Or they could just follow Stalin’s lead, kill them all and be done with it”.
Works for me!!
What do the United Nations, Chinese Communist Party, Global Caliphate, World Economic Forum, Marxism and Transhumanism all have in common? They all intend to make us their slaves.
Yeah, but they all want to be Master… and sharing that title is not going to last.
And each thinks it will wind up on top. Fat chance for all but one of them.