Author: Chen Jing
Date: 07-31-03 14:03
In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Kangxi (1662-1723), Manchu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, advisors of his proposed a ban on Islam. They wanted all Muslims expelled from Beijing. Those advisors told the emperor that Muslims were gathering in the mosque at night to plan rebellion. According to a popular local legend, Emperor Kangxi decided to investigate the matter personally. He disguised himself as a Muslim and entered a mosque during evening services. Finding nothing to alarm him in the Imams' preaching, the emperor next day issued a protective decree that read, in part, the crime of bringing serious harm to the Muslim community is punishable by execution.
It is perhaps unlikely that the emperor ever took such a risky trip outside the walls of his Imperial Palace. Kangxi must have relied on other evidence to formulate this decree.. Whatever the case, the Muslims of the Niujie Mosque in Beijing proudly display the emperors edict in the wall of their tablet pavilion.
The incident surrounding Kangxi's decree is significant not only because of the emperors action, but because it points to the kind of discrimination Muslims in China have faced during the the Qing Dynasty period.
The long-standing prejudice against Chinese Muslims among some Chinese that began during the Qing Dynasty the can be attributed to the fact that many of these believers in Islam are members of ten minority ethnic groups. Even though there are many Han Chinese who are Muslims, many others are Huis, Uygurs, Kazaks, tartars, Kirgizs, Yajiks, Uzbeks, Dongxiangs, Slars, and Bonans. In physical features, dress, and lifestyle many of them are different from the dominant Han Chinese. Some are blonde and blue-eyed. Others have dark hair and Arabic features. Still others , living on Chinas northern border, are closely related to the Muslim ethnic minorities that live in Russia.
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