User:Noahsnave/sandbox

Trying out the bold text function.

Going to try posting links now. Presence is my favourite Led Zeppelin Album

Presence is a vague word so I'll try the disambiguation function from the video. Presence

Now I will be trying the text citation feature from the tutorial

Power Windows had been a successful album and this was due largely to it's producer, Peter Collins.

week 3 assignment sandbox

In a post secular society, religious and secular perspectives are on even ground, meaning that the two theoretically share equal importance. Modern societies that have considered themselves fully secular until recently have to change their value systems accordingly as to properly accommodate this co-existence.

Group Work

=== Relations with non-Muslims[edit source | edit] ===

Early History

In their early history, Muslims residing in China had closer interactions with adherents of other various faiths. Muslims treated the works of Confucius with considerable respect, pointing out the harmony between the two doctrines^[131] and ethical norms.^[132] Muslims saw their numbers increase in the 17th century with a large number of Chinese Jewsconverting to Islam.^[131] Muslim General Ma Bufang allowed polytheists to openly worship, and Christian missionaries to station themselves in Qinghai. General Ma and other high ranking Muslim generals even attended the Kokonuur Lake Ceremony where the God of the Lake was worshipped, and during the ritual, the Chinese national anthem was sung, all participants bowed to a portrait of Kuomintang party founder Dr. Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat Sen), and the God of the Lake was also bowed to, and offerings were given to him by the participants, which included the Muslims.^[133] Ma Bufang invited Kazakh Muslims to attend the ceremony honoring the God.^[134] Ma Bufang received audiences of Christian missionaries, who sometimes gave him the Gospel.^[135] His son Ma Jiyuan received a silver cup from Christian missionaries.^[136]

Before the early 20th century, some observers did not note any difference among Muslims and non-Muslims in the prevalence of foot binding of women in China.^[137][138]However, in southern China, James Legge encountered a mosque which had a placard denouncing footbinding, saying it constituted violating the creation of God.^[139]

Historically, Islam and Confucianism were brought together in the Han Kitab. Jesuit and Muslims in the 16th century entered into a dialogue using each other’s ideas to engage with outsiders. The present day finds the study of the interactions of Muslims and Non-Muslims to be a sparsely populated area, as Chinese society operates in a more closed system.

Some studies have been performed such as for example a comparative study of Buddhists and Muslims living in the Menghai area of Yunnan that shows these groups are working together in close communities. By speaking the same language they rely on each other and they are seen as having promising future living together. It is important to remember that there is no one unifying Islam, but many different Islams that are practiced every day.

Relations of Muslims and Non-Muslims in China is an important topic as it helps for the better understanding of the plethora of religious lives in our modern world. Often in the West Islam and Muslims are viewed through a very narrow stereotype of “terrorist” and “arab” . This is untrue and better knowing how others live leads to a more accepting society.

Contemporary Relationships

In the 21st century, relations between Chinese Muslims and non Muslims have become increasingly strained. This can be seen in the predominantly Uyghur Muslim region of Xinjiang where the Chinese government has banned students, teachers, and civil servants from fasting during the month of Ramadan.The Chinese authorities commented on the ban's implementation, saying that it is meant to protect the health of students and to help maintain state secularism. Uyghur rights groups blame the government for the ethnic tensions present in the area and for their systematic approach to eradicating the Muslim identity in the region.

This discrimination faced by the Uyghurs has created feelings of alienation and resentment among the Uyghurs that has in turn fed into a growing Islamic radicalism in the area. Numbers of Non Muslim Han has skyrocketed in the region as well according to Uyghur American Association President Alim Seytoff, who claims that the number of non-Muslims has increased exponentially from 6.7 in 1949 to 40 percent in 2008. This has inevitably lead to greater ethnic tensions over jobs and resources. These ethnic tensions resulting from Uyghur persecution have had serious repercussions in China, as Uyghur extremists have carried out numerous violent acts across the country. For example, a bombing of a Beijing park in May of 1997 killed one person as well as a bombing of two buses in the same year another killed two people. Similarly, the Uyghur capital of Urumqi in the Xinjiang region has been witness to multiple acts of terrorism, with over 30 such attacks happening in the name of Muslim and Tibetan separatist demands. By the early 21st century, the East Turkestan Islamic movement had been involved in 200 or more terrorist attacks resulting in 162 deaths and over 440 wounded.The actions taken by the government extend beyond banning Ramadan however and also include deciding which citizens can go to Mosque and which versions of the Qur'an are accessible, allowing for the Chinese government to have considerable control over the Uyghur people. They have aimed overcome this domination through organizing secret meetings in people's homes, commonly referred to as Mashrap. The feelings of frustration experienced by this group, combined with localized gatherings who are witness to the rise of Islamicism abroad, has led to an increased reliance placed on religion and fundamentalism.

The Uyghurs face far greater restrictions than Hui Muslims of the Ningxia region. The Hui people do not desire autonomy like their Uyghur counterparts, meaning that the extremist tendencies that some Uyghurs possess does not affect the Hui who are content to live with their non-Muslim Han Chinese neighbours. Culturally and geographically, the Hui are closer to the non-Muslim Chinese and this has caused Hui assimilation by altering their Islamic beliefs to be more compatible with the Han culture in which they live. This issue of assimilation is the root cause of Uyghur persecution as although the Uyghurs speak the Han language like the Hui and Han, they choose to speak their own Turkic dialect and write in Arabic. The Uyghur reject ideas of assimilation as they perceive themselves to be the indigenous people of the Xinjiang region, a name that was attributed to the Tarim Basin in the 18th century.

Conflict between the Uyghur Muslims and the Chinese government is a key example of the tense relationship that exists in China not only between Muslims and non Muslims, but also between the different Muslim groups that live together in the country. Uygur Muslims see themselves as being indigenous to the Xinjiang region, a neighbor of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and for that reason refuse to assimilate in the same manner as their Hui counterparts who are more adaptable to the customs of the non Muslim Han of the area. This puts the two Muslim groups at odds with each other, and has led to the Chinese government favouring the Hui for their passivity.

Authorities have become increasingly concerned with the rise of  these Islamic factions such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in certain Chinese provinces. China’s far-western region Xinjiang, has experienced repeated violence and other acts of intimidation especially over the past year mobilized by the Uyghur. There has been no particular target of these performances, however it is believed to have been spurred by the economic marginalization and deculturalization the locals feel they have been subjected to. It is tough to understand what the foundations of this violence are; between the religious and human rights abuses made by the Chinese government and the radical interpretations of  these Islamic-Chinese factions, it is not very clear.

 Chinese Muslims and Islamism

 On 4 July 2014, the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, effectively declared war on China by publishing a map of its aspirant caliphate that aims to occupy China’s Xinjiang region. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has named China first on a list of 20 other countries that his movement understands have “seized Muslim rights.” On the other hand, it has been reported that there are more radical Chinese Muslims supporting the ISIS movement, not just in China but in Syria and Iraq as well. The Chinese government estimated that there are around 300 Chinese Muslims active in ISIS territories. It is clear that support for ISIS is being shown by Chinese Muslims on both external and internal terms. Moving forward, the Chinese government has stated that it will not tolerate any form of terrorism and will work to “combat terrorist forces, including ETIM, [to] safeguard global peace, security and stability." 

 'Bold text