China bans ‘Islamophobic terms’ from social media

[Shahzaz ud din]

China bans ‘Islamophobic terms’ from social media

• Although officially atheist, the Communist country also protects its residents' rights to practice their religion
• Over 21 million Muslims, mostly the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Hui community in Ningxia province, live in China

World
by Dawood Rehman | Published on September 21, 2017 (Edited September 22, 2017)

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BEIJING – The Chinese government has banned the use of Islamophobic terms used by netizens to stigmatise Muslims, state media reported on Thursday.

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China has over 21 million Muslims, mostly the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Hui community in Ningxia province, according to unofficial accounts.

Search results for “insults against Islam” were blocked on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website and one the most popular social media sites, according to Global Times.

Phrases including “green religion” and “peaceful religion,” which are used to refer to Islam, were also blocked as they were often used to get around censorship of online hate speech, the Chinese daily added.

“It’s necessary to timely remove radical phrases that discriminate against Islam and are biased against Muslims to prevent worsening online hatred toward the group. Those phrases severely undermine religious harmony and ethnic unity,” Xiong Kunxin, a professor at Beijing’s Minzu University of China was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

China which has a booming internet population surpassing over 700 million, uses massive firewalls to block any content the government and the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), deems offending and not in the country’s interest.

International social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook as well as Google are blocked by the firewalls.

Although officially atheist, China also protects its residents’ rights to practice their religion. The government assisted 12,800 Muslims in making the pilgrimage to Makkah this year and closed streets for Muslims to celebrate Eidul Fitr, the report further said.

 

[TruthHurtz]

china should renounce the communism label and just call itself "confucian" or something imo

 

[El Sidd]

Respect!!

 

[XiangLong]

Translation: "we're about to bring forth another round of censorship but we need a good excuse to sell it to the public."

Typical tactic of authoritarian regimes and their accompanying propaganda ministries.

Just like how Facebook, Google and Twitter have been censoring search results that didn't fit the ''narrative'', just to please their advertisers?

 

[Akasa]

Just like how Facebook, Google and Twitter have been censoring search results that didn't fit the ''narrative'', just to please their advertisers?

Nobody is denying that such practices do not exist in other societies, although to a much lesser extent.

 

[XiangLong]

Nobody is denying that such practices do not exist in other societies, although to a much lesser extent.

But it basically grinds down to the same thing though; everything becomes fair game, once market mechanisms get involved, as a free market isn't subjected to integrity or values but only has the sole end goal of profit.

But it basically grinds down to the same thing though; everything becomes fair game, once market mechanisms get involved, as a free market isn't subjected to integrity or values but only has the sole end goal of profit.

And actually, it's more likely that Chinese social media like Sina Weibo didn't made this move out political convictions, but rather from the aforementioned economic incentives. You know, keeping everything ''friendly'' so that your (muslim) customers and advertisers stick around?

 

[CriticalThought]

For whatever reason the Chinese government banned it, as a Muslim it has filled me with love and respect. Because I want to assure my Chinese brothers and sisters that us Muslims are actually targets of an organized campaign of vilification. As part of that, completely wrong information is spread to sow suspicion, fear, and hatred in people's minds. I guarantee you, you wouldn't be losing any cogent, correct, and intellectually honest information by banning Islamophobia. In case you have any questions, please raise them here and give us the opportunity to answer.

 

[oprih]

China truly cares for all its citizens. A complete opposite in india where the government systematically allows the murder of muslims and rape of women.

 

[AndrewJin]

Right move.
No religion should be vilified because of western propaganda.
I can't believe some Weibo people are influenced by western propaganda, dunno they are CIA agents or not.
The only region should be banned, pedophile Christianity, on which war machines like USA and UK are built.

 

[帅的一匹]

Well done China! A good move to protect religious freedom. We don't buy those malign propaganda sold by he west to stigmatize Muslim society. Before USA get in Middle East, the whole Muslim world live in peace.

Right move.
No religion should be vilified because of western propaganda.
I can't believe some Weibo people are influenced by western propaganda, dunno they are CIA agents or not.
The only region should be banned, pedophile Christianity, on which war machines like USA and UK are built.

Man, you don't have to bad mouth Christianity. It's your own choice to believe it or not, at religious freedom. My opinion is: no religions belief can go beyond PRC's Consitutions.

One can't place his/her religious belief beyond national security. Before you are an religious believer, you are a citizen of PRC. That's why we insist on a non-interference policy for so many years.

If everyone think religion is important than the concept of a country, then the country will break apart.

All religions have the inclination to convert non-believer to its own believer, so Majority of Chinese better be Atheists. We don't have to get invloved in the hate between Christianity and Islam, we are unique people. We don't have to identify ourselves with religions.

 

[shadows888]

Translation: "we're about to bring forth another round of censorship but we need a good excuse to sell it to the public."

Typical tactic of authoritarian regimes and their accompanying propaganda ministries.

why don't you come do something about it?

 

[GeraltofRivia]

China's long term policy dated back from imperial era is that all the religions are treated equally and protected by the law. Any discrimination against a particular religion is not permitted.

 

[kankan326]

So there is something we can never criticize. Nothing worth celebrating

 

[CriticalThought]

Well done China! A good move to protect religious freedom. We don't buy those malign propaganda sold by he west to stigmatize Muslim society. Before USA get in Middle East, the whole Muslim world live in peace.


Man, you don't have to bad mouth Christianity. It's your own choice to believe it or not, at religious freedom. My opinion is: no religions belief can go beyond PRC's Consitutions.

One can't place his/her religious belief beyond national security. Before you are an religious believer, you are a citizen of PRC. That's why we insist on a non-interference policy for so many years.

If everyone think religion is important than the concept of a country, then the country will break apart.

All religions have the inclination to convert non-believer to its own believer, so Majority of Chinese better be Atheists. We don't have to get invloved in the hate between Christianity and Islam, we are unique people. We don't have to identify ourselves with religions.

Actually, the rules of Islam when living in a non-Muslim country are a bit different. We don't try to convert anyone. We just live our lives in a peaceful way. If for some reason we aren't allowed to follow our religious beliefs, then we are taught to migrate to some other country.

 

[帅的一匹]

Actually, the rules of Islam when living in a non-Muslim country are a bit different. We don't try to convert anyone. We just live our lives in a peaceful way. If for some reason we aren't allowed to follow our religious beliefs, then we are taught to migrate to some other country.

bro, Chinese Muslim won't leave cause they had been living in China for thousand years.