Ramadhan gives boost to halal industry in China
XINING, CHINA
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
MORE than 20 million Chinese Muslims from Friday onwards began observing the one-month Ramadhan fast across China.
In the 600-year-old Dongguan Mosque, located in Xining, provincial capital of northwest China's Qinghai province,
tens of thousands of Muslims entered and gathered there to attend prayers.
"The month of Ramadhan is the greatest and most revered month for Muslims, and the prayer on the first day is also extremely important," said Ma Yongliang, who runs a logistics company in Xining city. Han Jing, 17, said she would get up at 3am every morning during Ramadhan to prepare food for her family.
Han said she would stay with other women at home,
while the men would go to the mosque during the month. By observing the fast, she believes that's a way to get closer to Allah.
During Ramadhan, Muslims are refrained from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset. Ma insists to pray five times every day, and follows the business rules of integrity and trustworthiness according to Islam. "We have been abiding with the sermons of the Quran for centuries. Although our lives have undergone rapid changes, we still hold strong faith," Ma said.
Thanks to the support of the Chinese government, ethnic groups in the impoverished western areas have developed their dominant industries in recent years, slowly eradicating poverty.
In Ningxia Hui autonomous region, one of the main Muslim-populated regions, the predominantly Muslim Hui ethnic group developed the Halal food industry. In 2011, the Halal food industry in Ningxia generated an output value of 10.3 billion yuan (around $2 billion), up 13 per cent from a year ago. And the total output value of the Halal food industry in this region is expected to reach 20 billion yuan by 2015.
In a branch plant of Qinghai Yijia Buhala Nation Fashion China Co Ltd, located in Hui-Tu autonomous county of Datong in Qinghai province, the homegrown Muslim traditional cap and clothing have been exported around the world.
"I can not only take care of children and elderly people in my family, but also do some work at home which I get paid for," said Han Yan, a worker of the plant, adding that the work never affected her worship. "Female Muslims could hardly earn money in the past, but the work is conducive to raise the status of a female in a family," said Han Decheng, president of the company.
Moreover, in the Hui autonomous county of Hualong, more than 67,000 practitioners went out and opened over 10,000 restaurants selling traditional Hui food, such as hand-pulled noodles.
But for most Chinese Muslims, their biggest dream is to go to Mekah, Saudi Arabia, their holiest city. "Some elders in my family have been there, and I should realise my dream as well," said Ma.
In 1997, the first chartered plane for Chinese pilgrims flew from Beijing to Jeddah, an important gateway to Mekah. Direct chartered flights later linked Beijing, Lanzhou, Urumqi, Yinchuan, and Kunming to Madinah, the second holiest city, which is north of Mekah. According to statistics, more than 13,800 Chinese pilgrims went to Mekah in 2011. Xinhua
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Official Government's website of China:-
Chinese Muslims pray on first day of Ramadan
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Chinese Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fit
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Why would a Government ban Ramazan (Fasting) & prayers while they proudly show that culture on their official website...!!!
Western media is a foul mouthed liar ,,, they make up lies ... they are well known for that ... one portal starts a lie & then the rest of media just copy-pastes it & thus such thriller ends up being all over so-called main-stream media...
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Here's a refutation of allegation made in OP:-
Chinese political advisors from Tibet, Xinjiang counterattack U.S. rights report
Chinese political advisors from Tibet and Xinjiang said Friday that
cultural and religious freedom is fully respected and protected according to law in the two ethnic regions, fighting back against an annual U.S. human rights report.
"
The report is utterly groundless. I strongly advise those who wrote the report visit Tibet personally before drawing a conclusion," said Lhagba Puncog, secretary-general of the Beijing-based China Tibetology Research Center.
As a scholar from the Tibetan ethnic group, Lhagba Puncog goes back to Tibet for research for two months every year.
"I witness the increasing improvement in the living standards of Tibetan people, and they fully enjoy freedom of religious beliefs," he told Xinhua on the sidelines of the annual session of the country's top political advisory body, or the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.
Local government statistics showed that Tibet's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 43.7 billion yuan in 2009, up 170 percent from that in 2000 and posting an annual growth of 12.3 percent over the past nine years.
Currently, Tibet has more than 1,700 religious venues and 46,000 monks and nuns, whose religious beliefs are well protected by law.
Berkri Mamut, a CPPCC member and director of Shanshan County Islamic Association in Xinjiang, Muslims can practice their religion normally.
"They can freely attend religious service in mosques or practice fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan," he said.
"Every year, the government will help make arrangements for about 12,000 Muslims nationwide who go to the holy city Mecca for hajj, of which almost 5,000 are form Xinjiang," he said.
"It is ridiculous to say there is 'cultural and religious repression' in Xinjiang," he added.
Yiliduosi Aihetamofu, a CPPCC member and a physician of Tatar ethnic group from the No. 1 Hospital affiliated to the Xinjiang Medical University, said what he has seen in Xinjiang is the fast economic development and improvement of people's lives.
"We Tatar people has a population of less than 5,000, but our cultural traditions have been preserved well," he said.
Editor: Amber Yao