Newspaper advertisement for the Xining Salafi School dated 1936

Sailaifengye () or Salafiyah refers to the Chinese

Salafi Movement The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...

Overview

Chinese Salafists are not a unified organization but "a patchwork of relatively independent mosque / prayer-congregations" loosely connected through overlapping networks of students, teachers, and Ulema from shared overseas institutions and circles of study. These congregations are mostly concentrated in

Northwest China Northwest China () is a statistical region of China which includes the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai. It has an area of 3,107,900 km2. The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid con ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

, and

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

and are united by the presence of charismatic religious authorities. Salafi beliefs are not just limited to the adherents of the movement; as there exist various “''Salafi grey zones''” among other sects like the Yihewani and the Gedimu. These “''Salafi grey zones''” include Chinese Muslims who have (partially or fully) accepted Salafi doctrines and/or some of its intellectual stances like opposition to shirk, bid’ah, and taqlid. However many such Muslims do not identify as "Salafi" and this could be for several reasons including: * A desire to remain within their sectarian tradition (like Yihewani imams and scholars who are Hanafi in madhab but are no longer Maturidi in their doctrinal beliefs). * Fear of being ostracized or facing professional repercussions. * Rejection of labels by the younger generations.

History

The importer Ma Debao (1867–1977), when he undertook the

Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...

, was influenced by the

Salafi movement The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

. Upon his return to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

he began to preach the Salafi ideology. The movement criticizes innovative Islam. It opposes new movements which it believes are against the Sunnah. It opposes the influence of no-sunna Chinese culture on

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. The sect was firstly import in Hezhou of Gansu province but now spread in many places notably Ningxia, Qinghai, Yunnan, Tianjing with support of Saudi religious organizations.Sects And Legal Schools Represented By Muslims In China
/ref> Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing promoted Salafism as the main form of Islam. But it was opposed by a number of

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

Muslim sects A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

such as the

Gedimu Gedimu () or ''Qadim'' ( ar, قديم}) is the earliest school of Islam in China. It is a Hanafi, non-Sufi school of the Sunni tradition. Its supporters are centered on local mosques, which function as relatively independent units. It is numerical ...

, Sufi

Khafiya Ma Laichi (1681? – 1766?; ), also known as Abu 'l-Futūh Ma Laichi, was a Chinese Sufi master, who brought the Khufiyya movement to China and created the Huasi ''menhuan'' ( Sufi order) - the earliest and most important Naqshbandi (نق� ...

and

Jahriyya Jahriyya (also spelled Jahrīya or Jahriyah) is a ''menhuan'' (Sufi order) in China, commonly called the New Teaching (''Xinjiao''). Founded in the 1760s by Ma Mingxin, it was active in the late 18th and 19th centuries in what was then Gansu Prov ...

, to the extent that even the fundamentalist

Yihewani Yihewani (), or Ikhwan ( ar, الإخوان, d=al-Iḫwān), (also known as Al Ikhwan al Muslimun, which means Muslim Brotherhood, not to be confused with the Middle Eastern Muslim Brotherhood) is an Islamic sect in China. Its adherents are called ...

(Ikhwan) Chinese sect, founded by

Ma Wanfu Ma Wanfu (Xiao'erjing: ; 1849–1934), also known as Hajji Guoyuan (), was a Dongxiang Imam of Guoyuan village () in Hezhou (present day Dongxiang Autonomous County in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province). He studied in Mecca and ...

after Salafi inspiration, condemned Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing as heretics. They were branded traitors and Wahhabi teachings were deemed as heresy by the

leaders. The

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

Yihewani General

Ma Bufang Ma Bufang (1903 – 31 July 1975) (, Xiao'erjing: ) was a prominent Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the province of Qinghai. His rank was Lieutenant-general. General Ma started an industrialization pro ...

, who backed the Yihewani (Ikhwan) Muslims, persecuted the Salafis and forced them into hiding. They were not allowed to move or worship openly. The Yihewani had become secular and Chinese nationalists; they considered the Salafiyya to be "heterodox" (''xie jiao'') and people who followed foreigners' teachings (''waidao''). After the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

took power, Salafis were allowed to worship openly again. Even among Hui Salafis and Uyghur Salafis, there is little coordination or cooperation and the two take totally different political agendas, with the Hui Salafists content to carry out their own teachings and remain politically neutral.

References

Salafi movement Islam in China {{Islam-stub