Islam in Ukraine - China

The Muslim explorer who you should have learned in school

editor — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 12:17:30 +0000

We all know names of western explorers like Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Columbus and others who have put their names in the history of ocean and sea exploration. When I was a little girl in primary and secondary school, my teachers told me about their important contributions and participations in building the “Great Western and World Civilization”. They told us about Marco Polo and his adventures in China, Vasco da Gama and his success in establishing a sea route from Europe to India through Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Columbus and how he discovered America etc. But they never told us about the eastern explorers who made history before the others did.

Names like Ibn Battuta, Ibn Majid, Shamsuddin Abu Abdullah al-Moqaddasi, Ibn Fudhlan, Ibn Jubayr, Abu Bakr the Second (King of Mali), Piri Reyes and many other Muslim explorers were never mentioned until I entered university and discovered how important Islam was (and still is) to the world civilization. I discovered the beauty and the richness of our Islamic civilization with all those many muslim figures who made history and left their own mark in every field in which they were specialized. Each ethnic and racial group that embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged.

One of the Eastern figures that attracted my attention in the world of sea travelers and explorers is the Muslim Admiral Zheng He. Zheng He, the man who discovered America before Columbus did. He was born at the end of the 14th century, in a small town in the region of Yunnan to a Hui-family, which was a Muslim Chinese ethnic group. His birth name was ‘Ma He’. In China they use “Ma” as a short name for “Muhammad”. His family claimed to be a descendant of a Mongolian governor in Yunnan or from King Mohammed of Bukhara. Raised as a Muslim, Ma He studied the teachings of Islam and memorized the Quran at an early age. His father and his grandfather completed their pilgrimage to Makkah. They had a great impact on his education and it’s under their influence that the young Ma He would develop an intense curiosity about the outside world. The travels his grandfather and father undertook would contribute a lot to his education. Aside from his religious education, Ma He was raised in a family wherespeaking Arabic and Chinese was something evident. That means that both languages were his mother tongue. He wanted to know everything about the countries that were geographically located westward of China. He studied their languages, religions, traditions, history and geography.

When Ma He was 10 years old, the army of the Ming Dynasty captured him during their military raids in Yunnan. They took him to Nanjing and there he did his military training. After that, they took him to Beijing to serve Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan and the 4th son of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Thanks to his abilities, loyalty, honesty, integrity and brilliance, Ma He became the best friend and the personal bodyguard of the young prince. It was during this time and period that Ma He’s intelligence, wisdom and leadership abilities became visible.After all the campaigns and battles he led and fought on the side of Prince Zhu Di during 4 years, Ma He became the most powerful military commander in China.

When Prince Zhu Di became the new Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he decided to reward all the officers and officials who had supported him. Ma He was one of them. In 1404, the new Emperor awarded him as “the supreme command of the Imperial Household Agency”. Zhu Di decided also to change the name of Ma and gave him his new title : Zheng. It was Zhu Di’s way to thank him for everything he did and as a symbol of the imperial honor. From that moment Ma He became ‘Zheng He’.

The political discussions he had with Zhu Di, the military experiences he undertook, his connections with the people of knowledge, trading with merchants and all the abilities he developed in his childhood will only open new doors and horizons to him: exploring the world. The emperor chose him as the ideal commander for the great voyages westward. After he became the most powerful commander in China, he became China’s greatest maritime explorer. Admiral Zheng He, became his new title. Zhu Di held Zheng He responsible for all the maritime affairs. Zheng He prepared everything very carefully before he accomplished his mission as an explorer. He made some detailed studies about existing naval charts, astro navigation, eastern and western calendars, astronomy, geography, marine sciences, piloting, shipbuilding and repair.

From 1405 until 1433, Zheng He led 7 great maritime expeditions. He crossed the great oceans and seas several times. From the South China Sea to the east coast of Africa, passing through the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. He visited more than 30 Asian and African countries and learned a lot about their cultures and beliefs. It is possible that during one of his expeditions he completed his pilgrimage to Makkah. Zheng He was not the only Muslim on those expeditions. Advisors and translators who traveled with him, like Ma Huan were just like him, Chinese Muslims.

The first fleet Zheng He commanded included 27.870 men on 317 ships, including sailors, clerks, interpreters, soldiers, artisans, doctors and meteorologists. He was on his way to Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Java and Sumatra. The ships that Zengh He commanded were up to 440 feet (137.2 m) long and 186 across, capable of carrying more than thousand passengers as well as a massive amount of cargo with products like porcelain, gold and silverware, cotton, copper and silk goods. Those ships were many times the size of Columbus’s ships that passed across the Atlantic and several times larger than any other wooden ship ever recorded in history.

The most spectacular and important voyage of Zheng He was his 4th one with his 30.000 men, which was to Arabia (through Hormuz, Aden and the Red Sea). When he arrived in Arabia, 19 countries sent ambassadors to board Zheng He’s ships with gifts for Emperor Zhu Di.

After his trip to Arabia, he travelled to the east coast of Africa and possibly reached Mozambique.

After the death of Emperor Zhu Di in 1424, the new Emperor (Hongxi), ceased immediately all the maritime expeditions. China became a self-isolated country during the coming 100 years. Zheng He was appointed as port commander in Nanking and received orders to disband his army. Zheng He chose with the support of Xuande, who had succeeded Hongxi, to bring life again to his expeditions.

On his 7th and last travel in 1433 (when he became 60 years old) , Zheng He revisited the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and Africa and died in India on his way back.

It is also proven that Zheng He discovered America and Australia in one of his trips before Columbus did. And he also reached the east coast of Africa and sailed from the Cape of Good Hope to the Cape Verde Islands before Marco Polo did.

Every time Zheng He reached a country, he sailed back to China with exotic products such as ivory, camels, gold and other goods.

All those expeditions sent one message to the world: China is an economic and political superpower. But Zheng He added another important thing in his travels: calling people to Islam. With his muslim advisors, Zheng He invited the local people to embrace islam wherever they traveled to. In the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo and others, small Muslim communities were already installed before they met Zheng He. The spread of the Islamic message in Southeast Asia began a few 100 years earlier thanks to the Arab and Indian merchants. Zheng He actively supported the continuous growth of Islam in these areas.

To facilitate the spread of Islam quickly in Southeast Asia, Zheng He established Chinese Muslim communities in Palembang, Java, the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. Their task was to spread islam around the area to build mosques and to provide other social services the local Muslim community would need.

After his death, the Chinese Muslims in Southeast Asia continued Zheng He’s work in different ways. This brought more people to Islam in Southeast Asia and strengthened the growing Muslim community in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and this complete Southeastern Asian area.

Conclusion: Zheng He, China’s greatest maritime explorer, is not only the pride of the Chinese history, but also a very unique hero in the history of our Islamic civilization.

We must not forget our heroes!

Source: World Bulletin

20/07/2016

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Uighurs in East Turkistan suffer from China’s forced abortions

oksana — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:30:53 +0000

“My wife would not want to remember that tragic event [the loss of an almost full-term baby after a forced fatal injection of drugs into the baby] as she has just overcome the trauma, so I request that you not speak to her,” said Alimcan Karluk, head of the research center at the East Turkistan Association, an İstanbul-based organization working to raise awareness about the problems faced by Uighurs in East Turkistan.

His wife is one of the thousands of Uighur mothers who have lost their unborn babies due to China’s forced abortion policy. China, which introduced a controversial one-child-per-family policy in 1979 as a measure to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in the country, has been forcing Uighur mothers in East Turkistan to have abortions despite the fact that ethnic minorities are among the exemptions to this law. The abortion law went into effect in China in 1984 and has been more strictly implemented in East Turkistan since 1988.

According to the 1979 law, the number of children married urban couples can have is one, but the law allows exemptions in several cases, including rural couples, ethnic minorities and parents without any siblings themselves. Nevertheless, the policy has been implemented in East Turkistan with heavier sanctions, raising suspicions among many of whether the Chinese government is trying to assimilate the Turks in the region.

East Turkistan, which is referred to as Xinjiang by China, has been under the control of China since 1949. There are around 30 million Muslim Turks in the region, which has an area of 1,828,418 square meters. Uighurs make up only 1 percent of the Chinese population. It is estimated that 800,000 forced abortions have been carried out in East Turkistan since 1979.

Forced abortions are often performed very late in pregnancy -- even in the ninth month. Sometimes the baby’s skull is crushed with forceps as it emerges from the birth canal. Either the woman or her husband is forcibly sterilized.

Karluk left the Urumqi region of East Turkistan with his family after the Gulja massacre on Feb. 5, 1997, when Chinese security forces brutally cracked down on a peaceful demonstration in the city of Gulja, killing thousands in the ensuing clashes. He talked about the tragic loss of his unborn child to Sunday’s Zaman.

“The incident took place in 1996. I was out of Urumqi when some Chinese health officials visited our house for a health check. My wife was eight months pregnant with our second son. She said the health officials told her that she cannot have a second child since she has one child already and so her pregnancy had to be terminated. They gave her a shot which caused her to deliver a dead baby,” said Karluk, adding that his wife needed psychological support to overcome the trauma of her aborted pregnancy.

He said some 15-16 families in their neighborhood had to experience the same tragedy at that time. Abortions carried out in the region’s southeastern parts, where the population is less educated compared to the northern parts, are performed in more violent ways with the seven or eight-month-old fetuses being taken from the mothers’ womb in unhygienic conditions.

In rural areas of East Turkistan, 40 percent of these pregnancies are aborted forcefully, while this figure is 30 percent in the urban parts of the region, according to a report prepared by the East Turkistan Solidarity Association.

Experts note that if China continues to implement this policy in East Turkistan, preventing Uighur families from having more than one child, natural population growth will halt in the region this year.

Karluk said the Chinese policy against Uighurs was aimed at assimilating the Uighur population in the region as the Chinese government was tolerant of Chinese families there having more than one child. It was even dispatching more Chinese there in order to turn the balance of the population in favor of the Chinese.

According to official census figures in the report, the Chinese population in East Turkistan increased by 31.64 percent in 2000 when compared to a decade ago, while the increase in the population of Uighurs was 15.89 percent during the same period.

Looking at this picture, the head of the East Turkistan Solidarity Association, İsmail Cengiz, said that China forcing Uighur mothers to abort in East Turkistan despite the fact that abortion is considered a sin in the Islamic faith was not only a violation of minority rights but also a move aimed at assimilation.

Karluk said China imposes heavy sanctions on families that oppose the abortion of the second pregnancy, such as taking away land the family owns or cutting off their electricity or water. Putting the father or mother in jail is the heaviest penalty.

He also said Uighur families were desperate because there is no authority they can appeal to in order to sue the Chinese government over the forced abortion policy; cases filed against the government have been concluded in favor of the government.

By Today's Zaman

01/02/2010

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