for what it's worth, Salafism is a sincere religious belief, and most conceptions of human rights hold freedom of religion as inviolable. In China's case, it's the political content of salafism rather than religious intolerance that caused the crackdown. Salafism spread to communities of Hui muslims in the early 20th century, and because this historic community is unrelated to modern political messages, they've been largely exempt from suppression, and China is content to let them practice just an austere form of Islam.
Salafism isn't just a sincere religious belief. It's a political project that is heavily financed by the gulf monarchies all across the world. Particularly vulnerable countries like Pakistan have their school systems injected with gulf money to spread Salafism. Countries like Turkey, which retained a state religious authority, could only slow it's advance. Nowadays, the Salafi lie of being the true Islam as practiced by the ancients is genuinely believed in the background of islamic culture, while the actual religious tradition as it was practiced for more than a thousand years is regarded as 'mystic' and 'sufi'. It's a real problem that is nearly impossible to disentangle. We can only hope that prosperity, rising literacy, and straight up peace would help. But to draw an analogy, the rise of a liberal, urbanized culture in the United States only served to spook the evangelicals and make them go global in their hateful, exploitative, preaching.
most conceptions of human rights hold freedom of religion as inviolable.
Who cares?
Wahhabism is a hyper-reactionary militant political movement every bit as inimical to leftist projects, and human wellbeing in general, as fascism. Sucks for the Hui but their coreligionists are assholes and need to be suppressed. Same with the Christian Fascists in America, same with the fascist Hindutva movement in India, same with the Mormons, same with the Scientologists, same with a dozen other ideological groups that can't play nice with others. I don't care if it's a religion or a secular ideology or a book club. I'm still holding out hope that the Muslims will rise up against Saudi and crush Wahhabism but it seems increasingly unlikely as time goes on.
for what it's worth, Salafism is a sincere religious belief, and most conceptions of human rights hold freedom of religion as inviolable. In China's case, it's the political content of salafism rather than religious intolerance that caused the crackdown. Salafism spread to communities of Hui muslims in the early 20th century, and because this historic community is unrelated to modern political messages, they've been largely exempt from suppression, and China is content to let them practice just an austere form of Islam.
Salafism isn't just a sincere religious belief. It's a political project that is heavily financed by the gulf monarchies all across the world. Particularly vulnerable countries like Pakistan have their school systems injected with gulf money to spread Salafism. Countries like Turkey, which retained a state religious authority, could only slow it's advance. Nowadays, the Salafi lie of being the true Islam as practiced by the ancients is genuinely believed in the background of islamic culture, while the actual religious tradition as it was practiced for more than a thousand years is regarded as 'mystic' and 'sufi'. It's a real problem that is nearly impossible to disentangle. We can only hope that prosperity, rising literacy, and straight up peace would help. But to draw an analogy, the rise of a liberal, urbanized culture in the United States only served to spook the evangelicals and make them go global in their hateful, exploitative, preaching.
And that's a problem.
Who cares?
Wahhabism is a hyper-reactionary militant political movement every bit as inimical to leftist projects, and human wellbeing in general, as fascism. Sucks for the Hui but their coreligionists are assholes and need to be suppressed. Same with the Christian Fascists in America, same with the fascist Hindutva movement in India, same with the Mormons, same with the Scientologists, same with a dozen other ideological groups that can't play nice with others. I don't care if it's a religion or a secular ideology or a book club. I'm still holding out hope that the Muslims will rise up against Saudi and crush Wahhabism but it seems increasingly unlikely as time goes on.