Chinese Muslims

The islamic faith came to China over a thousand years ago, brought by Arab traders and deposited like silt along the fabled silk road. Today there exist, according to some 'experts,' 22 million muslims in the People's Republic, still a relatively minor number when considering China as a whole, but to a wide eyed country boy from Omagh, it's a pretty staggering number.

Most of these muslims live way out west, in the huge expanses of Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces, but over time many have filtered through to the east coast cities to form small communities. Wandering around a decently sized Chinese city, these muslim quarters are particularly evident from the shop signs in traditional sanskrit, the occasional domed mosque, and especially the people. Brown of face and usually seen under a small white cap or shawl, the men sporting long thin beards.

From what I can see of my travels around China, these muslims are more often than not connected with basic food shops - mutton shish kebabs on the street, small spicy noodle soup shops - so today I asked Miki if they as a people, generally speaking, were attached to any other buiness sector. Nope, she said. Just food shops. Are you sure, says I, unwilling to accept that out of 22 million people, the only thing they were known for was sprinkling cumin over barbequed meat. After careful consideration she told me that they did have quite a sizeable claim to one other sector:

Robbery.

So from thieving and cooking lamb, allow me to introduce to you, the Chinese muslim peoples. Ain't stereotyping a bitch!